Sacramento City Council votes to ban homeless encampments near schools
The Sacramento City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to add schools to its list of critical infrastructure, a move aimed at prohibiting homeless people from camping or using “camp paraphernalia” within 500 feet of schools.
City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby called for the change to the city ordinance at a news conference in McKinley Park in late September after a man who appeared to be homeless allegedly shouted and made obscene gestures at Sutter Middle School students.
At the City Council meeting Tuesday, Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said the man was not camping “anywhere near” the school. “He would not have been affected by a 500-foot buffer,” Valenzuela said.
Although she ultimately voted in favor of the change, Valenzuela questioned its effectiveness, saying, “People in crisis really don’t tend to adhere to invisible boundaries.”
Designating “critical infrastructure” is one way local governments have cleared encampments while staying in compliance with a 2018 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that otherwise restricts officials from citing homeless people for sleeping outdoors. Under the ruling, known as Martin vs. Boise, agencies must offer shelter before moving or citing a homeless person on public property.
Thousands of people in Sacramento County do not have an option to sleep indoors. In 2021, the county had far more homeless people than shelter beds, meaning that on any given night, the city and county would not have had a shelter space to offer to 6,700 unhoused people, according to a recent census.
During the council meeting, Valenzuela asked whether the ordinance could include some kind of exception for successfully managed sites within 500 feet of schools that haven’t caused problems. She mentioned such a camp in her district, at 12th Street and C Street, which has a fence and a bathroom for residents.
The camp, she said, “is not permitted. It is not run by anybody, but it’s also not had any issues,” she said. “So it hasn’t come up on our radar in terms of like, ‘Hey, we need to shut this down,’ because a couple dozen folks have been living there quite successfully now for almost two years.”
Ashby, who is running for a state Senate seat against former Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, objected to changing the motion.
“This is about kids being safe at school,” she said, raising her voice. “So you know, no, Mayor, I am not going to grandfather anything in because the whole point here is to protect kids.”
Local governments around Sacramento have used critical infrastructure designations to ban camping on flood levees, in fire-risk zones and near schools and libraries.
One resident called into the meeting and said the ordinance represented a “false dichotomy” between students and homeless people, as significant numbers of homeless children attend schools in Sacramento.
In the previous four school years, the number of known homeless students in Sacramento Unified School District has fluctuated between 492 and 606. Al Goldberg, communications manager at Sacramento City Unified School District, said as of Oct. 5 of this school year, the district has identified 364 students who are homeless, but that the number is a significant undercount.
“The 2022-23 numbers shouldn’t be interpreted as an improvement of the situation our students are experiencing,” Goldberg explained. “The number reflects both a fluid situation and incomplete snapshot of the data we have received so far. We just can’t compare until we are further in the school year.”
Once the new element of the ordinance is enforced, violators could be fined up to $25,000.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 8:39 PM.
