Sacramento district attorney to councilwoman: Clear camps from outside courthouse

Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho is asking city leaders to clear homeless encampments from sidewalks outside the downtown courthouse.

“People are entitled to the fundamental right of fair and equal access to justice,” Ho wrote in a letter to Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela June 30, obtained by The Sacramento Bee. “But to obtain justice, members of our community require unfettered access to the courthouse and the District Attorney’s Office without threats to their safety or well-being.”

Over the last year, the DA’s office has documented 86 incidents involving homeless people outside the downtown courthouse, located at 7th and H streets, the letter stated. The letter asserts that there is “open air drug use and dealing,” tents blocking sidewalks and people behaving erratically.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the city will clear the camps around the courthouse within two weeks and move them to new spaces opening up at the city’s sanctioned campground at Miller Park. Valenzuela, who represents the area, has been leading the effort to get those spaces open.

“The presiding judge and the district attorney are right,” Steinberg said in a statement Friday. “I’m working with the city manager to open up the Miller Park Safe Camping no later than two weeks from now. The first priority will be to address the encampments surrounding the DA’s office and the courthouse. Those areas will be cleaned.”

Specific courthouse incidents

The letter detailed specific incidents where district attorney employees were harmed, threatened or harassed.

“While walking back from court, a young deputy district attorney was accosted and struck in the head by an unhoused individual; while returning from a court run to file documents, a female D.A. employee received threats and hateful racial slurs from an unhoused man regarding the Hijab she wore; a fire was recently set in a nearby alleyway; a man exposed his genitalia across the street from the office; a rock was thrown through the window of the G Street Cafe; a man entered the lobby of the D.A.’s Office with a hammer,” the letter states.

“These incidents do not include our daily exposure to feces, urine, broken furniture and trash littering the area. Some sidewalks are inaccessible as rows of tents and other items make walking impossible, thus forcing pedestrians into our busy streets. It is a sad state of affairs when citizens choose to step out into the street over the dangers lurking on our city sidewalks.”

The council last year passed an ordinance prohibiting camps from blocking sidewalks. Under that ordinance, there must be a path of at least 4 feet. In photos Ho attached to his letter, it appears that tents were blocking the entire sidewalks outside the courthouse on the date they were taken. The city also has an ordinance barring camps near so-called critical infrastructure, such as near schools, day cares and levees. The courthouse is not considered critical infrastructure.

What the district attorney wants to see changed

The letter states that Ho does not want to criminalize homelessness, but that he believes the city is not interpreting the 2018 Martin v. Boise Court of Appeals decision strictly enough.

“The proliferation of encampments on downtown streets has closed businesses, endangered people’s safety and is slamming the door of justice shut on those that need it most,” the letter states. “I respectfully ask that you request the Sacramento City Attorney’s Office, Sacramento City Code Enforcement and the Sacramento Police Department to consistently enforce existing Sacramento city codes and ordinances to address the public safety concerns that so many people who live, work, and visit downtown see and feel every day. I look forward to further discussion on this matter with you and my office stands ready to assist.”

The letter was the second of the week asking for camps to be cleared from around the courthouse.

“On behalf of the Court, the thousands of people who use our services and our 416 downtown employees, I respectfully request the Sacramento Police Department increase its presence near our downtown court locations, jury and employee parking lots, and that code violations be enforced,” Sacramento Superior Judge Michael G. Bowman wrote in a letter to Steinberg Thursday. “More importantly, it is my hope that the burgeoning unsheltered population surrounding the court be connected with the services and support they so desperately need.”

During Tuesday’s council meeting council members Rick Jennings, Lisa Kaplan and Karina Talamantes introduced an item that would increase enforcement of the critical infrastructure camping ban, as well as of an ordinance that lets the city tow vehicles that have been in the same spot for 72 hours. The council will likely discuss it later this summer.

The city has been under additional pressure regarding its response to homeless camps as a ballot measure went into effect last week. The Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has accused the city of failing to enforce it, while City Manager Howard Chan said the city is enforcing it.

The District Attorney’s Office has gotten involved homeless issues before. Last year under Anne Marie Schubert, the office threatened legal action against the city if it did not clear a camp at Fair Oaks Boulevard and Howe Avenue. The city ended up clearing and fencing it, but only after leasing it to a private entity.