Sacramento Mayor-elect Darrell Steinberg watched last week from the back of the state Senate floor as his former colleagues passed his $2 billion plan for homeless housing, potentially providing him with the issue and money to extend his influence beyond the city.
Steinberg said he hopes to see “tens of millions” of funding locally in the next few years for permanent homes through the legislation, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed last week. Some of that money could arrive early next year, within months of Steinberg taking office.
But technically Steinberg won’t have much say over how that windfall will be spent, or even how much the city will receive. The money will go to the county, which provides the majority of the region’s homeless services.
Steinberg isn’t deterred by that detail.
“I intend to lead personally on this issue,” he said after the vote.
He’s “confident” that he’ll be able to help “establish a new and heightened level of collaboration between the city of Sacramento, the county of Sacramento and our entire region. … We are going to go aggressively after our share of these couple billion dollars,” he added.
In recent months, the city has increased its homeless services, including $438,000 to keep some shelters open around the clock beginning as early as August and opening a mobile bathroom in the River District.
[For more of this story, written by Anita Chabria, go to http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article88338297.html]
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