No clear path as Sacramento’s homelessness crisis fuels rift between city and DA

At dawn on a Wednesday, Sacramento police began the first of their raids, responding to citizen complaints that the homeless situation was out of control in the city.

Officers and county parks officials targeted 85 encampments, driving dozens of campers from their makeshift homes along the American River Parkway.

When the raids were over, the city’s police chief made clear that officials were done ignoring laws against camping in the area.

“If we want to legalize people sleeping there, let’s change the law,” the chief said, “but don’t ask us not to enforce the law.”

The chief’s name was Jack Kearns, and the date was April 26, 1989.

Now, more than 34 years later, Sacramento still finds itself grappling with a seemingly intractable homeless crisis.

It has embroiled the city in lawsuits and bitter infighting among elected leaders over how to deal with sidewalks and alleys taken over by tents, shopping carts and homeless people trying to survive the summer heat.

And it has driven a wedge between city leaders and Sacramento County’s new district attorney, who has said for weeks that he has had enough of the city’s failure to act.

The latest salvo from D.A. Thien Ho came Wednesday, with Ho accusing the city of failing to enforce its year-old ordinance against tent camps blocking sidewalks.

In an interview with The Sacramento Bee, Ho said he had evidence from the city that police are not enforcing the ordinance at all, despite a unanimous City Council vote last August to prohibit homeless camps from blocking sidewalks.

“There’s not a single prosecution,” Ho said in an interview Wednesday. “Here’s a question that I have: Is there a concerted effort by the mayor and by City Hall to stop law enforcement from enforcing the law?

“That’s what I’m going to ask. And that’s what I think the public deserves an answer to. Because why pass an ordinance if you’re not gonna enforce it?”

Ho said he learned of the city’s lack of enforcement in a Monday night email he received from City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood, who was responding to a letter the D.A. sent earlier Monday demanding more action on homeless enforcement within the next 30 days.

In her email, which Ho released to The Sacramento Bee, Alcala Wood wrote that she was trying to schedule a meeting with Ho to “avoid politics and focus instead on solving the problem.”

She added that she wanted to work with Ho to improve how the Sacramento Police Department enforces violations of city ordinances by homeless camps.

‘I read the email, and my jaw literally dropped’

“SPD is simply not issuing citations for unlawful camping, unlawful storage, sidewalk obstructions or any Sacramento city code sections related to the homeless encampments,” she wrote. “Our data indicates no citations have been referred to our office for prosecution with the exception of a single ‘general release’ citation.

“For that reason partnering with your office to support SPD in becoming more comfortable in issuing citations is a good approach because as you know — we can’t prosecute cases if no cases are sent to us.”

Ho said he was at home when the email arrived.

“I looked at my phone, I read the email, and my jaw literally dropped,” he said. “I had suspected that there was inconsistent enforcement.

“I didn’t realize that there was non-existent enforcement at all. And that just raised a whole host of questions after I picked up my jaw from the ground. Is there a concerted effort by the mayor in City Hall to stop the police from enforcing the law?”

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s chief of staff, Mary Lynne Vellinga, adamantly denied that notion.

“The mayor did not direct the Police Department not to enforce the sidewalk ordinance,” she said. “When they initially passed the sidewalk ordinance the entire City Council made it clear that they preferred that the city seek voluntary compliance and cite for a violation only as a last resort, particularly as unhoused people often lack the capacity to pay fines.

“Last Tuesday, the council and Mayor Steinberg voted in favor of a more rapid enforcement approach in which police were specifically directed to enforce the city’s ordinances, and the council authorized the city manager to use overtime to enable them to respond to the many demands around the city.”

Tim Swanson, a spokesman for City Manager Howard Chan, also said the city had been able to clear sidewalks thousands of times without having to issue citations.

“Over the past year, the city has been enforcing its sidewalk ordinance, responding to more than 4,500 calls for service regarding blocked sidewalks and building entrances,” Swanson wrote in an email. “This work has been conducted in accordance with the city council directive to avoid fining or booking people in jail who are cited and to prioritize outreach.”

Swanson noted that those calls for service included two periods during which a federal judge had ordered the city to halt enforcement against homeless camps.

“Through the ongoing work of the Department of Community Response, Code Enforcement and the Sacramento Police Department, the city largely has been able to achieve voluntary compliance when addressing these violations without issuing citations,” he added. “The city also has conducted large-scale cleanup activities, most recently at 28th and C streets and on Roseville Road, without needing to issue any citations.”

City embroiled in lawsuits over sidewalk access

The ordinance to prohibit homeless camps from blocking sidewalks was passed last August to applause from the audience at City Hall, and took effect last September.

Within months, however, disabled Sacramento residents sued the city and county in federal court, claiming officials had failed to keep sidewalks clear and that they are unable to navigate sections of the city because homeless camps are blocking access.

The plaintiffs’ have asked for an injunction requiring the city to “promptly eliminate tent encampments obstructions of public sidewalks,” while the city and county have asked for the suit to be dismissed.

At a hearing Thursday before Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller the judge signaled that she would not dismiss the case.

In a July filing in that lawsuit, the city acknowledged the existence of its sidewalk ordinance but contended officials can decide for themselves whether to enforce it.

“Given that the city already has an ordinance specifically directed to sidewalk obstructions, plaintiffs are actually seeking to have the court order enforcement of this ordinance,” Senior Deputy City Attorney Grace Pak wrote in a filing seeking dismissal of the suit. “Like many city ordinances, it is solely within the city’s legislative discretion to determine when and what amount of finite city resources to allocate in the enforcement of its ordinances.”

