The City Council is considering whether the city of Sacramento will join in the creation of a public-private collaborative agency to address the problems of homelessness in the region – an issue that does not recognize political boundaries. Representatives from the city Neighborhood Services Department and the county Department of Human Assistance presented a report to the City Council Tuesday outlining a plan for creating a joint powers authority to align city and county governments with a nonprofit entity. “The JPA would be the overarching policymaking body,” Sacramento county spokeswoman Kerri Aiello said Tuesday. “Sacramento Steps Forward (a nonprofit corporation) will ultimately be

Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG) isn’t going anywhere, just moving to a new location. The Hart Senior Center, where NAG has been meeting regularly, began charging an hourly fee of $50 to rent rooms after 5 p.m. which caused some NAG members to wonder if this would be their last meeting altogether. “NAG is not a city group, they enjoy their independence. They do, however, like the city to work with them,” said Derrick Lim, manager of the city’s Neighborhood Services Department and special events. “The items and agenda is all decided by NAG, they take their own positions.” Monday’s meeting was held at the Hart Senior Center, 915 27th St., and the Aug. 15 meeting will be held there, too,

Sacramento County’s budget woes are prompting county and city staffers and local groups to consider establishing a new nonprofit organization to address homelessness. A new agency could lift some of the county’s burden to manage regional homelessness efforts, according to a recently released report from the county’s Department of Human Assistance. After February 2011, DHA will not have enough funding to continue its homelessness program, according to the department’s report. The county is running low on general fund dollars for the program, said Derrick Lim, a manager with the city’s Neighborhood Services division who is working on the issue at the city level. “That’s why the situation