The 4th Annual Sacramento Homeless Connect event will take place this Saturday, May 21 at Sacramento City College from 10:00 am-3:00 pm. It is hosted by Sacramento Steps Forward, with support from presenting sponsor The Salvation Army. Speakers at the event include Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, Mayor Kevin Johnson and Supervisor Phil Serna. Over 1,000 homeless guests are expected; additionally the event hosts 500 community volunteers and over 60 different service providers. Project Homeless Connect is a national Best Practice model for bringing services directly to homeless folks. Started in San Francisco, it now occurs in over 150 communities across the country. Homeless Connect events

Dozens of bus routes in the Sacramento region will vanish and light rail will slow down on the weekends as a result of sweeping Regional Transit budget cuts. The agency’s board of directors slashed bus, light rail and paratransit service Monday night to resolve a $10.6 million deficit. One of the major budget fixes scales back night service seven days per week. The RT board decided that light rail, bus and paratransit trips that now begin after 9 p.m. will cease. Public transportation will also be slower on weekends. Right now, light rail picks up passengers in 15-minute cycles during the weekend. The cuts mean that riders can catch the light rail every 30 minutes on weekends, explained

Many disabled local residents who regularly ride paratransit buses were among the approximately 250 people who turned out for a Monday afternoon public hearing on proposed cuts to Sacramento’s Regional Transit. The disabled transit riders — which included many people in wheelchairs — urged the RT board of directors to maintain paratransit services. In the 2011 fiscal year, RT predicts it will have a $25 million budget gap according to a statement on the RT website. The statement notes that RT has been hammered by low revenues from state and local taxes, as well as by the state’s discontinuation of State Transit Assistance funding. In addition, the statement points out that furloughs and