A new tent city populated by about 100 homeless people along a Sacramento street has prompted a charity agency to propose that the city allow it to lease land to establish a legal place for those people and others to stay.
On Tuesday, Sacramento police told people staying in the encampment that they had three days to move to another site.
After the Cal Expo homeless shelter closed for budgetary reasons July 1, more than 200 homeless men, women and children were left without a legal place to reside, said officials with Volunteers of America, the charity that ran the shelter.
About 100 men and women in about 55 tents ended up on city property along the 400 block of Bannon Street near a year-round 62-bed VOA shelter.
Lacking authority to permit the homeless to camp on its property, VOA has asked the city for permission to lease 4 acres of city land behind the VOA's Bannon Street shelter to establish a legal place for homeless adults. The area would be monitored to ensure an alcohol- and drug-free environment.
"That swath of land, those 4 acres, was legal homeless ground in the 1970s and 1980s," said Leo McFarland, Sacramento VOA chapter president.
Over time, because of disrepair and lack of monitoring, the camping spot was closed by the city, he said.
McFarland approached the city with the idea of a legal campground on the site about four months ago, he said. But the city was not ready to declare any spot a year-round campground.
– Bill Lindelof
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.