Sacramento mayor calls for end to homeless sweeps, more arrests for drug dealing, assaults
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg wants police to respond to assaults and drug dealing at homeless camps as a higher priority, and to stop sweeping large vehicle encampments.
He raised his request at a City Council meeting this week, where he suggested police should do more to keep people safe in and around homeless encampments.
“My head has dents in it I’ve been banging it against the wall so hard to say we need more capacity (shelter beds) and we need some breakthroughs,” Steinberg said. “As the progressive mayor of this city, I would stand behind our law enforcement officials who do high-profile arrests of anyone accused of sexually assaulting innocent men or women on the streets of Sacramento. I will stand behind police if they make any high-profile arrests of people selling meth or fentanyl.”
Steinberg, who has prioritized adding shelter spaces for unhoused people since he became mayor in 2016, characterized his proposal as a substitute for large-scale sweeps that displace homeless people regardless of whether they’re accused of committing a serious crime.
The city cleared several large encampments last year, under pressure from the business community and several lawsuits filed by property owners.
A 2019 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision known as Martin vs. Boise decision prohibits the city from citing people for camping on public property, but in the fall, the city began a crackdown on homeless individuals living in vehicles. Steinberg in December asked the council to stop towing homeless vehicles unless there was somewhere to send unhoused people, but the council rejected his proposal 6-3, so the vehicle sweeps continue.
“Can we substitute out this strategy of sweeping everybody in a particular corridor where we are not distinguishing, in my view, those who are engaging in illegal or serious nuisance-related behaviors and those who are merely just trying to survive?” Steinberg asked.
The item was not on the agenda so there was not much council discussion Tuesday. It was not presented in a way that would allow for a council vote.
City Manager Howard Chan responded: “We are going to have a conversation bringing something back to the council for consideration but until such time, our enforcement posture stands,” Chan said.
Sacramento police say they respond to camps
Sacramento Police spokesman Zach Eaton said officers already respond to violent crimes against homeless individuals as a high priority.
“Crimes of violence are the highest priority calls the Sacramento Police Department responds to,” Eaton said in a statement. “Call priority is based on the circumstances of the calls received. A person’s housing status does not affect or lessen our need or willingness to respond. Additionally, we understand that people experiencing homelessness are vulnerable in many ways.”
Steinberg said he knows the police officers are doing their jobs, but serious crimes at camps should be a higher priority.
“It’s not enough of a priority, arresting people who are perpetrating serious crime in these tent encampments,” he said.
Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, said police sometimes do not prioritize response to crimes against unhoused individuals. Two years ago, she met an unhoused woman outside City Hall with bruises on her face and ripped clothes, who said she had been raped. Sanchez called the police.
“We waited for four and a half hours for law enforcement,” Sanchez said. “They completely dismissed me when I originally called because I stated that she was unhoused. She said, ‘they’re not here to help me, this isn’t the first time.’ She decided to leave before they ever showed up.”
Jennie Welles, an unhoused woman, had a similar experience. She called the police because a man had broken into her tent and the tents of other women in North Sacramento near a camp at Railroad Drive, she said.
“They said, ‘we’re on our way, we’re on our way, we’re gonna hang up now,’ but they never showed up,” Welles said.
But in other circumstances, unhoused people have said they received quick responses from Sacramento police. In September, unhoused woman Jakizza Morgan’s boyfriend shot her in the face at a camp in North Sacramento off Norwood Avenue.
“Somebody did call the cops and they came right away,” Morgan said. “I remember a firefighter came and scooped me up.”
‘Vulnerable people’ in homeless camps
Sanchez said she wants police to respond to more violent crimes in the camps, but not if it will mean that while they are in the camps, they cite people for minor infractions, such as tying ropes to trees and having shopping carts.
Steinberg said he is not calling for the police to take action against more unhoused people for those minor offenses, or for drug use/possession or trespassing.
Steinberg said his next steps will be talking to Chan and Police Chief Kathy Lester.
“We have a great new police chief in this city and an opportunity for a fresh look at this problem and the potential of a new approach,” he said
“Being unhoused is not a crime, and the vast majority of people experiencing homelessness are not criminals,” Valenzuela said in a statement. “There are, however, a few individuals that use encampments as a cover to prey on vulnerable people and those living and working nearby. Laws regarding serious crimes need to pertain to everyone equally, and people living in encampments deserve the same amount of protection and expectation of enforcement as the rest of us.”
