City of Sacramento tows homeless RVs ahead of storm: ‘They picked the worst day to do this’
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Hours before a major rain and wind storm, the city of Sacramento towed at least five vehicles that were being used by homeless people as emergency shelter.
Aaron Lackett was sleeping in his trailer on the side of Auburn Boulevard Wednesday morning with his dogs Nala and Charlie, at around 8 a.m. when he heard a knock on the door. It was city code enforcement officers telling him he had to move the trailer to another street immediately.
He was not able to move the trailer in the time the city allowed, and officials towed it. Afterward Lackett stood on the side of the road with his friend Joe Hill, whose trailer the city had also towed. Rain came down, soaking their clothing and blankets, with much more on the way.
“We don’t know where to go,” said Hill. “I guess we’re gonna find tarps and tents. I heard there’s three more days of rain.”
Sacramento has been towing vehicles used by homeless people for over a year, often in response to complaints from residents or business owners. The City Council in December 2021 considered a policy to stop towing homeless vehicles, but the vote failed 6-3. More than 200 people from 43 Sacramento congregations sent a letter to the council in July asking them to stop the practice. The council has not reconsidered its vote.
Nonetheless, the enforcement before a severe storm surprised the people who lost their vehicles.
“They picked the worst day to do this,” Hill said said.
Code enforcement officers did not offer either Hill or Lackett a space in a shelter or motel.
“They just run us around back and forth,” said Lackett, who’s had vehicles towed previously. “It makes it hard to get on our feet.”
The city towed vehicles after receiving multiple complaints from businesses and residents, Kelli Trapani, a city spokeswoman, said in a statement. Among the complaints were vehicles parked in the same place longer than 72 hours, which is against the state vehicle code, vehicles blocking the sidewalk, and waste being discarded into the streets and gutter, she said. The city towed five vehicles after tagging 94 in the area on Dec. 28, she said.
“During this inclement weather, the decision to remove any vehicles in violation of California Vehicle Code will be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account both public safety and the safety of those occupying vehicles,” Trapani said.
Forecasts show up to 3 inches of rain could fall in the Sacramento region, with wind gusts exceeding 50 mph, which could cause trees and power poles to fall. A high wind warning and flood watch are in effect through Thursday.
Jimmy Collazo, 63, also got the early morning knock on his trailer, where he lives with his son, his son’s girlfriend, and their Chihuahua named Mia.
“They were banging on the door at 8 a.m. telling me I had 15 minutes to go,” said Collazo, who suffers from Paget’s disease. “It takes longer than that to hook up the trailer.”
While Collazo was speaking, he saw his mother’s trailer being towed away, causing his son Andrew to burst into tears.
“They took it!” he wailed. “Where is she?”
Why a Sacramento business asked for sweep
Bob Erlenbusch of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness criticized city leaders for towing ahead of the storm.
“The city should be ashamed of towing our unhoused neighbors vehicular homes when we are facing one of the worst storms in history, causing the governor to declare an emergency,” Erlenbusch said. “I call on the mayor and City Council to immediately denounce this action and return our unhoused neighbors’ homes.”
Most homeless people cannot get their vehicles back from the tow yard when they are towed because they don’t have the roughly $200, or the vehicles are not registered.
Sharon Mora used to own a small salon along Auburn Boulevard, but had to relocate due to issues caused by the homeless, she said. She said she asked to city to clear the RVs and hoped they would do so in the summer, not during the storm.
“There were a few fires, an RV exploded in front of our building,” Mora said. “I work on a lot of women and they didn’t feel safe. I kept getting a lot of cancellations ... they should’ve been removed a while ago.”
Water rescues at camps
Many homeless Sacramentans are still reeling from the New Year’s Eve atmospheric river storm that hit the area, flooding many encampments along the American River Parkway.
In the final hours of 2022, Fire Department personnel performed emergency water rescues at riverfront encampments at Camp Polluck, Bannon Island and Discovery Park, said Capt. Keith Wade, fire department spokesman. One unhoused person was taken to a hospital.
For the tight-knit camp of roughly 60 seniors at Bannon Island, the last few days have been incredibly difficult, said Twana James, the unofficial mayor there.
“We are wet, cold and in need,” James said Tuesday. “We need blankets and clothes, anything. We lost a lot and the elders are not feeling good.”
In November a homeless man died of hypothermia near Camp Polluck on a night without rain, when the temperature was 37 to 39 degrees. That’s slightly warmer than the lows predicted for Wednesday and Thursday, but the risk of hypothermia greatly increases when the body is wet. Many encampments have still yet to dry out from the New Year’s Eve storm.
The city has opened two walk-up homeless warming centers through Saturday morning, according to a city blog post. They include a building at 3615 Auburn Blvd. and also the lobby of the North Fifth Street shelter. Regional Transit is offering free rides to both city warming shelters. Pickup is at City Hall, with shuttles arriving at 2, 4 and 6 p.m.
Both city centers together can fit 70 people. The county has opened the Howe Park Community Center and North A Street shelter for warming centers, and placed 200 people in motels, but those do not allow walk ups.
This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 3:04 PM.
