City file 27 / 36 · For Sacramento organizations
When a Sacramento caseworker sends someone to another organization, the referral is logged as sent. Whether the person arrived is often never recorded. Operation Iron Gate, from Pathfinders for Hope, is built to record that part. Sacramento organizations can watch its first pilot in the open.
Sent is not served
Picture one person in Sacramento County. An outreach worker connects them to a shelter, a clinic or a benefits office somewhere in Sacramento. This is what each record shows a week later.
Logged
Consent recorded first
Logged as sent
Sent, and still open
Not recorded
Confirmed by the receiving organization
Not recorded
Owned by a named role
“Unknown”
Only into a known outcome
Lane B is the pilot’s design, not a Sacramento field result.
The plain terms
The rulebook
In practiceA missing ID does not end a Sacramento handoff. The referral stays open while the ID problem is worked, with no promise of same-day eligibility, housing or a bed.
In practiceA “no” from a Sacramento provider needs a written reason before it is recorded as a denial.
In practice“Unknown” cannot be picked as the final outcome of a Sacramento case. Someone owns the next step until it is known.
In practice“Sent” and “arrived” are two statuses. The sender records one; the Sacramento organization that receives the person records the other.
The failure points
People outside in Sacramento County are spread across the city, the unincorporated county and the surrounding cities. A referral often has to cross from one jurisdiction's outreach team to another's shelter, and that crossing is where the record is most likely to stop.
Your numbers
The way in
Three ways in for Sacramento organizations. None of them asks you to change the system you use today.
Housing held at 90 days is the lead measure. Results go on The Glass with no names, good or bad, so Sacramento can judge them.
Tell us your Sacramento role: sending, receiving, providing or overseeing. Nothing is signed in a first conversation.
The counter above shows how many of your Sacramento handoffs end in a question mark. It stays on your device until you share it.
The questions
No. It has not launched anywhere. The first pilot is being prepared in Vallejo, and no Sacramento launch has been announced.
The January 2026 count for the Sacramento County recorded 7,458 people homeless across the county. Up 13 percent from 2024. About 59 percent of the people found unsheltered were in the City of Sacramento, with the rest in the unincorporated county and surrounding cities.
Street outreach connected 1,110 people to shelter or housing, up 143 percent since the 2024 count, while the number of people living outdoors or in vehicles rose 6.6 percent, an estimated 261 people. Since the 2024 count, the county's system added 491 emergency shelter and transitional housing beds, up 15 percent. The county bought the former Price Club warehouse on Watt Avenue for about $23 million in 2022.
Cohort 01 is recruiting in Vallejo. A Sacramento organization can request a briefing now. Nothing is signed in a first Sacramento briefing.
No. Operation Iron Gate is not a replacement for Sacramento Steps Forward, the county or any provider's own records. It is built to confirm that a referral between organizations reached the person, including one that crosses from the city into the county's system.
For food, the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services lists distribution sites across the area. Operation Iron Gate is not open for public intake yet. GATEHOUSE, our community platform, where Pathfinders for Hope does your intake, barrier review and the calls to agencies, is open now: register on GATEHOUSE to ask questions and follow the build. Joining GATEHOUSE does not put you in the North Bay Pilot, which runs only in Vallejo and Solano County.
The evidence
Where the Sacramento figures come from.
Operation Iron Gate has not been tested in the field, and no results are claimed for Sacramento or anywhere else. North Bay Pilot numbers will be published good or bad.
Nearby cities. Read the pages for Elk Grove and Santa Rosa.
The inside track
Operation Iron Gate starts in Vallejo. Its community platform, GATEHOUSE, is open today. Sacramento agencies, nonprofits and neighbors can join to watch the North Bay Pilot get built, ask our team anything, and help decide what the full system becomes.
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