Sacramento backs off planned homeless sweep after appeals at City Council meeting
City of Sacramento officials have decided not to clear a tight-knit North Sacramento homeless encampment — for now.
The decision came on the eve of a planned sweep for the camp, called Camp Resolution, where about 40 people live in tents and RVs on vacant property that was recently eyed for an official homeless parking lot at the corner of Colfax Street and Arden Way.
More than 60 people, including several camp residents, spoke during a council meeting Tuesday, imploring the council to call off the scheduled sweep.
“All these guys they have worked so hard to be a community and they deserve this camp,” Sharon Jones, one of the camp’s leaders, told the council through tears.
The council then unanimously passed a motion by Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela to essentially cancel the sweep.
But the item was not on the agenda, so it was not technically a direction City Manager Howard Chan was required to follow.
After several more hours of public comments, Councilman Sean Loloee, whose district includes the camp, spoke to Chan and then announced the sweep was “delayed for a short period of time.”
Whether to clear the camp will depend partly on the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, which has identified toxic chemicals in soil at the site, Loloee said.
Last year, city officials submitted a plan to designate the site as a safe parking lot where homeless individuals could stay and receive government services. The water board in January granted a variance for the proposal, a step intended to move the plan forward.
After spending $617,000 to pave and fence the site, the city abandoned the plan in April, finding it would not help enough people to justify the cost.
Last month people moved onto the site in tents on the pavement and RVs on the dirt. Water board officials say the agency has not approved the site for camping on dirt.
“The most concerning contaminants remaining are benzene, PCE, and TCE, which can ‘volatilize,’ which means that they slowly evaporate from the soil and enter the air,” State Water Resources Control Board spokesman Blair Robertson said in an email Monday. “This creates harmful vapors that can accumulate in enclosed spaces – like tents or structures – that are in direct contact with soil or pavement ... the use of RVs and cars was allowed due to the permitting of air flow and vapor dissipation between the pavement surface and the vehicle.”
The water board did not order the city to clear the camp, however, Robertson said Wednesday.
Homeless feel safe at encampment
Jones from the encampment said she would much rather risk the toxic soil than sexual assault and other dangers she’s previously faced on the American River Parkway.
After years of not being able to find housing, Jones and her wife Joyce Williams moved to the self-governing camp seeking higher ground that does not flood, is fenced, and where it’s easier for volunteers to bring them food, water, and electricity.
“There is nowhere to go. This is a safe place,” Jones, 54, said.
Danyell Mayberry, 41, agreed.
“Beyond those gates, that’s a whole other world, especially if you’re a woman,” said Mayberry, who lives in an RV at the camp with her dog Al Capone. Everyone at the camp looks out for one another like a family, and most have jobs, she added.
The city’s Department of Community Response has visited the camp several times, but so far has not been able to get anyone indoors. The team has placed at least four people in the city’s Miller Park sanctioned camping site, said Gregg Fishman, a city spokesman.
The city and county have opened about 2,300 shelter beds and spaces, but about 10,000 people are homeless in Sacramento County. Most of them do not get a shelter bed.
Stabilize Sacramento camps
Valenzuela advocated for what she called camp stabilization, meaning local governments should make the site safer and healthier as they city remains short of shelter. Nighttime temperatures are expected to dip into the 30s, and frost expected Friday through Sunday.
“It’s really cold outside, it’s gonna be wet soon, with the rain, and we don’t have enough shelter or housing to move everyone indoors,” Valenzuela said.
Last year eight homeless men died of hypothermia. Several camp residents, including Mark Yates, 70, have generators with heaters in their tents to keep warm. He sat in his gray and red tent Tuesday eating a birthday cake the other residents had given him.
“I really don’t want to leave,” said Yates, who recently suffered a stroke and uses a wheelchair. “I feel safe here.”
Sacramento County plans to place a port-a-potty and hand washing station at the camp, said county spokeswoman Janna Haynes. Officials are considering also adding trash pickup services.
The self-governing camp frequently hosts poetry nights and singers. It’s covered in paintings and signs that read things like “Come meet your neighbors.” Several residents in the nearby Old North Sacramento neighborhood have come to visit the camp.
“Camp Resolution has become a part of our community,” Beth O’Neil, who lives in a house nearby, told the council through tears. “We see them as neighbors, the camp is clean ... we have no complaints.”
Some businesses around the site say it’s caused them to lose customers Miguel Hernandez, an employee at Standard Auto Care, adjacent to the site, said there is sometimes loud music at the camp, and it also sometimes smells of urine and feces.
“It’s definitely running us out of business here,” Hernandez said. “It’s pretty slow. A lot of customers show up and they see the ground and they take off instead of stopping by.”
He’s not sure if a sweep would help, however, because then people may be right outside the shop’s doors, a major customer deterrent, instead of in the fenced lot.
“It could either end up that they’re back more around the streets, or somewhere else,” Hernandez said. “Regardless it’s affecting us.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 1:48 PM.