Ho contends that if the city had been enforcing the ordinance it could have given some homeless individuals more chances to interact with police and seek assistance.

“It would definitely make a difference,” he said. “We wouldn’t be in the situation that we are now, if the city were to actually engage in compliance and enforcement.

“These laws were passed for a reason to encourage people to accept services, to get people into certain areas where they’re not affecting the public safety of the rest of the community and themselves. And yet the city has done absolutely nothing under this administration.”

Ho has lauded Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper for “actually doing enforcement” involving homeless camps, and on Thursday Cooper’s office released figures showing that between Jan. 1 and July 31 the sheriff’s homeless outreach team had contacted 926 individuals and written 602 citations.

The sheriff said its team’s activities resulted in 221 misdemeanor arrests and 103 felony arrests during that period.

Contempt motion possible in court battle over sweeps

A separate lawsuit by the Sacramento Homeless Union resulted in U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley barring Sacramento officials from clearing any homeless camps for 14 days because of concerns over hot weather affecting the health of individuals living in such camps.

But the city violated that order within days by clearing camps at City Hall on Friday and Monday. A city spokesman said Tuesday that move was done by mistake and that the city “respects the order.”

A lawyer for the homeless union responded by asking Nunley for an order to show cause why the city should not be held in contempt for violating the restraining order.

“As a result of the city’s misconduct, the number of campers at City Hall has dramatically shrunken and the union, in its efforts to inform the displaced campers of their rights under the order, has learned that many are now scared to return,” attorney Anthony Price wrote. “Instead of being (under) the substantial protection of the shade provided at City Hall Plaza, they are in the hot sun, at the increased risk of harm that the Injunction was intended to prevent.

“If the city will not or cannot insure compliance at the building that houses its entire administration — City Hall — how can the court and the plaintiffs be assured that it is insuring obedience anywhere else in Sacramento?”

Price asked Nunley to levy a $2,500 fine against the city “as well as further orders from the court to insure compliance and consequences for any further violations.”

The flurry of legal action and competing claims between Ho and city officials comes as Sacramento faces extreme pressure to deal with the estimated 9,300 homeless people living in the county. An estimated 75% of the 6,664 who are unsheltered are within the city limits.

Thursday afternoon, campers could be found throughout Sacramento’s downtown and midtown neighborhoods.

Some camped beneath the highway in the Alhambra Triangle, while dozens more were living near City Hall and the Sacramento Superior Courthouse.

“Just a few days ago, there was a gentleman on the corner of H and Ninth streets masturbating,” Ho said.

In that area on Thursday were at least 30 tents or tarps. A man lay face up sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. Multiple dogs tied to a fire hydrant barked at pedestrians.

People wearing state worker badges waited for the bus next to a man sleeping on a mattress next to the bus stop.

Ho has been demanding a series of actions, including more enforcement, a ban on daytime camping, additional shelter space and more city employees tasked with responding to homeless issues.

He also has threatened to file a lawsuit or criminal charges against city officials if more enforcement is not put in place, and the 30-day deadline he issued Monday likely will mark when he decides whether to do so.

“I’ve given a timeline to the city, but the fact of the matter is they’ve had so many years to do these things and now we’re finding out that for the last year, the last two years, they have not enforced any of these ordinances that they pass,” Ho said. “Enough is enough.

“Look, these are difficult times. I don’t relish the possibility of suing another governmental entity to compel them to do the job that they’re supposed to do. But the fact of the matter is enough is enough”

Ho last month commissioned a survey of area residents about issues they have had with homeless camps and lack of enforcement in the city and has received more than 2,000 responses as of Wednesday, Ho said.

“We definitely have responses about people unable to use the sidewalk, kids having to walk into the street, into traffic on their way to school to avoid the tents, to avoid feces and urine,” Ho said. “We definitely have examples of that. ...

“And we have to remember that the voices for victims need to be heard. I mean, I have an example of a woman who had her window broken so many times she had to put Styrofoam up because she got tired of replacing them every day. She’d come home from work, she would have to call her fiancé to come out and escort her.

“And she found feces and urine constantly on her driveway. She had a gun pointed at her head by an unhoused individual. She’s seen a rape happen in the middle of the street. She’s been diagnosed with PTSD and had to move out of her house and is sleeping on her sister’s couch.”

Rift widens between DA Ho, Mayor Steinberg

Steinberg responded to Ho’s letter by calling a news conference Tuesday to accuse the D.A. of engaging in politics rather than working with the city to address homeless issues.

“I just decided I’m not going to continue to have my city being threatened by someone who’s not doing his part,” Steinberg said. “The D.A.’s politicizing of this issue should be worrisome to the entire community.”

Ho dismissed that criticism, saying, “I’m not the person that held a press conference on the steps of City Hall yesterday.”

He also said speculation that he is criticizing Steinberg because both men may face off in a campaign for state attorney general in the future is false, that he is focused on serving in the post he stepped into as D.A. in January.

And he noted that since Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Steinberg as the homeless czar to seek solutions to the problem stateside, Sacramento’s crisis has expanded.

“The irony has not escaped me that Darrell Steinberg was appointed as the homeless czar and that under his watch the homeless population in Sacramento County has increased by over 250%,” Ho said.

The Bee’s Grace Scullion and Theresa Clift contributed to this story.