Judge orders Sacramento police to stop clearing homeless camps during COVID-19 pandemic
Sacramento police violated a county health order when they cleared homeless people from public property last month without giving them a place to go, Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. The judge will issue a court order requiring the city to comply in the future.
A coalition of homeless activists filed the lawsuit in May alleging the city and county were clearing homeless camps in violation of a county public health order and also federal guidelines.
In March, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines that said police should not clear homeless encampments because it broke connections with service providers and could cause the coronavirus to spread around the community. On May 22, the county health department updated its public health order to give the same directive.
In late May, despite the county health order, police told about 150 people they had to leave a camp on Roseville Road, the lawsuit alleged. In a later filing, the activists submitted testimonials from two homeless people who said Sacramento police ordered them to leave Roseville Road on June 26 without offering them shelter.
In response, the city said in a court filing that one of the people were actually staying under a bridge over Arcade Creek on Regional Transit District property, which is unstable and a fire hazard. The judge said that explanation did not prove the city did not clear homeless from Roseville Road.
“Although the evidence submitted by the Petitioners is not overwhelming, the court finds it does establish the city had cleared at least two people from public property on or near Roseville Road in violation of the (county health order),” Judge Laurie M. Earl wrote in the order.
The activists also asked the judge to prohibit police from clearing homeless from City Hall each morning. A city ordinance allows people to sleep on the ground outside City Hall at night, but not during the day during business hours. The judge ruled that police are allowed to continue to clear homeless from City Hall each morning.
The judge is also allowing the city to continue clearing camps along the riverfront levees and other “critical infrastructure,” in line with an ordinance it passed earlier this year.
“We are pleased the court affirmed the City’s ability to protect critical infrastructure — including City Hall — and balance its operational needs with the needs of people experiencing homelessness,” City attorney Susana Alcala Wood said in a statement. “The court also ruled that the City, in two instances, cleared encampments on public property without providing two individuals real-time access to housing and transportation. While the City disagrees with that determination, it will abide by the court’s directive and continue to follow the County’s public-health order, which is consistent with current City policy. Helping people experiencing homelessness remains a top priority for the City, and we appreciate the court’s acknowledgment of all the actions the City has taken thus far to assist our unsheltered residents.”
The activists also wanted the court to order the city and county to place more people in motel rooms and put out more portable toilets and handwashing stations to protect them from the coronavirus. The judge denied those requests.
“In a perfect world, pandemic or no pandemic, all people would have access to a basic level of clean and safe housing,” Earl wrote. “Petitioners fair to convince, however, that the law imposes a mandatory on the city and county to create such a perfect world.”
The judge also did not find evidence that the Sheriff’s Office had violated the county health order, as the lawsuit had alleged.
Anthony Prince, attorney for the Sacramento Homeless Union, who filed the lawsuit, said if the union gets evidence the sheriff’s deputies violate the order, the activists will seek another court order.
While the judge did not grant everything the activists were asking for, the activists considered it a victory.
“Today is an amazing day where justice prevailed for our unhoused community,” Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Today the abuses of sweeps by our municipalities have been deemed by a court of law to be unlawful. COVID-19 has taught us all a lesson that each and every one of us could be facing what our unhoused face daily.”
So far, about 993 homeless people in Sacramento County have spent time in motel rooms or trailers to be protected from the coronavirus under the state’s Project Roomkey program. As of Sunday night, 663 people were staying in the motels and trailers, a county spokeswoman said.
The county in early April announced it would open 850 motel beds to protect the homeless from the virus. Earlier this week, the County Board of Supervisors voted to reduce the number to about 600 beds, but to keep them open longer, through September instead of July. That plan still needs City Council approval.
The homeless activists oppose the reduction in motel beds. Sanchez said she frequently meets homeless seniors who have been unable to get a motel room.
“There is no shelter,” she said. “There is no place for these people go to.”
After September, there will be a need to find housing for the people currently staying in the units so they won’t have to go back on the streets. Mayor Darrell Steinberg has proposed the city buy up to 500 tiny homes to place in Safe Ground-type camps — an idea that homeless activists strongly support.
A January 2019 count found there are an estimated 5,570 homeless people in Sacramento County, the majority of whom are sleeping outdoors and in the city. About 30 percent of those sleeping outdoors were over age 50, making them more vulnerable to the coronavirus.
