North Sacramento business owner sues city over homeless vehicles on this street
A North Sacramento auto business is suing the city over the homeless vehicles that line the street and that are parked at a city-owned lot planned for a long-awaited safe parking zone.
Texas-based Caliber Bodyworks LLC — the owner of Caliber Collision on Lexington Street near Dixieanne Avenue in Old North Sacramento — filed the lawsuit in federal court Wednesday. It claims violation of due process for state-created danger, violation of equal protection, uncompensated taking, and private and public nuisance.
The lawsuit alleges a homeless person broke into the business and stole equipment, and that multiple homeless people have threatened customers.
“The area surrounding Caliber is blighted — plain and simple,” the lawsuit read. “The streets have become lined and obstructed with damaged and disassembled RVs, cars, and trucks, and some of these have even caught on fire. Homeless people have overtaken city-owned properties adjacent to Caliber, which have become an encampment and center for nuisance activity and drug sales and open drug use. Homeless people dump raw sewage, human waste, and chemicals, clogging gutters close to Caliber.”
The business is adjacent to a site where Sacramento city officials are planning to open a safe parking lot for homeless people living in vehicles to safely park, with bathrooms, showers, running water, security and rehousing services. Some unhoused residents have started living on the lot ahead of its opening.
The city declined to comment on the lawsuit because it has not yet been served, said city spokesman Tim Swanson.
Similar lawsuits sparked city action
The lawsuit, the latest in a string of similar suits filed by businesses and homeowners, could cause the city to force the vehicles to move. After a business in September filed a lawsuit on Railroad Drive in North Sacramento — the site of a former city homeless shelter — the city issued notices to 14 vehicles, Swanson said at the time. Those vehicles were in violation of the city’s vehicle code, which prohibits vehicles from parking in the same place for more than 72 hours.
The city last month faced criticism, including from Mayor Darrell Steinberg, when it issued notices to about 160 homeless vehicles and towed 18 in a North Sacramento industrial park. Attorney Mark Merin sent a letter to the city last month threatening to sue for that action.
City Councilman Sean Loloee said he does not want the city to tow the vehicles on Lexington Street.
“I’m not going to support a tow because we’re so close on creating this safe parking,” said Loloee, who represents the area. “Last year, we didn’t do a good job at protecting the vulnerable people (on Commerce Circle).”
The city originally planned to place 50 tiny homes at the site at Lexington and Dixieanne, according to a siting plan the City Council approved in August. But the tiny homes are taking too long, so the plan is now to place a safe parking lot there, Loloee said. He hopes it can open later this month or in February, he said.
In addition, the city plans to open safe parking lots at Colfax Street and Arden Way, and at the Roseville Road Regional Transit light rail station, where some of the people living on Lexington Street could potentially go, Loloee said.
But the Roseville Road site might not open for a few months, due to an environmental requirement from Caltrans, said Jessica Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Sacramento Regional Transit.
‘I would have nowhere to go’
Other homeless lawsuits filed in recent months have caused the city to take action.
After a property owner filed a lawsuit about homeless vehicles and tents near Johnston Park in North Sacramento in November, the city issued notices and towed vehicles, said Nikia Isles, a pregnant woman who used to live in an RV parked on the street there. Isles’ brother helped move her inoperable RV right before the city was about to tow it, she said.
“It was stressful,” Isles said, in tears as she recalled the experience. “I had pains in my stomach. I felt like everything was going to get taken away from me, the little bit of stuff I do have. Stress isn’t good for a pregnant woman.”
Isles has since moved her RV to another North Sacramento street where she again received a tow notice, she said.
“If my RV got towed, I would have to buy a tent,” Isles said. “I would have nowhere to go.”
After a business owner on X Street filed a lawsuit about tent encampments nearby, the city dropped plans to open tiny homes for the homeless under the W-X freeway. About 105 tiny homes and RVs intended for the homeless have been sitting unused in city storage for months.
Sacramento County’s coronavirus public health order prohibited the clearing of homeless camps and vehicles — a strategy aimed at trying to prevent the virus’ spread — but that order expired in June, well ahead of the latest surge in cases due to omicron.
Given the rise in COVID-19 this year, the city should not move the people living on Lexington Street, said Sacramento Homeless Union President Crystal Sanchez.
“The city absolutely should not move them unless they are moving them into a motel room,” Sanchez said. “Moving people around will put the entire community at greater risk as multiple encampments are also testing positive. This isn’t us against the businesses. This is about the fact that we need to protect our entire community.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
