A joint session of Sacramento County supervisors, Sacramento City Council members and leaders from six suburban cities convened to discuss homelessness and coordinated responses, with county and city staff outlining recent program expansions, spending and a proposal to form a time-limited regional task force.

Supervisor Serna, co-chair of the joint meeting, opened by stressing the purpose of the convening: "This is really about, taking away from this day, a better future for how we work together as partners to address what is, no doubt the most complex, complicated, subject in front of us." Mayor Kevin McCarty also framed the meeting as a start to more structured partnership across jurisdictions.

The meeting featured presentations from county and city homeless services teams, the HUD-designated continuum of care lead Sacramento Steps Forward (SSF), and outside facilitators from Mosaic Strategies. Emily Halkin, director of the County of Sacramento Department of Homeless Services and Housing, summarized system-level data and investments: the most recent point-in-time count (2024) shows that the unsheltered population is concentrated in the City of Sacramento but exists in every jurisdiction, and the county estimates that the number of people who experience at least one night of homelessness is likely two to three times the point-in-time count. Halkin reported demographic findings from the count, including that 33% of people counted identified as Black (compared with 9% of the county population) and that about 45% met the definition of chronic homelessness.

Halkin said the region invested heavily in recent years, estimating "over $418,000,000" in the last fiscal year through county, city and continuum of care funding streams tied to shelter, housing, behavioral health and safety-net programs. She cautioned that a large share of those dollars are one-time or restricted (for example, ARPA and state Homeless Housing Assistance Program grants), limiting discretionary flexibility.

County efforts described included a redesign of outreach teams to provide sustained "case-carrying" services — Halkin said outreach teams averaged about 40 unique service contacts per unsheltered person in the first six months of the year and moved more than 200 people out of unsheltered homelessness in that period — and an expansion of non-congregate "safe stay" shelter beds (more than 350 opened since 2022 with roughly 225 planned to open early next year). The county also said it intends to launch a "flexible housing pool" in 2026 to centralize landlord engagement and tenancy supports and to operationalize a new CalAIM transitional rent benefit in partnership with managed care plans.

City officials reported local programs and recent projects. Nicole Piva of Citrus Heights highlighted Sunrise Pointe (46 permanent supportive housing units) and plans to convert Auburn Oaks into 88 affordable units with on-site mental health services. Sarah Von Traeger of Elk Grove described a year-round leased shelter and two full-time homeless services navigators; Elk Grove reported a better-than-70% success rate getting individuals into shelter. Stephanie Henry of Folsom summarized the city's Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), a police-based outreach team that partners with providers, and a Homekey-funded site with 20 permanent supportive units managed by Hope Cooperative. Stephan Heisler of Rancho Cordova described the Mather Veterans Village (phases 1'2 completed; about 100 permanent supportive units and 46 transitional beds) and plans for a fourth phase with roughly 70 additional units slated to begin construction early next year.

Brian Pedro, director of the City of Sacramento Department of Community Response, outlined the city's multi-agency response teams and recent capacity figures: the city said it has "rapidly placed over 2,427 individuals into our shelters" and has developed interim supportive "micro communities" on city lots (planned initial capacity of 160 small manufactured homes) and a Street to Housing rapid rehousing initiative that targeted 100 units (93 filled to date; the program has housed more than 114 people so far). Pedro also noted regional totals presented at the meeting: roughly 10,000 shelter and housing units created to date, including about 5,910 permanent supportive housing units and 3,556 shelter and interim housing beds, with additional openings planned through 2026.

Lisa Bates, chief executive officer of Sacramento Steps Forward (the region's HUD-designated continuum of care administrator), summarized SSF's role in aligning data and funding and flagged a rapid change in the funding landscape. Bates said the region receives about $40 million annually in HUD continuum-of-care funding that supports more than 2,200 households and warned that those federal funds were at risk amid federal budget uncertainty. "Business as usual will not work," Bates told the joint meeting, urging alignment, urgency and informed decisions.

SSF proposed creating a time-limited, action-oriented "regional task force" of elected officials, staff, practitioners and people with lived experience to respond quickly to funding shifts and policy changes and to coordinate cross-jurisdictional action. That proposal was presented as a recommendation for follow-up rather than a formally adopted action at the meeting; no motions or votes to create the task force were recorded.

Speakers emphasized unequal impacts and service needs: cites of demographic risk (higher representation of Black residents in the homeless count), the need to preserve permanent exits into housing to avoid cyclical shelter demand, and the fiscal challenge of maintaining capacity as one-time grants expire. Lisa Bates and others asked elected leaders to consider sustained, aligned regional governance or mechanisms to respond to fast-moving funding changes.

No formal legislative actions or votes were taken at the session; participants discussed next steps including staff follow-up and a reconvening plan to translate the day's dialogue into specific operational and budgetary recommendations. The meeting included a midday visioning exercise facilitated by Mosaic Strategies and invited attendees to meet community-based organizations during a break.

The joint session closed with direction to staff to return with additional information and potential structures for continued collaboration; however, the transcript does not record a formal adoption of any task force, budget allocation, ordinance or binding intergovernmental agreement.