Sacramento leaders pledge ongoing collaboration after county‑city summit on homelessness

Elected leaders from the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, the Sacramento City Council and the cities of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Rancho Cordova and Galt convened for a countywide summit on homelessness and behavioral health aimed at aligning services and funding across jurisdictions.

The meeting opened with Chair Supervisor Phil Serna and Mayor Kevin McCarty framing the day as an effort to move past siloed work and to create more predictable, coordinated responses to unsheltered homelessness. Facilitators from Mosaic Strategies ran a pre‑meeting poll and a short visioning session that found broad support among the attending elected officials for continuing a joint process and developing shared data and accountability tools. “This is not just about listening,” Supervisor Serna said; “this is about taking away from this day a better future for how we collaborate.”

Why it matters: presenters and participants emphasized three pressures that make a regional approach urgent — the scale of unsheltered homelessness in the county, the interdependence of service systems (behavioral health, housing, law enforcement and emergency services) and looming state and federal policy and budget changes that could reduce available housing subsidies. Mosaic’s survey of participants showed a strong willingness by elected officials to reconvene and explore a formal structure, whether a memorandum of understanding, a joint powers approach or a task force to guide action and advocacy.

What happened: staff from the county, the City of Sacramento and Sacramento Steps Forward presented data dashboards and program summaries. County staff outlined outreach expansions, safe‑stay shelter beds and plans for a flexible housing pool in 2026. The National Alliance to End Homelessness presented state and federal funding scenarios that could materially shrink some existing streams, and behavioral health staff explained court‑based pathways into treatment and where capacity gaps remain.

Next steps: Mosaic will deliver a written report of the visioning session and the pre‑meeting interviews. County and city staff committed to circulating more detailed dashboards and to follow up on specific data requests raised by electeds. Multiple jurisdictions signaled they will discuss options internally and return with positions on governance, data sharing and joint advocacy. The meeting closed with a public comment period in which residents and providers urged a mix of prevention, affordable housing production, data transparency and protection of existing subsidies.