Sacramento leaders pledge continued countywide coordination as funding risks threaten homelessness gains

A coalition of Sacramento elected officials and senior staff convened a daylong summit on homelessness and behavioral health on Oct. 30, 2025, pledging continued countywide coordination even as presenters warned that looming state and federal funding and policy shifts could undo recent progress.

The meeting brought together the full Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, Sacramento City Council and mayors or council representatives from Elk Grove, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Galt to compare local models, review system capacity and consider next steps for shared governance. County Supervisor Phil Serna, who co‑chaired the meeting, said the convening was meant to “provide a shared space for elected leaders … to communicate and collaborate in public” and to build a “structured partnership” to address homelessness.

Speakers described measurable gains and persistent gaps. County and city staff reported roughly 10,000 shelter and housing options created in recent years — including about 5,910 permanent supportive and rapid‑rehousing units and roughly 3,556 shelter or interim beds — and noted additional temporary and micro‑community sites planned for 2026. Emily Halkin, director of the Sacramento County Department of Homeless Services and Housing, told the group that the region invested about $418 million last fiscal year across county, city and Continuum of Care funding streams but cautioned many of those dollars are one‑time or restricted grants.

“We are investing more in a variety of programs,” Halkin said, “but it is important to note that many of these funds, including ARPA and HAP investments, are one‑time and many are not discretionary.”

Public safety and behavioral health officials described how outreach, crisis response and legal pathways into treatment fit into that system. Sheriff Jim Cooper outlined the county’s HOT/POP outreach teams and said the sheriff’s office has focused enforcement on public‑safety threats within encampments while providing data from tens of thousands of citizen complaints and thousands of enforcement actions. County Behavioral Health Director Ryan Quist summarized voluntary services and court‑involved pathways — Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT/Laura’s Law), mental health diversion and Care Court — and warned that a persistent bottleneck is where people exit clinical care: “We can treat people, but then the problem is where do they actually go?” Quist said.

Outside presenters flagged an especially urgent concern: federal and state policy changes that could reduce recurring housing subsidies. Alex Vasatsky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness said national rental assistance is deeply insufficient and noted the emergency housing voucher program that helped people exit homelessness during the COVID era is expected to run out of money in 2026 in many places. He also outlined a possible HUD policy change under discussion that could cap Continuum of Care grants available for permanent housing — a move, he said, that would “effectively function as deep cuts” for permanent supportive housing.

In response, Carlos and city leaders repeatedly called for alignment on data, shared metrics and a durable governance vehicle. Lisa Bates, CEO of Sacramento Steps Forward (the local Continuum of Care), urged a time‑limited regional task force of elected officials, system providers and people with lived experience to act quickly and transparently in response to shifting resources.

Elected leaders in the room expressed support for continuing to work together but left the form of coordination open. Several said they preferred a voluntary, data‑driven mechanism that allows smaller suburban cities to participate without taking on full fiscal responsibility, while central city and county officials emphasized the need for a structure that can marshal funds and deploy resources urgently when state or federal dollars change.

Public speakers and service providers who addressed the convening pressed similar themes: preserve existing supports that prevent evictions or loss of subsidies; invest in prevention and affordable housing to stem inflows into homelessness; and sustain community‑based outreach, hygiene and navigation services that keep people engaged. Community Health Works, 1 Community Health and other on‑the‑ground providers described their outreach teams and street‑based medical care as essential to connecting people into services.

Next steps: facilitators from Mosaic Strategies will deliver a written summary and options informed by a pre‑meeting survey and interviews; county and city staff committed to circulate accessible dashboards and follow‑up data on Care Court, diversion use and housing inventories; and elected leaders broadly committed to reconvening to translate discussion into a specific accountability and financing proposal. Several officials said they favored revisiting the existing city‑county partnership agreement as a starting point rather than creating an entirely new bureaucracy.

For now, officials emphasized urgency. “Business as usual will not work,” Lisa Bates told the room. Multiple mayors and supervisors repeated that refrain and asked staff to return with concrete scenarios — an MOU, a joint powers authority or a regional coalition — and with quantified options for shared metrics, funding mixes and responsibilities.

What the meeting did not do: it produced no formal votes or new multi‑jurisdictional contract, and no specific ordinance or budget appropriation was adopted. Instead leaders left the meeting with instructions to staff and a public commitment to continue the cross‑jurisdictional talks, tighten shared data, and test governance options aimed at sustaining recent gains amid uncertain state and federal funding.

Ending

Elected officials and providers described the session as a rare and productive moment for broader alignment. Sacramento’s leaders left united around a basic sequence: preserve what is working now; align data and goals; and design a governance mechanism to coordinate emergency responses and long‑term investments — while pressing Sacramento’s delegation and the state for steadier funding for permanent housing and behavioral health services.