Sacramento County provides financial and medical support to more than 33,000 homeless people. Benefits include General Assistance, Cal Fresh and medical insurance, and direct services such as alcohol and drug dependency, mental health treatment and medical care.
More than $2 million is allocated by Sacramento County every year to emergency shelters that serve hundreds of people each night. In the winter, the County funds the Volunteers of America and Next Move (formerly Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center) which together, provide 50 temporary shelter beds every night. Sacramento County works with the Winter Sanctuary Program to enlist faith-based organizations to coordinate nightly shelter, warm meals and nighttime shelter for up to 100 people a night at rotating local churches, synagogues, and mosques. The County also absorbs more than $400,000 per year in costs by providing free space to three different providers of homeless supportive services.
“We have always provided comprehensive services, from housing solutions to urgent care,” said Paul Lake, Director of the Department of Human Assistance. “Though our programs have changed in recent years, we fund the organizations that provide direct services and work with them to deliver services to those in need.”
Sacramento County fully supports the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness as a blueprint to breaking the ongoing cycle of homelessness. The Plan focuses on moving people off the streets and out of temporary shelters into permanent housing with supportive services. Additionally, the County is committed to working with our Continuum of Care partners, including Sacramento Steps Forward, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), the City of Sacramento, and the homeless services providers of the Sacramento Continuum of Care, to end the cycle of homelessness.