City and County Partnership

In response to the ongoing homeless crisis in the Sacramento region, the City and County of Sacramento on Dec. 6, 2022, entered into a historic partnership agreement to improve local coordination for sheltering and services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.

The five-year agreement identifies roles and responsibilities of the City and County and demonstrates a shared commitment to reducing unsheltered homelessness through systems-level changes and strategies identified by the Local Homeless Action Plan. It includes joint outreach teams, hundreds of additional shelter beds and a commitment to do “whatever it takes” to meet the behavioral and mental health needs of people experiencing homelessness.

As part of the agreement, the City and County created 10 new “encampment engagement teams”– staffed by workers from both organizations — to provide intensive outreach, assessment, navigation, service delivery and housing to as many people as possible in encampments within the City limits. Teams include mental health workers from the County who have the ability and qualifications to provide a behavioral health assessment and enroll or link people to an appropriate level of mental health and substance use services.

In its role, the City determines which sites the encampment engagement teams are deployed to each day, conducting initial outreach and coordinating City services, such as solid waste removal, code enforcement and public safety protocol. County behavioral health workers conduct behavioral health assessments in the field and in City shelters and enroll people in services.

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