The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday received a six‑month report covering January–June 2025 on the City–County Partnership to Address the Homeless Crisis, during which city staff and county health officials said coordinated outreach and expanded services have produced measurable gains but warned those gains depend on more shelter and housing capacity.

The update, presented by Brian Peter, director of the Department of Community Response, said outreach teams made contact at roughly 8,718 unique locations and provided about 40,844 services to 2,738 unduplicated individuals during the six‑month period. Peter said the partnership’s goal has been to “coordinate efforts and resources to address homelessness through increased shelter capacity, enhanced outreach, behavioral health services, and a unified strategy.”

Why it matters: city and county leaders said the partnership has improved daily outreach and created pathways into shelter and treatment, but stressed that without more places to place people the system cannot sustain progress. “It all goes back to capacity,” Peter said during council discussion.

City and county data and outcomes

- Outreach and contacts: The presentation reported 40,844 services delivered and roughly 2,738 unduplicated people engaged during the reporting period. Staff said the number of unique locations rose because larger encampments have broken into more, smaller sites.
- Staffing mix in outreach: The teams described included 16 city NRCs from the Department of Community Response, 13 outreach specialists under the HOPE Cooperative contract, case‑carrying outreach workers from Step Up, a county HEART behavioral health team of 12, and 15 CalAIM community health workers (Community Health Works) funded by HIF funds (the county‑funded CalAIM contract was noted as ending in October and both partners said they planned to cover the transition).
- Behavioral health and linkages: County HEART teams performed 1,179 outreach contacts in the period; the county said 73% of HEART work occurred within the city limits. Staff reported 391 behavioral health assessments with 185 successful linkages to care in the reported window (counts broken down by outreach, shelter, and community referrals).
- Full Service Partnerships (FSP): Contracted FSP capacity was listed as 3,071 clients with 2,913 currently enrolled, a utilization rate the county described as near capacity.
- Shelter and permanent housing: Countywide shelter beds reported at 2,865 with another roughly 810 expected in the year ahead to reach about 3,678 shelter beds. Permanent supportive housing totals cited in the presentation included 634 units completed in 2023, 86 in 2024, and approximately 2,249 in development, for a combined total approaching 3,969 supportive and affordable units when added to earlier completions.
- Point‑in‑Time (PIT) change: Staff highlighted a 29% decrease in the 2024 PIT count for Sacramento compared with the prior count, a drop they said was among the largest reductions recorded in comparable California cities.

County perspective and program adjustments

Tim Lutz, director of Health Services for Sacramento County, told the council the county and city continue to iterate deployment of the HEART behavioral health team to maximize quality of contact and conversions to treatment. “We will deploy based on how DCR would like to utilize our teams,” Lutz said, adding that the partners have shifted some HEART work into shelters where clinicians can meet people in a more stable environment and complete assessments and referrals.

Council questions and staff responses

Council members pressed staff to clarify how outreach contacts translate into housing placements and longer‑term outcomes. Council member Dickinson asked for clearer breakdowns distinguishing people who enter shelter from those who merely sign up for a shelter assessment or receive other services. Peter and county staff said the report includes both referral and linkage figures but acknowledged the council would benefit from clearer, deduplicated metrics showing how many people actually move from street outreach into shelter and then into longer‑term housing.

Limitations and next steps

Presenters and council members emphasized that sustaining progress will require continued investment and capacity, not only outreach and treatment resources. “Everything that we’re building out is full right now,” Peter said, arguing that additional shelter beds and housing units are the critical constraint. Multiple council members asked staff to return with clearer metrics on “housing search vs. placement,” longer‑term housing retention, and more detail about prevention and diversion strategies the partnership can scale.

Council member Guerra and others also urged staff and the county to update the formal partnership agreement to incorporate new programs such as CARE Court and SB‑level changes and to clarify responsibilities and accountability for prevention, shelter placement and long‑term housing.

The update concluded with staff saying they will continue to refine data reporting, pursue funding to sustain services and report back with more detail on placement outcomes and prevention tactics.

Ending

Council members praised frontline staff and county partners for the work to date while urging faster expansion of shelter and housing capacity and clearer outcome metrics. Staff said they will present additional data and proposed partnership refinements in coming meetings so the council can evaluate sustainability and next steps.