The Downtown Streets Team organization announced in late August that its doors were closing, due to political and financial challenges.

WEST SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) – The abrupt closure of a regional organization addressing homelessness has forced the City of West Sacramento to take a similarly abrupt step to continue those services locally.

At its Sept. 17 meeting, City Council approved a resolution creating an in-house homeless emergency housing program. The need for the move was due to the sudden closure of the Downtown Streets Team organization which had been under two contracts with the city since 2023 and 2024 to operate homelessness assistance in two local  motels, as well as a program to clean up homeless camps.

West Sacramento Economic Development and Housing Department housing manager Raul Huerta told council that moving quickly to create the city program stemmed from the need to maintain case management services for about 90 homeless or at risk of homelessness individuals using the Downtown Streets Team program.

These services include finding and maintaining secure permanent housing but also address the “underlying issues” leading to their homelessness.

Downtown Streets Team also provided services to individuals who are “justice-impacted, systemic trauma” and those “out of the workforce for an extended period of time.”

The Downtown Streets Team organization announced in late August that its doors were closing, due to political and financial challenges. Founded in Palo Alto in 2005, the organization worked in 16 communities on homelessness issues and street litter, communities including West Sacramento, Davis, Sacramento, Modesto, San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Cruz.

“The funding landscape for nonprofits and community-based organizations at large has shifted in an extreme way and we are feeling the impacts of that,” Downtown Streets Team CEO Julie Gardner said in an Aug. 30 Modesto Bee story.

Under the two West Sacramento contracts, Downtown Streets Team employed seven full-time case managers, two managers and two part-time assistants at a total cost of $852,203.

Under the city model, the assistants and manager/director positions are eliminated, with seven, limited-term “Program Tech I” hires serving as case managers at a total cost of $924,300.

With Downtown Streets Team closing its doors by the end of October, Huerta said, speed in hiring is essential to maintaining services to existing clients. According to a staff report, the move to in-house will also ensure consistent and high-quality documentation of services, allocate staff where program needs are greatest and provide operational flexibility.

“It is definitely going to be a challenge to hire so many people at once,” Huerta added.

The move also preserves the “Encampment Cleanup & Support” portion of the program. West Sacramento was in negotiations with Downtown Streets Team to continue the program that provided three part-time positions, one part-time driver and one program manager at an annual cost of $370,000.

Moving this program in-house will instead employ three Tier II “extra help laborers” to engage in camp clean up on an interim basis at a cost of $115,390. As with the case management services, manager duties will be absorbed by current city staff. Besides salaries and benefits, in-house costs include equipment and training.

According to the report, the combined costs for the in-house program will produce a savings of $235,000. Furthermore, case management services are covered by more than $1.157 million in grant funding while council dedicated $422,507 in Measure E tax receipts in the 2025-2026 budget to the cleanup program.

While asking questions about the costs and funding sources, Councilwoman Dawnté Early expressed concerns about the increased workload on management staff. She told program manager James Mayoral that absorbing former management duties and responsibilities could mean “more work for you.”

“What gets put to the side?” Early asked.

Mayoral said that it wouldn’t amount to a huge change in his and others’ duties. The change would provide more opportunity and flexibility in handling cases, according to Mayoral.

Councilmember Verna Sulpizio Hull and Councilwoman Quirina Orozco expressed concerns about the city retaining aspects of the Downtown Streets Team program under the in-house model.

Orozco pointed to factors that made the program unique to West Sacramento while Sulpizio Hull referenced the organization’s “weekly success meetings,” one of which Orozco attended and left her emotional from the power of its impact.

“How do we not lose this as we take this in house?” Orozco asked.

There will be plenty of opportunities to build relationships for individuals at the housing sites, Mayoral said, while also getting them involved in the community in a way that will improve their situation.

Huerta added that those weekly meetings had much value and it would be looked at how to possibly continue the meetings under the in-house model.

Several nonprofit organizations in the region could take on these services, said Early, asking why the city hadn’t reached out to them for proposals on doing the work.

Due to Downtown Streets Team’s sudden closure, Huerta said, there wasn’t enough time to bring on another outside source for the services. Doing so would require the city to go through the formal request for proposal process, which takes time.

“The staff feels we can make this work,” Huerta added.

Mayor Martha Guerrero thanked Huerta, Mayoral and the rest of their staff for the quick response to the closure and willingness to take on the work. Several council members work with homelessness, Guerrero said, and the council as a collective body has plenty of experience with the issue.

“We’re here. You’re not alone,” Guerrero added.