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Homelessness is a growing problem in Sacramento and other cities around the country. According to the nonprofit Sacramento Steps Forward’s State of Homelessness dashboard, over 9,000 people engaged with Sacramento County homeless services in December 2025, an increase of nearly 900 compared to the previous month. (The nonprofit also conducts the point-in-time count of homeless people in Sacramento County, which reported that the county’s homeless population had decreased by 29 percent between 2022 and 2024 to a count of 6,615, leading to funding cuts and raising questions about their methods.)

Homelessness degrades those who experience it and degrades the communities in which there are homeless. The homeless include more than people living in camps, along the American River Parkway and in neighborhoods and near businesses. It also includes the less visible people who move from one friend’s coach or garage or basement to another. It is people who live in their cars. It is men, women, children and people of every age. It is veterans, it is family members and neighbors. It is caused by poverty, by mental illness, by drug addiction, unemployment, high housing costs and poor public policy.

The federal government, state government and city and county government have spent large sums of money, and it has never been enough to end or significantly reduce homelessness. The number of homeless continues to grow faster than the available housing. The policy of “housing first” is a theory that the best way to address homelessness is to first house the homeless and then to assess what needs to be done; whether it is mental health treatment, addiction treatment, job training or long term institutional care for those who cannot be rehabilitated. Housing first provides the chronically homeless people long-term subsidized housing and offers, but does not require, treatment for mental illness or addiction. It contrasts with programs that condition help on sobriety or work, which the new administration officials want to encourage though there is less direct research to suggest their efficacy.

Related: California Counties Must Jump Through New Hoops to Get Homelessness Funds

If housing first is a valid theory of change that addresses homelessness, the test is: does it result in a return to independence or at least minimal public assistance; does it address mental health problems; does it address addiction; does it restore the health of the homeless; and does it result in long term success?

The short answer is that housing first does one thing well: It stabilizes those that are housed. But only a low percentage return to independence, and there are not enough long-term studies to see how long those that become independent remain independent. The big problems with housing first are that it is expensive; there is not enough shelter or housing space; and there is not enough program support for mental health, addiction and job training. Therefore, the homeless problem is growing. Housing first is less effective at providing rehabilitation services, and without long term oversight there is no assurance that there is a long-term success rate.

Many of the programs that rely on government funding are run by nonprofits. Here in Sacramento, the Salvation Army operates the Center of Hope Shelter for about 130 men and women, the Next Step program for about 70 men and the E. Claire Raley Transitional Living Center for about 30 families. The Salvation Army Pathway of Hope program includes housing and case worker support to lead the homeless on a pathway to independence. It addresses addiction, mental health issues, joblessness and the despair that comes with homelessness.

Salvation Army’s Pathway to Hope program has been part of empirical studies and it is proven to work. But the resources available for the Salvation Army program or any program that is based on housing the homeless do not come close to meeting the needs of the homeless.

What is needed is an approach that recognizes that the homeless need to be in a caseworker supported program that offers stability and the resources to address their needs and create pathway to independence for those who can achieve independence and a pathway to long-term care and support for those who cannot live independently due to either age, mental illness, disability or other factors.

Related: Perspective: The Ever-Growing Sacramento Homeless Crisis

In Sacramento, we need to recognize that the homeless population has outgrown our capacity to house and shelter them. We need a plan to stabilize them, even though we do not have permanent housing or shelter space, so that we can begin the process that leads to long-term solutions — and we need to clear out the homeless encampments that degrade the homeless and our community.

A four-stage program seems a good solution compared to our current plan, which is not solving a growing homelessness problem.

1. Stage one is to create managed camps in designated areas that have around-the-clock supervision and management; garbage pickup, toilets, showers, clean water and food service; and programs to begin to address addiction, mental health and job training and placement. This step allows us to house more homeless at a lower cost than current solutions while creating a cleaner, safer, and more secure and stable environment for the homeless than the current camps. These camps can be ramped up or down as need changes. Similar camps are used to house those displaced by war or disaster. Of course, the “not in my backyard” problem will make placing these camps difficult.

2. Stage two is to begin ramping up drug addiction, mental health and job training programs to support transitioning all the homeless to independence, for those who can make that transition.

3. Stage three is to create transitional housing either through subsidizing local apartments by providing vouchers or building or buying existing multi-family housing units. Most of those who are moving to independence will need up to two years of transitional housing or subsidized housing. During the transitional period, case worker support will be needed.

4. Stage four is to create long-term housing with case worker support for those who cannot live independently due to mental illness, drug addiction, disability, old age or other factors. In particular, the available mental health care facilities are far short of what we need. When the state mental hospitals were closed, we failed to build a replacement network of care facilities.

This plan addresses the need for a more robust mental health care system, a more robust drug addiction treatment system and a long-term care solution for those who are not able to live independently and currently continually return to homelessness, crowd our emergency rooms and create problems for police, residents and businesses. It also has the advantage of putting in place lower-cost, temporary housing to move more homeless people into caseworker-supervised programs at a faster pace than other solutions, and it can flex with the need for sheltering and rehabilitating the homeless.

Henry Wirz is the former CEO of SAFE Credit Union and a volunteer with organizations including the UC Davis Foundation and the Sacramento Regional Community Foundation.

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