Local places, such as communities, cities, and towns, host many cross-cross sector partnerships primarily towards alleviating social and environmental issues on the local level. Yet, existing literature has focused on large-scale systemic impact and global challenges such as climate change, paying scant attention to the role of these local dynamics in shaping cross-sector partnerships. In this article, I advance the concept of place, a geographic location imbued with specific meaning systems and material resources, to unpack how local embeddedness shapes the structure of cross-sector partnerships. I focus on elements of formalized structure, specifically the scope of operations, partners’ roles, and shared resources. I employ a longitudinal approach focusing on two place-based dynamics: the changes in the wicked problem, and the subsequent shifts in the tensions between the moral and material considerations of the partners. I investigate these shifts using a three-year field study of Occupy Medical, a local partnership between the civic society and the local government in Eugene, Oregon, tackling the wicked problem of providing healthcare to marginalized and disenfranchised communities, mainly the homeless. The analysis covers a nine-year period of 2011 – 2020 and various restructurings of the organization, the latest prompted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I unpack a dynamic relationship between the two partners in response to place-based dynamics captured in shifts in the organizational structure. I theorize two forms of structural arrangements between the partners, loosely and tightly-coupled, and further elaborate on the role of cross-sector partnerships in crisis response on the local level.