Sacramento will continue towing vehicles used by homeless, rejecting mayor’s proposal
Under intense pressure from the business community, the Sacramento City Council on Tuesday rejected Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s proposal to stop towing vehicles used as shelter by the homeless unless the city can offer those individuals somewhere else to go.
Steinberg — who proposed the resolution after a controversial sweep last week in a North Sacramento commercial area — was joined by Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela and Councilwoman Mai Vang in supporting the change. The other six council members instead adopted Councilwoman Angelique Ashby’s version, which requires weekly public updates on enforcement actions taken and homeless housing planned, but does not change how the city handles homeless vehicle towing.
The move gives the city staff the go ahead to continue towing vehicles used by homeless, with nighttime temperatures dipping into the 30s and all shelters full on any given night. There are about 3,000 vehicles in the city that violate the city vehicle parking code, and city staff have made a list of priorities for enforcement, Councilman Jeff Harris has said.
Paul Murillo said his van was towed Monday from a North Sacramento street during a severe rain storm. He slept under a bridge with no tent. He was not offered a shelter bed, told how to get his van back or how much it would cost, he said.
“I lost my laptop and all my clothes,” Murillo, 60, said. “They told me I had been parked there too long.”
Homeless activists say there are thousands in Murillo’s position, including families with children, who will be sleeping outdoors if they lose the vehicles they use as emergency shelter amid potentially deadly conditions. Last winter, four homeless men died of hypothermia in Sacramento County.
During a press conference Tuesday, business leaders strongly opposed the resolution, arguing it would remove a critical enforcement tool from police in dealing with the homeless population.
“A knee jerk ordinance that chips away at public trust is not a way to run the city,” said Amanda Blackwood, president and CEO of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. “I am Sacramento proud but I am not proud of this.”
After Steinberg added the item to the agenda Friday afternoon, many business owners flooded council inboxes and voicemails with stories of homeless individuals stealing from them, assaulting employees, defecating outside their doors, starting fires and vandalizing their property.
But the ordinance would have still allowed the city to enforce laws to address criminal activity, Steinberg pointed out.
“Those dealing drugs, those committing crimes, arrest them, remove them,” Steinberg said. “Do we not have enough depth as leaders, as human beings to distinguish between those people and the people who are actually impoverished and need a place to go and to live?”
Crackdown on homeless vehicles
From Dec. 7 through Monday, the city’s Codes Compliance Division placed notices on 235 vehicles citywide that had been parked in the same spot more than 72 hours, ordering them to move by a certain date or be towed, said Kelli Trapani, a city spokeswoman. From Thursday through Monday, the division towed 55 vehicles citywide, including 14 on Monday during a rain storm. That does not count notices issued by the police department.
Earlier this month, city crews issued notices to about 160 homeless vehicles ordering them to move or be towed in the area of Commerce Circle in North Sacramento. Last week, the city towed 18 vehicles, prompting concerns from Steinberg and Valenzuela. The day after they criticized the action, crews returned to the same street to issue more notices.
The city had received 307 calls to the city’s 311 line and 325 fire calls related to the Commerce Circle vehicles, which had been there almost two years, Assistant City Manager Chris Conlin told the council Tuesday.
“This location became a criminal haven of sorts,” Conlin said.
In July, Michael Dorr, who was homeless, was the victim of a homicide at the corner of Commerce Circle and Lathrop Way.
Mark Friedman, a developer whose family owns Arden Fair Mall, mentioned that homicide in his comment to the council urging them to vote against the proposed ordinance.
“You’re not getting results ... take a step back and let the staff do their jobs,” Friedman told Steinberg.
Sites in shelter plan still unopened
In addition to protecting impoverished people from the elements, Steinberg said he hoped the resolution would “prod” the city to move with greater urgency to implement the City Council’s $100 million Comprehensive Siting Plan to Address Homelessness. The council adopted the plan in August, but none of the 20 new sites have opened, and 105 trailers and tiny homes intended for the homeless have been sitting in city storage for months.
Many of those 20 sites are “heavily constrained,” but the city has identified several new sites it plans to announce soon, City Manager Howard Chan said.
“I don’t want people to walk away tonight thinking we’ve been sitting on our hands for the last four months,” Chan said. “We’ve been doing the opposite.”
In a heated exchange, Steinberg implied that Councilman Sean Loloee is blocking the sites in the siting plan that are in his North Sacramento district.
“Do we want to really tell the public the story about why we have not created safe parking on Colfax (Street)?” Steinberg told Loloee. “Or why we have not gotten started on Eleanor (Avenue)? Or why we have not gotten started on Lexington (Street)?”
Loloee responded in a text to The Bee: “FYI I never took a single step or advised any of city staff to stop or slow down.”
Chan said the city will likely announce three of the five new homeless sites within the next 30 days. The adopted resolution also requires the city to publish monthly public updates with updates on siting plan implementation.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 9:13 AM.
