In 2016, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors created the Office of Homeless Initiatives (OHI) to coordinate the response of various County departments when providing services to those experiencing homelessness. In addition to mitigating the impacts of homelessness on the community, OHI staff work on long-term programs and solutions to homelessness, provide regular reports to the Board of Supervisors, and engage with a variety of community stakeholders.
Joshua’s House Hospice supports OHI’s mission to make homelessness rare, and brief if and when it does occur. By bringing together a collaborative team of county departments, social advocates, those with lived experience, businesses, and community-based organizations, OHI is committed to offering unique solutions that improve housing outcomes, meet behavioral and physical health needs, and ensure those experiencing homelessness are treated with dignity, respect, and compassion.
The latest Point in Time Count from 2022 estimates there are more than 9,000 people living unhoused in Sacramento County on any given night. Of those, 72% are living unsheltered, which means they are living in a tent, a vehicle, or without any shelter. While there are approximately 2,600 emergency shelter beds – 1,300 of which are funded by Sacramento County – we are in dire need of more.
Fortunately, due to financial support from the County, there are 180 new beds set to welcome guests within the next six months, and when Joshua’s House Hospice is fully operational, we, too, will help address our community’s crisis of unsheltered residents.
We’re incredibly grateful to OHI and generous donors like you who are helping Joshua’s House finish construction and open by June 1, 2025. For the first time on the West Coast, hospice care and comfort care will be provided to our terminally ill, homeless neighbors in a comfortable, home-like environment.
