n REGIONAL CHALLENGE: HOMELESSNESS
WHAT APPROACHES HAVE BEEN USED TO ADDRESS
HOMELESSNESS IN YOUR AREA?
“One of the major changes in recent years has been
the phasing in of ‘housing first,’ which is a model that
focuses on finding a household a safe and stable place
to live and then working on issues that may affect their
ability to maintain housing, like substance abuse and
employment. Studies have shown that this model is
more effective than, say, requiring homeless people
to be sober before receiving assistance. Some peo-
ple will challenge this, but I try to look at it from the
perspective of someone out on the street — when
you don’t know where you’ll be sleeping that night
or if your belongings will be stolen if you leave them,
it’s really hard to commit to making appointments
for substance-abuse and mental-health treatment. …
One of the things I’m most proud of in Elk Grove is our
partnership with the nonprofit Elk Grove HART (Home-
less Assistance Resource Team). They’re an
all-volunteer nonprofit that runs a winter
sanctuary that moves between churches.
Over the course of 12 weeks, more than
1,000 people volunteer as drivers, over-
night staff, food servers, etc., and they’re
all encouraged to have dinner with the guests
at the host church. That’s a lot of people who come
away with a better understanding of what homeless-
ness looks like in our community.”
– Sarah Bontrager, Elk Grove
“We used to chase them across the river, then the county
next door would chase them back. Fortunately, Yuba Coun-
ty has had some of the only positive results in reducing this
problem in California. We enacted a ‘housing first’ con-
cept three years ago. Our county put together what is now
known as 14 Forward, a tiny-shelter program (made up of
20 sheds and supporting elements that provide tempo-
rary shelter) that allows people to regain footing on issues
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that they feel have kept them homeless. Our community
helped fund it, and companies and individuals sponsored
the sheds. The program has guidelines, and the residents
must participate in various programs, including counsel-
ing, drug rehab via local 12-step groups and so on.”
– Mike Leahy, Yuba County
“We’ve recently created a jail-diversion pilot program and
expungement services to help people return to jobs and
housing. For many years, we’ve funded a large transitional
housing campus on 33 acres of county property focused on
employment and recovery. We hired our first county director
of homeless initiatives in 2016, created several new homeless
initiatives in 2017 and adopted a comprehensive homeless
plan in 2018.”
– Patrick Kennedy, Sacramento County
“We initially established a two-man homeless inter-
vention team in 2013 where enforcement was the
focus. We quickly learned that establishing rapport
with those afflicted with homelessness
and approaching the issue with a
service-first mentality would prove
to be far more effective.”
– Lt. Jausiah Jacobson, Fairfield
“About 2 1/2 years ago, we successfully applied to become a
Whole Person Care pilot program, the first project in the Sac-
ramento region. This Medi-Cal waiver program targets indi-
viduals who are high utilizers of services, including the jail,
the local hospital emergency room and psychiatric health
facilities. The goal … is to reduce the utilization of these ex-
pensive services while at the same time stabilizing each par-
ticipant’s medical condition and improving their quality of
life. By combining intensive services with housing assistance,
we have been able to see significant reductions in service
facility use, while at the same time secure our participants
housing. In the first two years of the program, we were able to
permanently house over 100 individuals.”
– Jeff Brown, Placer County