‘Frustration’ with homelessness led to Sacramento ballot measure. Will it make a difference?
Sacramento residents very likely approved a homeless ballot measure last week in the hopes it would force the city to open new shelters and clear more camps. But now it faces a series of hurdles before it can deliver results.
As originally proposed by a group of Sacramento business leaders, the measure would have compelled the city to open thousands of shelter beds, likely costing tens of millions of dollars.
But the business group gave up control of ballot language when it allowed the City Council to place the measure on the ballot instead of completing their signature-gathering campaign.
The council in April and August votes added so-called “off ramps” to keep the measure from bankrupting the city.
One is a stipulation that says the measure will not take effect unless the city and Sacramento County sign a binding agreement outlining each agency’s responsibilities for homelessness. The other ties the opening of new shelter beds to city finances.
Joshua Wood, co-founder and CEO of the Sacramento Region Business Association, criticized city and county officials for not signing an agreement by the election, as they originally planned.
“We know the agreement is close, we know the draft is groundbreaking, and we know our leaders are leading, but let’s be real — it should already be done. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs to be effective. We cannot let the perfect get in the way of the good. it’s time to put this thing to bed,” said Wood, adding that the proponents are not yet declaring victory.
Sacramento political consultant Andrew Acosta said many voters understood that the measure might not make a meaningful difference but voted for it out of mounting frustration with their elected officials on the city’s most pressing crisis. As of the most recent results, the measure is on track to pass with 54.8% of the vote.
“It is clear that this issue of homelessness has caused frustration,” Acosta said Wednesday. “If voters saw and read about Measure O and said, ‘finally something is happening,’ then a strong majority would be supportive. This appears to be the case.”
That was the case for Jessica Harmon, who showed up to the Clunie Center in East Sacramento Tuesday to cast her vote in favor of the measure.
“I mean, I live here in East Sacramento, and it’s just everywhere you go, whether it’s in East Sacramento or you’re in Sacramento proper. It’s out of control, and we need some funding to help do something about it,” said Harmon, 47, of homeless encampments. “Hopefully the money that is supposed to be allocated for that will go toward that, because everything I hear is, ‘we just don’t have the funds for that,’ or ‘funds weren’t allocated for that.’”
Sacramento agencies on homelessness
The city of Sacramento has opened about 1,100 shelter beds and spaces — up from about 100 when Steinberg took office in 2017 — while the county has opened about 1,200. Still, there are roughly 7,000 homeless people in Sacramento County without a shelter bed on any given night.
Both agencies were counting on getting more money from the state for homelessness, which Gov. Gavin Newsom recently put on pause, to keep their shelters open.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he will meet with Newsom this month to try to unlock that money, and also to revive his statewide “right to housing” proposal. Steinberg introduced the concept in 2019. It would require governments to get homeless people indoors and allow people to sue if they don’t.
Steinberg said last week he expects the city and count to sign an agreement on homelessness “in the very near future.”
“I’m pretty ambivalent about the result,” Steinberg said of the measure during a press conference Wednesday. “In the end, for me, the measure itself was much less significant and much less important than the opportunity it creates to bind the city and county together and provide the direction, the approach and the services that are needed.”
Amanda Blackwood, CEO of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, who has been included in the talks, said she thinks the agreement will come this month. Three new City Council members will be sworn in in December.
“I am wildly optimistic that the parties are nearing agreement within the next few weeks and encourage the community to demand that their elected leadership advance meaningful action on this crisis,” Blackwood said.
Steinberg wants the agreement to not only memorialize the services the county already funds, but also to add more beds and services, he has said. For instance, he wants the county to commit to adding a significant number of mental health clinicians to go out to the encampments to prescribe medications.
“The agreement must include a real ongoing intensive effort to get clinically trained people out into these tent encampments to diagnose those with underlying mental health conditions on the streets ... then automatically enroll them in whatever it takes to get off the streets,” Steinberg said Wednesday.
Mike Mugnaini, who cast a vote against the measure Tuesday at the Clunie Center in East Sacramento, agreed with the focus on mental health.
“What they’re trying to do is just a Band-Aid,” Mugnaini said. “I think they need to put money into mental health issues, taking care of them as far as mental health goes, and I don’t think that’s being done.”
Coming down to money
If the county and city sign the agreement, the next step will be the budget.
A main talking point of proponents is that the measure would force the city to open new shelter beds. But the measure does not require the city to open new shelter beds unless the city projects a budget surplus.
City staff have previously projected the city will not have a surplus for the next five years, but will instead have a deficit. The city typically releases budget projections in March or April.
If the city and county sign the agreement, the measure will go into effect 30 days after the county certifies the election results. That means that the measure will go into effect in early January at the latest. The section of the measure that allows citizens to file a new legal actions to complain about camps will go into effect later, in summer.
While the language on new shelter beds is tied to a surplus, the enforcement provisions are not.
The measure language allows the city to clear camps on public land of four or more unrelated people, even without offering a shelter bed.
But the city may not start doing so.
Steinberg said he believes cities can’t remove homeless people from public property without offering shelter beds, which is the common interpretation a 2018 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on homeless sweeps.
“(If the measure is enacted), you can manage encampments to make sure they’re clean, but you can’t move people unless (you offer them shelter), correct?” Steinberg asked City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood during an April council meeting.
“Correct,” she replied.
Homeless activists are likely to cite the 9th Circuit decision on homeless camps known as Martin vs. Boise if they file another lawsuit to block the measure, as they did previously. A Sacramento Superior Court judge in August allowed the measure to appear on the ballot, but left it open for a challenge after the election.
This story was originally published November 14, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
