Sacramento City Council support for city manager grows. Homeless activists want him fired
Three Sacramento City Council members have now expressed public support for City Manager Howard Chan following calls from homeless activists that he be fired after he decided to keep a downtown emergency homeless shelter closed during last week’s violent storm.
Firing Chan would require a 6-3 City Council vote.
The Sacramento Bee reported on Sunday that Chan declined to open a warming center for the homeless at the Tsakopoulos Library last Tuesday, despite inquiries from some City Council members and Mayor Darrell Steinberg. Homeless camps were badly damaged and some people were injured during vicious winds that hit Sacramento. Four homeless people died during last week’s storms, although it is unclear whether the weather contributed to their deaths.
Council members Jay Schenirer and Sean Loloee do not want to fire Chan, they each told The Bee. Neither does Councilwoman Angelique Ashby, she wrote in an email to the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. That group called Monday for the City Council to fire Chan.
“I have not lost my confidence in Howard Chan’s resolve to help our city,” Ashby wrote in the email. “I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life last week and more determined than ever to help advance policies and partnerships that bring our region meaningful progress.”
Chan told The Bee it was his call not to open an emergency warming center for the homeless as the worst storm in years battered the capital city. The night before the storm, as temperatures dipped into the 20s, city officials opened a warming center at the Tsakopoulos Library.
Steinberg had asked if the warming center could open Tuesday, Chan said. In addition, at least three other council members — Katie Valenzuela, Mai Vang and Eric Guerra — had asked Chan if it could open. Ashby also asked Chan if a center anywhere in the city could open quickly, she said. Chan told them all no, citing county guidelines and public health orders, they each told The Bee.
The county did not stop the city from opening the warming center, a county spokeswoman said.
The warming center has room for about 60 people. The day after the worst of the storm hit, the city opened the warming center and a parking lot for homeless to safely sleep in their cars. Still, thousands of people are sleeping outdoors in the rain.
“If I had perfect vision, that way, 20/20 and knew that there was not going to be any (COVID-19) outbreaks, and that I was not going to put anybody in harm’s way, our guests or employees, the answer is, of course, I would have activated (the center),” Chan said in an interview. “But at the time, you have to work with the best information that you have.”
Chan called the death of a woman during the storm “tragic.”
Recall paperwork filed against mayor
The Sacramento Homeless Union — a large group of volunteers who dispatch across the city’s homeless encampments to shelter and clothe the homeless on a daily basis — formally called for Steinberg’s resignation over the weekend. The group is giving the mayor until 3 p.m. Wednesday to resign. If he does not, they are threatening to launch a recall campaign.
The group’s attorney, Anthony Prince, filed paperwork with city officials on Monday to launch the process.
“It is undisputed that Mr. Steinberg was forewarned of the approach of the storms which led either directly or indirectly to a number of fatalities, injuries and the complete destruction of tents and other property belonging to unhoused persons and vital to their ability to survive both the winter weather and the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Homeless Union’s attorney Anthony Prince wrote in an letter to City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood Monday.
Steinberg said in a written statement: “I’ve done more than any public official in Sacramento history to address the issue of people experiencing homelessness, but obviously we must do much more. I will continue my fight to get people indoors through whatever means necessary.”
The Sacramento Homeless Union has an active lawsuit against the city alleging it is clearing homeless encampments in violation of a county coronavirus public health order and federal guidelines. In July, a judge issued a ruling that the city did indeed illegally clear homeless people from public property without giving them a place to go. Steinberg is a defendant on the active lawsuit.
Last year, at least 138 men, women and children died outdoors in Sacramento, not counting those who made it to the hospital first.
The City Council is meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The meeting will be livestreamed here.
