Sacramento landlord blocking street where many homeless lived. Will city allow it?
A Sacramento commercial landlord has hired a private security company to illegally block a public street — a move he says is helping deter crime by homeless individuals.
Rich Eaton, who owns several properties on Railroad Drive in a Old North Sacramento business park, blocked off the street after one of his buildings was burglarized on April 23, he said. It was the latest in a string of crimes there in recent months by people he believes are homeless, including robberies, drug dealing, illegal dumping, prostitution and arson, he said.
“We’re not anti-homeless,” said Eaton, who sued the city last year demanding the city clear homeless vehicles from the street. “This has very little to do with unhoused people. It has everything to do with the crime and the lack of action.”
The street includes a warehouse the city used as a large homeless shelter until 2019. It has since opened large shelters in other parts of the city, such as in Meadowview and near the W-X freeway. They are typically full.
At least three warehouses used for cannabis cultivation now operate along the street, including two that Eaton owns, according to city records.
Originally, the blockade included four orange plastic traffic barricades, along with a car and driver. Last week, the city issued a citation to Eaton because he was violating a city code that prohibits blockage of public streets without a permit, Kelli Trapani, a city spokeswoman, said in an email.
Eaton removed the orange barricades, although he continues to limit access to the street. It’s unclear if the city will make him remove the car and trailers that still limit access to the road 24/7.
“The city is assessing the current situation on Railroad Drive and will respond in accordance with city laws, rules and regulations,” city spokesman Tim Swanson said in an email Wednesday.
His new approach still uses a car and driver at the start of the dead-end street to operate a kind of security checkpoint in the public roadway. The driver moves the car back and and forth to allow vehicles to pass through that are affiliated with the businesses along the cul-de-sac. Eaton said the car also moves to allow vehicles belonging to homeless residents.
“Anyone can come through,” Eaton said Tuesday.
Sacramento homeless advocate turned away
Eaton said the only people who would not be allowed to drive through are the people who have been committing crimes, such as stealing security cameras and selling drugs. Those people have made a U-turn when they see the car and have not tried to come through, Eaton said.
But at least one homeless advocate was not allowed to drive his vehicle through. Matt Huber on April 26 tried to drive his vehicle down the street to offer food and supplies to the unhoused.
Seeing the blockade, he got out of his vehicle and asked if he could drive through with the supplies. Eaton was parked in a white van, behind the security car, and said he could not drive through, but could walk through, according to a video Huber sent to The Sacramento Bee.
“It’s closed off,” Eaton can be heard saying on the video.
The security guard also blocked unhoused woman Debbie Casillas from bringing medicine to her daughter, who camps near the levee and is a quadriplegic, she said.
“Just because we’re homeless, he thinks we’re all criminals,” Casillas, 58, said of Eaton. “They (the city) better not let him get away with it.”
Eaton said people dropping off medicine for homeless residents have been able to go through.
The barricade is the latest in a string of issues the unhoused people in the area claim they’ve had with Eaton.
Two homeless men filed police reports in December 2020, according to documented obtained by The Sacramento Bee. One alleged Eaton pointed a gun at him and the other alleged Eaton threatened him verbally.
Eaton said he did brandish a firearm, which he has a permit to carry, after the man threw a rock toward his car.
Justin Funkhouser, an employee at a business on the street, said he was pleased with the system in place now
“It’s so much better now,” Funkhouser said before giving a wave to the security car and driving his white vehicle through on Tuesday. “This is working ... we’re just protecting our livelihood.”
Landlord’s lawsuit
Many homeless people live near the street because the city operated a large shelter there in 2018, Eaton said. While 264 people got permanent or temporary housing from the shelter, another nearly 400 went back to living on the streets. Some of them stayed outside the former shelter fence, in RVs and tents, after the shelter closed in 2019.
“The city abandoned the unhoused,” Eaton said.
Eaton’s lawsuit demanded the city relocate the homeless, tow the abandoned vehicles and clean up debris. He has not been satisfied with the city’s response.
City attorneys in court documents wrote that Sacramento is working to “mitigate the harm caused by homelessness” while “also balancing the social utility of allowing the homeless to retain dignity in the face of increased public hostility.”
Eaton said he plans to leave the security car and trailers in place until someone from the city calls him to discuss the homeless situation. He also wants the city to enforce the signs on the street that prohibit overnight parking. He criticized the city for not opening more shelters, including the roughly 105 tiny homes and trailers that have been sitting in city storage for over a year.
“I understand plight of unhoused, but what is being done?” Eaton said. “I’ll go buy 500 Tuff Sheds (tiny homes). Let’s do it. Let’s get it done.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2022 at 10:16 AM.
