Case Study: A Capital City’s Approach to Unsheltered Homelessness

In the wake of Martin v. City of Boise (9th. Cir. 2019), and the effects of the pandemic, Sacramento, California like many communities, experienced an overwhelming homelessness crisis that depleted public resources and overwhelmed business and neighborhood corridors. The recent Point in Time Count demonstrated that the Sacramento region experienced a 67% increase in its unhoused population since 2019. This webinar will explore the efforts employed by the City of Sacramento to mitigate the adverse effects of public encampments, address lawsuits brought by both homeless advocates and affected businesses, all while undertaking multiple efforts to shelter the unhoused. These efforts included actions by the Sacramento City Council to enact ordinances aimed to protect the city’s critical infrastructure, establish a new city department to provide a social-service-oriented response to noncriminal calls for services, and develop a comprehensive siting plan to shelter the unhoused in partnership with community organizations and individuals. The City Council has also placed a measure on the November ballot to accelerate increased shelter capacity and prescribe conditions subject to enforcement. The speakers will address each of these and other approaches and strategies taken not only to reduce the effects, but also to reduce and ultimately resolve unsheltered homelessness.

Speaker: Susana Alcala Wood, Aaron Israel, Gustavo Martinez & Beau Parkhurst