Health Equity

In our last post we discussed what defines environmental justice. This week we’re going to talk about environmental injustice and how it manifests. We’re looking into the impact of these injustices on our most marginalized community members, and more specifically, our unhoused neighbors. 

TL;DR: Sacramento City Manager - and all around disappointment - Howard Chan attempted to remove funding for the RydeFreeRT program (a program that costs the City $1M...by contrast, this budgeting cycle we gave the police a $30M raise), but thanks in large part to community mobilization, this program will remain funded for another year! Unfortunately the City only covered $250,000 of the cost, with the remaining $750,000 being split between Sac RT and the Sacramento, Natomas, Elk Grove, and Twin Rivers Unified school districts. Permanent funding for this program will continue to be fought for.

SJPC’s focus this month is Health Equity; in our first newsletter we provided education around Sacramento County’s Community Wellness Response Team (AKA alt to 911 program), and for this piece we’re telling the story of someone working in our community to provide information and guidance on how to approach social work through a trauma-informed and intersectional lens. 

This write-up was informed by a conversation between SJPC and Dr. Corrine McIntosh Sako, Chair of the Sacramento County Mental Health Board. Direct quotes from Dr. Sako will be sprinkled throughout this write-up!

Across the City and County of Sacramento, renters are facing abuse, harassment, coercion, threats, intrusion and MORE at the hands of their landlords with very limited options to turn to for support.

At the June 20th Sacramento City Council meeting, the City's Office of Public Safety Accountability presented their Audit of the Sacramento Police Department (SPD): Misconduct Complaint Cases

At the end of 2022 we saw Sacramento County bring back its plan for jail expansion, despite the community having previously blocked an expansion on 3/10/21 (to learn more click here). Once again, the public has been lied to & the county is breaking promises made to explore solutions other than a jail expansion.

In June of 2021 the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a new 24/7 mental health crisis response program with the hopes that it would be ready and operational no later than July 2022. This program is now known as the Community Wellness Response Team (CWRT).

Sacramento City Council's Racial Equity Committee met on January 24th, 2023 to outline their plans for the year of 2023.