Homeless

A jury began deliberations on Wednesday in the murder trial of an accused homeless hit man named Teng Thao.

Sacramento Steps Forward – the public-private nonprofit that manages the funding of Sacramento's homeless programs – has received more than $700,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for local housing programs for the homeless.

On the sidewalk in front of the lot at 12th and C streets where the Safe Ground Stake Down homeless fair is taking place, program participants from WIND Youth Services for formerly homeless teens had chalked a series of inspirational messages: "Hugs. Strength. Unity. Fight for the People."

The Safe Ground Stake Down homeless fair is the latest development in the four-year evolution of Sacramento's Safe Ground movement, whose goal is to provide safe temporary shelter for Sacramento's estimated 1,000 homeless people.

A judge on Tuesday denied a request to allow people to camp overnight for the weeklong duration of a homeless fair that begins today at 12th and C streets in Sacramento.

With the population growing older, mental health experts warned Monday of a coming tsunami of behavioral health care needs among elderly homeless people.

A weeklong event billed as both cultural and consciousness-raising will get under way Wednesday in an effort to spotlight issues of homelessness in Sacramento.

Citing the need to ensure equal treatment for indigent Californians, lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a homeless rights bill that they said has been narrowed to assuage the concerns of businesses and city governments.

Over the past five years, Nevada's primary state psychiatric hospital has put hundreds of mentally ill patients on Greyhound buses and sent them to cities and towns across America.

Shotzy Faith Harrison cradled her father's face for the first time in years Thursday afternoon, staring into eyes that were large and hazel and misty, very much like her own.

Meet James Flavy Coy Brown. Mentally ill for much of his life, he was discharged from a Las Vegas psychiatric hospital and put on a bus to Sacramento. He disappeared into the cold streets in February but has resurfaced to tell his story.

The city of Sacramento is on the hook for nearly $800,000 in fees for attorneys who represented homeless people in a lawsuit charging police with violating their constitutional rights by failing to protect their belongings.

The new location of the Women's Empowerment homeless program is three times larger, and the featured attraction is the enclosed yard that gives homeless kids a chance to play on the lawn.

A private-public partnership that helps homeless people announced the renewal of $14 million in federal money for homeless programs in the Sacramento area.

A state psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas "blew it" by discharging a mentally ill patient to a Greyhound bus bound for Sacramento last month without ensuring he had care and housing in California, Nevada health officials admitted Thursday.

James Flavy Coy Brown arrived at Loaves & Fishes carrying his walking papers from a Nevada state mental hospital and a schedule detailing his 15-hour bus ride from Las Vegas to Sacramento.

A program that provides weekly hot meals for needy individuals and families marked its 30th anniversary Tuesday night by dishing up its millionth plateful.

Thanks to a $1 million state grant and hefty private donations, including a $400,000 check from Wells Fargo bank, St. John's Shelter for Women and Children has purchased and is renovating a building that will offer more space and expanded programs.

A proposal that events involving 50 or more people in the American River Parkway be required to have county permits has homeless advocates – including church groups – up in arms.

Armed with clipboards, volunteers in orange vests – their shoes squishing through muddy trails near the American River Parkway – approached a group of makeshift tents beneath Highway 160.

The city of Placerville, which authorized an official homeless encampment called Hangtown Haven, Wednesday closed down an illegal settlement a mile away.

Advocates are seeking volunteers to participate in an annual census of Sacramento County's homeless population.

California law protects its residents from discrimination based on sex, race, religion and sexual orientation. Now a state lawmaker is pushing to add another category to the list: homelessness.

Four homeless shelters in the Sacramento area will be able to expand their winter programs this year thanks to a campaign that has raised $100,000, county Supervisor Phil Serna announced Monday.

While Northern California braces for torrential rains and winds, homeless people are taking refuge in malls and libraries, under parked vehicles, freeway overpasses and roof overhangs, and in light-rail cars.

Mayor Kevin Johnson announced Tuesday that faith, business and elected leaders had raised enough money to fund the Winter Sanctuary program that houses 100 homeless men and women every night in houses of worship.

Sacramento's homeless issue is back in the spotlight after volunteers on Saturday struggled to clean up the American River Parkway.

Gene Lambert, a Navy veteran and former roofer who was disabled in a fall that crushed his skull and fractured his hip, is known among the homeless population in this old Gold Rush town as "the undertaker."

Officials are trying to cobble together a winter-shelter program to accommodate as many as 250 people this year, using funding from the city and county of Sacramento, businesses and foundations, and individual donors.

The city of Elk Grove is looking for community volunteers to help refurbish the city's first transitional house for homeless people.

Crews of homeless people who have been blamed for trashing neighborhoods, businesses and parkway property around the Loaves & Fishes charity in downtown Sacramento will be put to work beginning next week tidying up areas where they congregate.

I hear the same remark all over Sacramento whenever the issue of homelessness comes up.

Homeless men and women had lots of ideas Tuesday for how they might spend the windfalls they are receiving this week for property that Sacramento police officers have seized and destroyed during raids on illegal campsites since 2005.

Sacramento County park rangers launched night patrols in the American River Parkway in an intensified effort Wednesday to root out and evict scores of homeless people camping illegally.

If you dare take issue with homeless advocates in Sacramento, the first rock hurled in your direction is a question meant as an accusation: "What's your solution to the homeless problem?"

Homeless advocates have been trying for years to persuade City Hall to allow a sanctioned "safe ground" camp. Now, city officials are about to get a close look at what that camp might look like.

Business owners and residents complain that dozens of good Samaritans, often informal religious-based groups, are turning sidewalks, empty lots and street corners in the River District and the nearby American River Parkway into group feeding zones.

Only a few years ago, Jon Shepherd never imagined he'd be sitting at Loaves & Fishes on Labor Day, thankful to have a meal.

The Gathering Inn, which for nearly eight years has provided shelter and other services for homeless people in Placer County, has fallen victim to the same economic conditions that have affected its clients.

At first glance, you might think that the graduates gathered in the side room of Plates Cafe are nothing more than your typical high schoolers, desperately trying to pin on their caps and checking to see whether their family members have arrived yet.

Built as a middle-class boomtown, Elk Grove has seen poverty and homelessness grow since the recession turned it into one of the region's foreclosure hot spots.

Nearly 900 homeless men and women have filed claims for reimbursement for bicycles, tents and other items seized by city police during raids of illegal campsites in recent years.