Tight-knit Sacramento homeless camp gets OK from state to stay put until December
The Sacramento Homeless Union celebrated what their leaders called a victory in their fight to get the city to allow a tight-knit North Sacramento homeless encampment to stay put.
Since the city announced the May 16 closure date of Camp Resolution, a community of about 50 people who live in city-issued trailers while trying to find housing, over a dozen camp residents have gone to City Hall with impassioned pleas for the council to direct city staff not to close the camp until they all find housing.
Following the outcry, the city extended that deadline. The Sacramento Homeless Union, which represents the members of the camp, then filed a lawsuit against the city alleging the city was breaking the lease by ordering them to leave before housing everyone.
On Wednesday, Camp Resolution’s attorney shared a letter with The Sacramento Bee that showed communication from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board to the city. The letter stated that residents will be able to stay at the vacant North Sacramento city lot at least until Dec. 1.
The Homeless Union and the residents are applauding the extension.
“We held firm, we organized, we sued and we won. But this fight is not over,” Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, said in a news release Wednesday. “We are making sure the city never again tries to close this camp until it has kept its promise of full housing.”
Mark Merin, head of the organization that leases the lot from the city to run the camp, said he has talked to the city attorney’s office and the city will “respond positively.”
The city is currently reviewing the new water board letter.
“The City has never taken a position that it will object to or oppose an extension of the variance. The City’s concern is that the lessee complies with the terms of the variance and the lease agreement,” City Cttorney Susana Alcala Wood said in a statement. “The litigation filed by the Sacramento Homeless Union should have been directed at (Merin’s organization). Instead, those who purport to be advocates for the homeless delayed actually helping those experiencing homelessness and instead spent their time filing needless litigation in court and preparing press releases.”
The city in 2022 signed a variance with the water board that allowed people to camp in trailers on the site, but prohibited them to camp in tents, due to vapor contamination. The type of contamination that’s present is not harmful to people in vehicles because they’re raised off the ground, the water board said at the time. Some people lived in tents anyway, prompting District Attorney Thien Ho to threaten to sue the city, as he has in the past, which partly factored into the city’s decision to close it.
People are no longer living in tents on the property, said Joyce Williams, one of the camp’s leaders.
As the state variance was close to expiring this spring, the city did not ask for an extension. Instead, the city wrote a letter to Merin that said everyone had to be gone by May 16. Following outcry, the city extended that deadline. The Sacramento Homeless Union, which represents the members of the camp, then filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging the city was breaking the lease by ordering them to leave before housing everyone.
The camp’s residents have held several marches downtown to City Hall this month, holding signs that read “nothing about us without us,” and chanting: “What do we want? Housing! When do we want it? Now!”
Since the city announced the May 16 closure date, over a dozen camp residents have gone to City Hall with impassioned pleas for the council to direct city staff not to close the camp until they all find housing.
Most of Camp Resolution residents are over 45, and all of them have at least one chronic medical illness, Sanchez has said. All but four have a documented disability. Many are women, including Williams and Sharon Jones, a longtime married couple who opened the camp seeking community and greater safety than their camp by the river, where floods, rapes and falling trees are common.
The camp, a Safe Ground, is unique because unlike other shelters, like the one at X Street and Alhambra that costs the city about $3 million a year to operate, the camp costs the city nothing. It is self-governed with its own set of rules and leaders, and relies on donations for water, food and supplies. The residents often hold events such as poetry nights and cookouts, where they build community and invite neighbors.
Dozens of people on the camp’s waitlist are living along the adjacent bike trail. At times they’ve blocked joggers and people using strollers from passing, one woman told the council during Tuesday’s meeting, asking for more enforcement. Some of the people camping on the bike path are engaging in activities that would be against the camp’s rules, leaders have said.
The new water board letter said no more extensions will be granted, but said a different pathway for the camp to stay put was possible. It’s unclear whether Merin or the Homeless Union will try to get approval for the camp to be open past Dec. 1.
