City’s Incident Management Team responding to homelessness produces significant results in first year

The City of Sacramento launched its Incident Management Team responding to homelessness one year ago, and the results it has produced are significant.

Over the past year, the IMT, which focuses providing outreach as well as ensuring compliance with City laws and ordinances, has:

• Responded to more than 41,000 calls for service.
• Created more than 12,000 engagements with people experiencing homelessness to help connect them with services.
• Obtained compliance more than 4,800 times with City laws
• Overseen the removal of approximately 10 million pounds of trash.

"We are extremely pleased with the IMT's accomplishments over the past year," said Department of Community Response Director Brian Pedro, who serves as incident commander for the IMT. "As the numbers demonstrate, our outreach and compliance efforts are helping people access the support they need while making our communities cleaner and safer for everyone."

Based on an organizational model that typically is used to coordinate interagency response to natural disasters, the IMT features a centralized command for urgent, organized response.

The IMT responds to calls for services involving homeless encampments, blocked sidewalks, encampments near schools, illegal storage on public property and other concerns. The team works to ensure compliance with laws and ordinances and operates under all legal guidelines, including the Supreme Court's recent ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson.

The IMT coordinates staff and resources from several agencies, including the Department of Community Response, Code Enforcement, the Sacramento Police Department, the Sacramento Fire Department, Park Rangers, 311 and Animal Care - as well as Sacramento County Behavioral Health Services and private contractor Forensiclean - to maximize effectiveness.

"Anytime you can create a team from a half dozen different departments that works together to address a complex citywide crisis and continuously maintains its focus, you know you have assembled the right people for the job," Pedro said. "Our team's success is built on the mutual respect of diverse professionals like police officers, outreach workers, social services providers, and behavioral health clinicians working together to achieve shared objectives."

Every day the IMT deploys several multi-disciplinary teams to connect people experiencing homelessness with appropriate services while reducing and minimizing the negative impact of encampments on surrounding areas by enforcing compliance with Sacramento City Code and California Vehicle Code. The IMT also provides encampment management and cleanup services.

One of the benefits the IMT provides is that its daily work frees up police and other City personnel, so they can respond to other calls for service from the community more quickly and efficiently, Pedro said.

This point is evidenced by City response data. Comparing reports from August 2023 (before the launch of the IMT) to August 2024, SPD saw an eight percent decrease in calls they responded that were related to homelessness. In the Central City, that trend was even more pronounced, with data showing a 19 percent decrease.

Pedro said it is the IMT's duty to balance providing human compassion and care in conjunction with the compliance needed to resolve encampment issues, an obligation the team takes very seriously.

"The IMT takes a compassionate enforcement approach," he said. "We aren't going to reduce homelessness with just offering social services or with just providing enforcement. We need a balanced approach to meet the needs of all our community."

IMT engagements over the past year have resulted in approximately 1,200 people being placed into shelter in real time, with another 1,110 placed on a waitlist for upcoming spots.

Pedro said the past year has helped to better streamline the IMT's organization and output, and he expects the team to continue to post meaningful results in the coming months.

"I really see the IMT as a force multiplier," Pedro said. "By continuing to coordinate efforts across departments and partner organizations, we will make even more progress addressing the challenges faced by our most vulnerable residents while improving the quality of life for all Sacramento residents."

To report an issue related to homelessness, please use the City's 311 service.

Click here to see the IMT's weekly progress on its data dashboard and here to learn more about what the City is doing to address the homelessness crisis.

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