Guest Commentary written by
Tangela Babbitt
Tangela Babbitt is a senior project manager and consultant based in Elk Grove. She previously worked at the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance.
California is spending billions on homelessness prevention without the governance infrastructure to know whether it is working. I watched that failure happen firsthand.
I remember when a mother in Sacramento County was facing eviction and trying to find help before she and her children lost their housing. For two months, she called 211 and the county’s Department of Human Assistance looking for answers. Each system referred her to the other. Back and forth, week after week, neither could tell her what assistance was actually available or who owned the process…