By admin 
ISSUE | ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS: Efforts to address the ongoing homelessness crisis in Sacramento County has been a point of friction between the city of Sacramento and the county, which have overlapping jurisdictions. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed Senate Bill 802, a bill written by state Sen. Angelique Ashby, a former Sacramento City Council member, that requires the Sacramento County and its cities to create a joint powers authority to lead efforts to address homelessness. The bill leaves many of the implementation details to local elected officials, and the county could challenge it in court.
Read more Woman killed in Iowa Hill shooting was longtime Placer County DA employee
The candidates for the November general election in the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors race, Sacramento City Councilman Eric Guerra and epidemiologist Flojaune Cofer, have differing views on the role of the two governmental bodies around homelessness.
Flojaune Cofer: County should take the lead
Cofer offered a quick response when asked whether the city or county should be more responsible for homelessness.
“I think it’s the agency that has public health and the homelessness dollars and the responsibility for administering Medi-Cal and CalFresh and all of the state services that can be provided for homelessness,” Cofer said.
That would be Sacramento County.
Cofer said that the city could play some role in addressing the crisis, such as by partnering on affordable housing, but that the county should take the lead on working with people experiencing housing insecurity because county staff are “the ones who hold the behavioral health services.”
She offered sweeping plans on actions the county could take related to homelessness, including having it get more CalAIM funding for wraparound services, creating “an emergency eviction prevention fund” and considering having vacant apartments be leased by the county to combat long wait times for housing.
Cofer also urged having a single contact and plan for each person.
“Right now so many people are expected to navigate separate systems for housing, for healthcare, for their identification, for their benefits,” Cofer said. “And it’s a really confusing process that takes time and know-how that many people, especially those who are in crisis, just don’t have.”
She said that the approach to combat homelessness must change.
“If we want different results, we need a system built around housing people quickly, coordinating the services that they need … and using our public money smarter,” Cofer said.
Cofer said she supported SB 802 in concept.
Eric Guerra: Responsibility should be shared
Guerra has served on Sacramento City Council since 2015 and helped call for a joint meeting last year involving the city, county and other groups.
Read more Creative power couple leaned into Tahoe cabin’s 1970s design while modernizing
“Every jurisdiction has its strengths and its expertise, okay, and that is the difference that I bring to the table,” Guerra said. “I can appreciate both the city and the county.”
“We have an equal responsibility,” Guerra said. “A lot of the city personnel is doing the day-to-day touches at the city.”
Guerra said he’d worked with Sacramento County Supervisor Rich Desmond to forge the city-county partnership which helped to get encampments cleared around the city and that the partnership was going well.
“We really need to update that again because a lot has changed since then,” Guerra said. “There’s new care court laws, there are SB 43 receivership laws that have come in as well, and Prop. 1 funding that allows us to build housing and mental health facilities for veterans and people who are suffering from drug addiction, mental health.”
While Guerra said the county would be better equipped than the city to handle human resource and mental health issues, he ultimately urged working together on homelessness.
“The responsibility should not be focused on just one entity,” Guerra said. “People want to have somebody else deal with the problem, but it’s all of our collective problems.”
Guerra said he supported SB 802 after meeting with Ashby to address his concerns.
Read more Tak Allen’s mission is to change how Sacramentans respond to young people in need