Sacramento clears homeless camps from City Hall, violating judge’s order
The city of Sacramento has violated a federal court order temporarily barring it from clearing homeless encampments during a heat wave.
The city on Friday and Monday cleared homeless camps from the overhangs surrounding City Hall, a city spokesman has confirmed.
“The city respects the order issued by the federal court and has been working diligently to follow all aspects of it,” city spokesman Tim Swanson said in a statement Monday. “The city has communicated the information contained in the order to its employees, including those in the Sacramento Police Department, Code Enforcement and other departments and divisions. However, the city was previously not as effective in communicating with one of its contractors and their employees, leading to the unintentional oversights that occurred Friday and Monday. At this time, the situation involving City Hall has been addressed and remedied, with the city proactively informing the Sacramento Homeless Union this morning about the mistaken enforcement.”
The Sacramento Homeless Union, which filed the lawsuit that resulted in Thursday’s order, now plans a new legal action.
“If they’re going to disobey the court order not once but twice at City Hall, what does that say about our confidence that they’re obeying the (order) elsewhere in the city of Sacramento?” Sacramento Homeless Union attorney Anthony Prince said. “Many are now going to be on the sidewalk, not protected from sun.”
The union now plans to make a new filing, Prince said. In that filing the union will attempt to require the city to show why they should not be held in an order of contempt.
Prince said the city also cleared camps from outside City Hall Tuesday morning. Swanson said that is not true. When a reporter visited City Hall at 10 a.m., there were no camps.
The council is set to discuss the lawsuit Tuesday during a closed session meeting.
The council in 2019 passed an ordinance barring people from sitting or lying outside City Hall from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. The city contracts with Allied Universal Security to roust people from the overhangs in the mornings, causing many to migrate to Cesar Chavez Plaza or the surrounding downtown streets.
The city and county have roughly 2,300 shelter beds, but all are typically full. There are roughly 9,300 homeless people living in Sacramento, most of whom are unsheltered and living in the city limits.
Judge Troy L. Nunley, who issued Thursday’s ruling, issued a similar ruling against the city last summer.
The city has been under pressure to clear camps from District Attorney Thien Ho, who has been threatening to file civil or criminal legal action against city officials over the homeless crisis. Days before the ruling, the city cleared a camp at 28th and C streets, offering everyone spaces at Miller Park Safe Ground sanctioned campground, where tents sit in the sun.
Sacramento’s triple digit summers can be deadly, even for those who do aren’t located directly in the blazing sun. In September, unhoused man Michael Hooper, 49, died of heat stroke while living in his van near a Sacramento park, according to the coroner death report.
The city and county open cooling centers during extreme heat waves, but there are no 24/7 walk-up cooling centers in Sacramento.
This story was originally published August 8, 2023 at 1:25 PM.
