Sacramento lawmaker pauses proposal for new homelessness agency after ‘blindsiding’ local leaders

A proposal to merge Sacramento County’s homelessness response into a new regional agency is being paused after local leaders spoke out against it earlier this week.

Democratic State Senator—and former Sacramento city councilmember—Angelique Ashby authored SB 802, which would create a new regional agency. The bill would set up a new way for cities and Sacramento County to coordinate the use of homelessness funds.

The legislation drew initial opposition from the mayors of Elk Grove, Sacramento, Folsom, and Rancho Cordova, many of whom held a press conference Tuesday to voice their concerns. 

Folsom Mayor Sarah Aquino said she was blindsided and had no idea her city would be in the proposal.

“If the bill is supposed to be about collaboration, well then we need to make sure we're collaborating and everybody has a seat at the table,” Aquino said at Tuesday’s press conference.

County supervisors Phil Cerna, Rich Desmond, Rosario Rodriguez and Pat Hume were also in attendance, along with Sacramento city councilmember Phil Pluckebaum.

Ashby said she's seen a real breakdown in how cities and Sacramento County are working together to handle homelessness in the region. Her bill in practice would make everyone pool that funding and make decisions as one regional agency or group. 

The merging of agencies is called a JPA, or joint powers authority, in which local governments team up to manage a shared issue. Sacramento already uses JPAs for public transportation and air quality, and this would create one for homelessness. 

Ashby said homelessness is the top concern she hears when she's checking in with her constituents. But she said leaving it up to the cities has not been working. 

“Some of them were brought in before it was introduced, but that didn't make a lot of progress,” Ashby said.

But she announced Wednesday she's putting the bill on hold to work with local leaders more. Some opinions are already shifting.

Mayor Aquino said after late night discussions Tuesday with Ashby, she supports the collaboration now that there's a pause and is looking forward to making it work with the state senator.

“I think we want to make sure that we as a city retain our resources and our decision-making authority over things like our housing fund, our community development block grant funds,” Aquino said. “Those concerns still remain.”

Homelessness advocates, Sacramento mayors weigh in

Homeless advocates voiced similar concerns as city leaders.

“Senator Ashby is overreaching and this is a local community issue that needs to be taken on with local solutions,” said Niki Jones with the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “This bill was built in secret and does not promise — in fact betrays — the collaboration, it implies that it is trying to create.” 

Jones also fears that consolidating the agencies will make it difficult to create the current resources in the region intact. 

But Ashby says this will not slow down or stop any services that are already provided, but build on top of what already exists.

Last year, when Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty was serving in the State Assembly, he introduced a similar bill that failed to pass the state senate. It would have created a joint powers authority called the Sacramento County Partnership on Homelessness. 

Now, McCarty is voicing his opposition to Ashby’s bill. He said publicly that he supports the idea of collaboration, but does not believe that this is the way to do it. He called the bill an overreach into local government from the state.

Former Mayor Darrell Steinberg, meanwhile, supports the idea. He called Ashby's push bold and courageous. And he says this will force cities to reconsider their fragmented approach. 

“The criticism is so old Sacramento, frankly,” Steinberg said. “In that it presumes that everybody who's opposed is already working on their own plan for how we can improve the governance around homelessness in Sacramento and they're not.” 

SB 802 will no longer be heard in its assembly housing and community development hearing as was scheduled earlier this week. Ashby said she's open to reintroducing the bill next year if the local discussions stall or don't lead to any results.