Sacramento Leaders Team Up to Acknowledge That Homelessness is a Problem. By Skyler Henry
Last Tuesday, elected officials and executive management from Sacramento County, as well as the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, and Galt gathered together in one room for the first time ever to put their collective heads together and discuss how somebody should do something about homelessness. They were almost able to reach a consensus that everyone would need to work together to address the issue, but stopped short of coming up with any substantive next steps for how to move forward after deliberating for nearly 6 hours in front of a full house at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria downtown.
Notably missing from this historic discussion were any people experiencing homelessness, or anyone anywhere near housing insecurity (It would be interesting to know if any of the people involved in the discussion were even renters rather than homeowners).
This absence was felt most keenly as several officials wondered aloud why people might be hesitant to accept offered services, as that question could have been answered directly by perhaps 100 people within a one block radius of where the meeting was taking place.
To her credit, Councilmember Caity Maple was the lone voice out of a couple dozen to note this obvious disparity.
Also notable was the emphasis on reactive measures to homelessness rather than preventative, and the refusal by many of our elected leaders to tie homelessness to housing. Sheriff Cooper and County District Attorney Thien Ho took the opportunity to bemoan the passage of Prop 47, and how it has made it nearly impossible to arrest our way out of homelessness (despite being watered down significantly by the passage of Prop 36 last year). One by one, mayors, supervisors, and councilmembers all took turns pondering what could be done about unhoused people refusing services offered, and how to force unwilling people into treatment.
At one point, Councilmember Mai Vang reminded the room that upstream measures would be necessary to make a significant difference, and was met with applause from many in the gallery who had ostensibly been waiting to hear this addressed.
The desire for punitive action was felt the most clearly when Mayor McCarty asked Dr. Ryan Quist, the County’s Behavioral Health Services Director, to give them some “hope” in terms of what could be done to compel unwilling people into services.
McCarty, fishing for an answer that was more in line with carceral solutions, tried again, “There are certain individuals that need compulsory treatment. I think we’ve acknowledged that, but it’s not always working. So, what tools do you need from us to help this work better?”
“To be very direct- we need housing”, Dr. Quist replied.
Ironically, one of the most noticeable parts of the entire meeting was the complete lack of participation from Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, who represents the Central City as well as the River District (home to Pipeworks, Loaves & Fishes, etc). This District contains somewhere around 30% of the County’s entire homeless population, and receives the lion's share of 211 calls for service countywide.
In a grotesque display of indifference, Pluckbaum spent the meeting looking at his phone and glancing around blankly. At one point, one of the moderators called on him and asked if he had anything to contribute because he hadn’t said anything yet and the meeting was nearing its end.
“I’d like to associate myself with all of Supervisor Kennedy’s comments, thank you”, Pluckebaum said, referring to Kennedy’s self-described “turd in a punch bowl” comment about how eight jurisdictions might be overkill when 98% of people experiencing homelessness are either in the City of Sacramento or the unincorporated county.
That was it. That was his entire contribution. This is a man elected to lead the most heavily impacted area in the entire county, and all he had for us was “what he said”.
Overall, the most positive takeaway from this historic event is that it happened at all. The idea of bringing countywide leadership together to discuss the issue (a bargain for the taxpayers at only $75,000!) is at the very least something that hasn’t been tried before, and after years of the county and city pointing fingers at each other it’s heartening to see everyone sitting at the same table.
Overall, the most positive takeaway from this historic event is that it happened at all. The idea of bringing countywide leadership together to discuss the issue (a bargain for the taxpayers at only $75,000!) is at the very least something that hasn’t been tried before, and after years of the county and city pointing fingers at each other it’s heartening to see everyone sitting at the same table.
That said, the conversation did not develop very far beyond recognizing that the problem is severe and that we are failing to address it. Hope springs eternal that the conversation will continue and that actual direction will enter the picture at some point but given the lack of vision (or in some cases general concern) by the overwhelming majority of our electeds, we may be an election or two away from any kind of substantive changes for housing and homelessness in Sacramento.
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