The Board of Supervisors, at its August 8 meeting, approved responses to two Grand Jury reports regarding responses to homeless issues and behavioral health resources including planning, coordination, funding, and measurable outcomes.
Grand Jury issued two reports related to homelessness that require a response from the County Board of Supervisors. The Grand Jury Report, “Homeless Should Not Mean Hopeless: Homeless Solutions Elude Local Leaders” was issued on May 26, 2023. The report asserts that local governments have failed to work together effectively to address the increasing number of homeless and related issues which has resulted in millions in direct and indirect costs. The report recommended that Sacramento County leaders prioritize a formal, comprehensive approach to homelessness. The report included five findings and four recommendations related to the information in the report along with a list of individuals and agencies required or invited to respond. G
The Grand Jury Report, “Mental Health Care For The Homeless: Who Cares?” was issued on June 9, 2023. This report asserted that mental illness and substance abuse among the homeless needs to be addressed through a streamlined, coordinated, and transparent service delivery system and approach that uses measurable, quantifiable outcomes with proven success to make meaningful change. The report included 11 findings and 11 recommendations.
The landscape of the County’s homeless and behavioral health programs and services have been rapidly evolving, even over the past year. Some of the Grand Jury findings may have been true at the time, but the County has already taken steps to remedy in recent months.
The County has many programs and strategies under development that will help to move the needle on some of the findings and recommendations that have either not yet been fully stood up or are still in development and have not yet seen the benefits or outcomes.
For example, the Grand Jury indicates that the outreach teams are poorly supported and understaffed. At the time this report was being researched, those findings were likely correct, however, since that time, there has been significant progress made in not only staffing up those teams, but in allocating additional resources to these teams and to the Behavioral Health CORE centers, fostering meaningful engagement. The County has already committed to semi-annual reports on outreach efforts which can be found at our County’s Homeless Services Website.
There are some findings and recommendations that the County didn’t agree with either partially or fully – in part because the County has another strategy in the works that will meet the same need, or a strategy being recommended warrants further analysis. One example is the formation of a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to address homelessness countywide.
A JPA is one model that may work. However, with the Governor’s new budget requirement for HHAP funding, the County and all regional city partners and Continuum of Care (CoC) will be required to develop a regional plan to coordinate services and funding – therefore a JPA may or may not be the best structure for achieving the intent of this regional plan. As the State issues guidance and requirements, the County and its partners will do a more in-depth analysis.
There are some findings and recommendations that the County has already implemented, but the lack of broad knowledge of these strategies are an indication that the County needs more robust communication efforts. For instance, the Grand Jury indicated that there is no strategic plan that includes the mental health and substance abuse issues facing the homeless. The sixth pillar of the Local Homelessness Action Plan is mental health/substance abuse. Additionally, the Grand Jury indicated that there are not quantifiable metrics, however the plan includes both timelines and measure goals. Read the full LHAP on the County Homeless Services website.
Read the full finding and recommendation response to “Homeless Should Not Mean Hopeless: Homeless Solutions Elude Local Leaders.”
Read the full findings and recommendations response to “Mental Health Care For The Homeless: Who Cares?”
Read the response from the Sacramento County Sheriff Office.