From Five Years on the Streets to Stability: What Alex Enright's Story Reveals About Sacramento's Homelessness Crisis

When Alex Enright found himself on a Sacramento street corner at two in the morning in late 2019, he was convinced it would be temporary. A failed business partnership and family conflict had stripped away his stability, but surely it wouldn’t last. Five years later, he was still there. That gap between what he thought would happen and what actually happened tells us something important about homelessness that policy documents and statistics don’t capture. It’s not always about lacking access to help. Sometimes it’s about not being ready to accept it.

Enright’s path off the streets didn’t involve a single turning point. Instead, it required consistent, patient work from Telecare ARISE outreach workers and volunteers with Midtown HART, a faith-based organization serving unhoused individuals. For roughly a year, they showed up every week. He declined their assistance every week. They came back anyway. This kind of persistence is rarely discussed in our conversations about homelessness solutions, yet it appears to be exactly what breaks through for people in crisis. In June 2025, after a year of these weekly visits, Enright finally accepted the help he needed and moved into permanent supportive housing at the former Capitol Park Hotel. Today, he’s working as a custodian and database entry clerk, with personal goals written on a whiteboard in his studio apartment.

The story is hopeful, but it also raises questions about what our community needs to do better. If it takes a year of weekly outreach visits before someone’s ready, and if that’s what actually works, then our systems need to be designed around that reality. What would it look like if Sacramento had the capacity to do this consistently for everyone experiencing homelessness, not just the ones who eventually catch an outreach worker’s attention? What structures and funding would make patient, persistent support the norm rather than the exception?