By Kevin Johnson
Mayor of Sacramento
The door is closing on the old way of dealing with homelessness.
The old way involves good people moving in many directions, placing patches, hoping for the best, making minimal progress with the overall goal of ending homelessness in Sacramento.
In my time as mayor, I have not seen an issue that brings more people together. From public servants and religious leaders to business operators and everyday citizens, we are united to make sure every resident has a place to sleep at night.
Let’s close out the old way. Today, we must look at the larger issue of homelessness through a single lens.
There are many components to the solution, ranging from emergency shelters to support services to sustainable funding streams. But to focus on individual aspects of homelessness – the old way – without the overall framework is to miss the mark.
In the upcoming days, I will convene discussions with Sacramento city and county staff and community stakeholders to make sure we don’t lose focus on long-term solutions.
I will make sure we establish parallel tracks to address issues raised by Safe Ground, the homeless advocacy group, while dealing with the hurdles that have historically blocked us from ending homelessness.
We must learn from the past. As it stands, we too often allow progress to backslide.
And I will focus on our progress, which is substantial. We have made tangible advancements.
That progress includes finding 150 new beds and nearly a million dollars to expand transitional housing opportunities for former “tent city” residents.
That progress includes launching the Sacramento Steps Forward initiative last year, which has united a broad spectrum of leaders behind the goal of securing 2,400 new permanent housing opportunities over three years.
That progress also involves the unprecedented success of “One Day to End Homelessness,” a remarkable effort by the faith community to raise $400,000 (and leverage an additional $1.6 million in matching funds) to help 600 needy households.
Because of these efforts, Sacramento’s has been called a “National Best Practice” by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
We must not lose momentum, but we have already seen opportunities slip away.
In January, I expected the city to begin the process of identifying potential transitional sites for Safe Ground, the organic homeless group that brought international attention to the homeless issue.
Momentum faded this spring and summer, when solutions for the issues raised by Safe Ground were not pinned down.
This is why Tuesday night at City Council I directed city staff to provide at least transitional three sites, along with roles, responsibilities and time frames for the Safe Ground process.
As for winter shelters, we must build upon the success from last year, when the state, city, county, faith and private communities came together despite devastating budget conditions to provide 250 winter shelter beds while saving taxpayers $200,000.
The dire economy changed the dynamics of homelessness and expanded the definitions – and the need.
Moving forward, we will speak of expanding transitional and permanent housing and support service deliveries. We will speak of rapid re-housing, episodic and chronic homelessness. We will address mental health and substance abuse treatment, plus education and job training.
And we will work in collaborative terms, bringing together our friends in health care and public safety, along with shelter providers and service organizations across our community.
We do these things because they are the right thing to do.
Make no mistake: despite any setbacks, our goal will never change.
We will end homelessness in Sacramento. And we will do it together, with a framework, as a unified community.
8 Comments
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Appreciate you and your efforts dearly Mayor Johnson.. we need more people like you in Northern California with a heart of gold and the fight of a Lion,
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Thanks for sharing this information. I really like your way of expressing the opinions and sharing the information. It is good to move as chance bring new things in life, paves the way for advancement,
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