By Neenma Ebeledike
According to Sacramento Steps Forward, the number of homeless people in Sacramento County grew from 5,356 in March 2025 to nearly 9,000 in September. The sharp rise reveals a region in crisis.
On a chilly Sunday morning at César Chávez Park, those numbers become faces. Sacramento Street Medicine,the Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign, and Black Hair & Black Hygiene organized an event Nov. 30 to provide care and products to unhoused residents. Volunteers gave out gloves, hats, hygiene products, food, and medical care.
In real time, the city’s safety net appears to be volunteers filling in the gaps left by government systems.
“If housed people are struggling, imagine those who are unhoused,” said Faye Wilson Kennedy, organizer with the Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign. “We’re coming off the heels of a federal shutdown, and even before that, DOGE [the Department of Government Efficiency] laid off so many people. Folks who were already on the edge are now being pushed out of their homes.”
Kennedy has spent years coordinating mutual aid efforts, but even she describes the current moment as “a crisis unfolding before our eyes.” As rents hover around $2,000 and minimum-wage workers and seniors on Supplemental Security Income struggle to keep up, she fears far more people will join the swelling ranks of Sacramento’s unhoused.
“People don’t realize how fragile it is,” she said. “Most of us are just one or two paychecks away.”
At the event, the line for medical check-ins formed early. For many unhoused residents, Sacramento Street Medicine is the closest thing to regular health care they’ll receive.
“Poor folks often don’t have access to health care — especially the unhoused,” Kennedy said. “That’s why we partner with street medicine volunteers; they meet people where they are, literally.”
Volunteers strolled through the park, greeting people by name, examining wounds, providing prescription refills, and asking about recent sweeps. While it’s obvious that the gap has become more like a canyon, many refer to their effort as “filling gaps.”
The changes to federal and state programs over the past year, Kennedy argued, have left mutual aid groups vulnerable; demand keeps rising as financing keeps falling.
“People think hunger is seasonal,” she said. “But folks are hungry in January, they’re hungry in April, they’re hungry year-round. And without federal support, I don’t know how long community groups can keep filling these needs.”
Volunteer Nancy Turner with the Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign sees the same reality.
“It’s sad to see so many programs cut,” she said. “People at the federal level don’t understand how it impacts the person on the street. Volunteers are stepping up because the safety net has vanished.”
Kennedy said local governments need to ramp up efforts to address the crisis of homelessness. “We need more than shelters,” she said, “we need permanent solutions.” She believes the city must confront the deeper structural failures fueling the crisis.
“Affordability is at the heart of this problem,” she said. “People can’t afford rent. Section 8 waitlists are horrific. Transportation is limited. And without support services, people can’t get back on their feet.”
She points to abandoned homes, empty Rite-Aid stores and Walgreens buildings in disinvested neighborhoods as spaces that could be rehabilitated for unhoused people.
“This would give people dignified housing with wraparound services,” she said. “But until that happens, community groups will keep doing what they can.”
By noon, the park was full of activity. People brought packages of warm clothing and hygiene packs. A man in a wheelchair rolled away with a new scarf wrapped across his lap. A lady and her teenage son left with a bag of groceries.
Those products won’t address homelessness. Volunteers know that. However, they will provide someone with the warmth, cleanliness, and dignity that the system frequently ignores.
Sacramento’s homelessness crisis is rising, and its political fights continue. However, at César Chávez Park, on this particular Sunday, these organizations showed that change can happen when we work together.
“We have to see our unhoused neighbors not as a deficit, but as [people] temporarily having a hard time,” Kennedy said. ‘That’s the humanity that’s missing. And that’s why we show up.”
A wish and need list, as requested by our unhoused neighbors by Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign:
- Warm blankets
- Beanie hats
- Gloves
- Socks
- Winter warm scarves
- Tarps
- Belts
- Wash cloths
- Women’s and men’s underwear
- Gently loved ( used) sweaters, sweatshirts, and sweatpants.
If you’d like to donate items from the list or volunteer, contact Faye Wilson Kennedy at SacPPC2019@gmail.com.