A new city audit is raising questions about the effectiveness of Sacramento’s homeless shelter services. City leaders discussed the report at Tuesday’s Budget and Audit Committee meeting.
The audit used data from 14 city homeless shelter programs that cost the city approximately $63.2 million. Among the key findings, the audit found there is no correlation between shelter services and positive outcomes such as finding stable housing. That’s because the data being collected does not include participant experience and doesn’t track “systemic barriers.”
It also found the city lacks a framework for evaluating shelter performance and that every shelter provider is collecting data differently, which makes it hard to compare outcomes.
The committee, which is made up of four city councilmembers, acknowledged that Sacramento is collecting more data than they ever have before on homelessness. But it also emphasized the need for officials to be on the same page about what they want these programs to achieve.
“What success means to all of us is a little different,” Councilmember Caity Maple said. “I think that we as a city council need to do work to make sure we can arrive at a consensus so that we can tell our staff exactly what we want to see.”
District 2 Councilmember Roger Dickinson said the city also needs to better understand the ‘why’ behind negative shelter outcomes. He pointed out that the homeless shelter Roseville Road, located in his North Sacramento district, had a 65% rate of what they audit called “negative exits” meaning they returned to homelessness or their whereabouts were unknown.
“I’m curious whether it's because we may stabilize people there but have no place for them to go to the next step toward a better permanent outcome, or because of other factors,” he questioned.
On the whole, the audit recommended the city figure out what it wants to achieve from its homeless shelter programs. It also called on the city to increase the number of shelter beds in congregate settings so that it can house as many people as possible. In addition, it recommended the city revisit good neighbor policies and standardize what data it wants all service providers to collect from shelter participants.
The committee agreed with all recommendations except increasing congregate shelter beds, meaning shelters with large dorm-style residential settings. Councilmember Eric Guerra expressed concern over the idea.
“They've shown that they have their own challenges. And it goes back to outcomes,” Guerra said. “We might be able to jam them up with people but does that create client progress? No. They’ll probably end up back in the emergency room or country jail.”
Vice Mayor Karina Talamantes noted that they can’t ignore one of the root issues with homelessness.
“We still have such a large gap for affordable housing,” Talamantes said. “People are ready to leave our shelters but they can’t leave because there’s nowhere for them to go because they have a job making minimum wage, maybe working 40 hours, and the current cost of living in Sacramento is so expensive.”
Advocates weigh in on audit
Angela Hassell, executive director of homeless nonprofit Loaves and Fishes, said although much of the data makes it hard to come to concrete conclusions on what’s working, it still points to problems.
“The fact we have people that matriculate out pretty frequently and kind of time out with there being no next step or no bed for that next step means we have a fairly ineffective system that isn't utilizing the resources well enough to keep people in until they're ready to be out,” Hassell said.
Hassell also acknowledged the city’s harsh enforcement on encampment sweeps can make people reluctant to accept services.
“That’s not a way to build trust,” Hassell said. “That isn’t going to give somebody the internal motivation to take those next steps and move forward.”
Arturo Baiocchi, a Sacramento State Professor of Social work and homeless advocate,said the city council needs to figure out what matters more to them – serving as many people as possible or providing better services to fewer people.
“The report mentioned this tension of serving as many people as possible will run against another goal of actually trying to help people,” he said. “Where you draw the line is kind of a political question.”
The Budget and Audit Committee forwarded the audit to the city council for review and it is expected to be heard on June 23 during their afternoon meeting.
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
Donate Today
