American River advocates demand removal of homeless camps in appeal to Sacramento leaders
The American River Parkway Foundation in a new appeal to local government leaders is demanding Sacramento officials clear more than 750 unhoused people from the lower Parkway this year.
It’s also asking the county to turn over control of a section of the parkway to the foundation, alleging the county has failed to protect a treasured urban park.
“The Parkway is in crisis,” the foundation wrote in a letter to County Executive Ann Edwards and City Manager Howard Chan Tuesday. “The environmental and public safety impacts of the growing number of incidents of illegal camping threaten the Parkway’s beauty and sustainability and are a hazard to communities, schools and businesses that border the Parkway. This includes growing fire danger, diminished water quality and hazardous materials resulting from intravenous drug use.”
The foundation is asking officials to produce a detailed plan by March to address how they’re going to move people. The foundation also wants agencies to report back to the community every three months.
As many as 2,000 people could be camping along the American River, parkway rangers estimate. Many people do not want to camp along the parkway — which is especially dangerous for women — but they go there as a last resort. Many of them have been there for years with their dogs, and have formed tight relationships with their neighbors for safety.
Local agencies have limited options in relocating people from encampments. A 2018 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals known as Martin v. Boise prohibits officials from citing unhoused people for camping on public property, unless a shelter bed is available. All city and county shelter beds tend to be full on any given night.
Many unhoused people camp along the lower American River Parkway because police have swept them from other locations, said Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union.
“If the thousands of people come off the river they’re going to be in people’s neighborhoods,” Sanchez said. “Or farther into the woods. Being pushed into the woods would not allow for emergency vehicles to reach people. A lot of the homicides of unhoused individuals appear to happen in secluded places.”
As part of the campaign, the foundation released a 13-minute video, including local TV footage of fires, and an interview with Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Capt. Keith Wade. Each year, an average of 100 fires are started along the parkway, mostly near homeless encampments.
“Any open flame out here, especially in an afternoon when humidity is low and you have a little bit of a wind, recipe for disaster,” Wade said in the video. “Tragedy can happen fast.”
Sanchez said people make fires for survival.
“The only way to survive when you are homeless is to make a small fire,” Sanchez said. “It provides warmth, a way to cook your food and to heat up your water to wash yourself off.”
Praise for river foundation’s ‘aggressive stance’
City officials are discussing the letter with county officials, but most of the parkway is in under county jurisdiction, said Tim Swanson, a city spokesman.
The county welcomes discussions about the “complex stressors” affecting the parkway with all partners, including the foundation, said Kim Nava, a county spokeswoman.
“The county remains committed to the American River Parkway, and Regional Parks has been a priority area for the board, as has been demonstrated by the county’s consistently increased funding over the past several years, which has allowed for additional rangers for increased public safety, fire fuel reduction, outreach for connections to social services, creation of an environmental impact team, increased trash and debris removal, and on-going work with the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Sacramento Storm Water Quality Partnership, and Regional Sanitation to address water quality studies on the Lower American River,” Nava said in a statement.
County Supervisor Phil Serna praised the foundation for “taking an aggressive stance.”
“It helps me continue to advocate forcefully for the parkway, as I have for the past decade, especially given the unique challenges attributable to the pandemic,” Serna said.
What happened to Cal Expo shelter?
Last year, a group of local and state leaders proposed a bold idea to move many people off the parkway by giving them a new place to go.
Serna, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, Mayor Darrell Steinberg, City Councilman Jeff Harris, and County Supervisor Rich Desmond proposed using an overflow parking lot at Cal Expo called Lot Z for a large homeless shelter.
The idea would get “at least several hundred” people off the parkway, Steinberg at the time. Gov. Gavin Newsom in September even signed a bill that would pave the way for the project.
But five months later, neither the city nor the county have submitted a proposal for the Cal Expo board to consider, said Josie Lee, a Cal Expo spokeswoman.
The city conducted initial site visits, and determined that other sites could be opened more quickly, but Cal Expo remains a potential site, said Gregg Fishman, a city spokesman.
The city is shifting its focus to the 100-acre site it just bought in Meadowview for homeless safe parking, affordable housing and community amenities, Harris said. But that site is intended for unhoused people living in South Sacramento, not the parkway.
If Cal Expo is no longer feasible, there do not appear to be any other significant alternatives opening in the coming weeks for the people living on the parkway. The council in August approved a $100 million siting plan with 20 new sites for shelters, tiny homes and Safe Ground sanctioned tent encampments. None of the new sites has yet opened, although the North Fifth Shelter in the River District, near the parkway, recently added 40 new beds to bring the total there to 162, Fishman said.
“I am overall disappointed by lack of action on all of these sites,” said McCarty, who lives in Elmhurst. “I think the people of Sacramento would like to see some action.”
City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who recently started representing much of the parkway due to redistricting, said she has reached out to the foundation to explore some new sites for Safe Grounds and safe parking lots where the people camping on the parkway could go.
“The notion was we wanted to get acting on this,” McCarty said, regarding the Cal Expo shelter. “I think the letter serves as a good reminder.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2022 at 5:25 AM.
