Homelessness continues to escalate with 187,000 people living on California streets or in shelters in January 2024, a 55% surge since 2016.

Despite $24 billion spent from 2019 to 2023, the state accounts for 24% of U.S. homeless and 45% of unsheltered individuals, far exceeding its 11.6% population share.

Within this crisis sits Sacramento. Dangerous encampments, junk-filled streets, violence and public drug use are daily experiences for people living in desperation.

The handful of residents at Joshua’s House in North Sacramento, believed to be the first hospice on the West Coast to serve the homeless population, can finally experience the comfort, dignity and respect elusive for people living on the streets.

The new facility on Larchwood Drive began caring for its terminally ill residents this summer. The site is owned and operated by YoloCares, a nonprofit hospice provider.

As Inside columnist Jeff Harris detailed last month, Joshua’s House founder Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater worked years to line up political support, find the best location and secure $3.5 million needed for the facility. Controversies followed from concept to reality.

On the water, rowers can’t think about much else. Rhythm and teamwork take concentration. Or as Shari Lowen puts it, when you’re in the boat, you’re in the boat.

This works for Lowen and her fellow ROWsist members. Lowen founded ROWsist rowing group within the River City Rowing Club in 2023 for cancer survivors like herself.

She wanted to “give people who’ve been through cancer an opportunity to use their bodies and minds” along with “the community and emotional aspect of doing something together.”

Bill Cerruti just returned from his annual trip to Italy. It was work and play.

Cerruti and his wife, a native of Lucca, lead tours as part of their work running the Italian Cultural Society, which they founded in 1981.

As a young man, a proud Italian American and East Sacramento native, Cerruti searched for a cultural organization to meet other young Italians and stay in touch with his roots. When the Italian American club system didn’t click with him, he started his own group.

Gwenna and Dan Howard didn’t plan to move. They lived in a lovely, updated home Gwenna bought more than four decades ago. Dan moved in when they married more than 20 years ago.

The couple made many improvements over the years, even during the pandemic. “Dan owned a family steel company, and he kept his crews busy with the work on our home during the lockdowns,” Gwenna says.

But Gwenna liked to check Zillow for trends. When she saw the listing for a stylish Carmichael home on a bluff overlooking the American River, she was smitten. They went to the open house and realized the place was a hot property.

A productive ranch, like a sustaining farm, starts with dirt. At PT Ranch in Ione, the Taylor family practices regenerative agriculture, which restores and revitalizes the ecosystem by caring for the soil.

Emily Taylor’s father bought the ranch east of Elk Grove in the 1950s. After a career as an interior designer in San Francisco, Emily, husband Ned and daughter Molly took over the ranch. They changed the way PT Ranch operated.

Gone were chemicals and fertilizers. In their place came regenerative fields, ecologically balanced pastures to feed sheep, pigs, chickens and turkeys.