Sacramento fires latest salvo in homeless camp enforcement dispute with DA Thien Ho

Sacramento’s city attorney has responded to District Attorney Thien Ho’s demand last month that the city bolster its enforcement of homeless camps within 30 days, essentially telling Ho that the city already is doing plenty and that his office could be doing more to help.

The Wednesday letter from City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood comes as Ho’s 30-day deadline for compliance has passed and opens the possibility that the DA will follow through on his promise to seek civil or criminal action against city officials if more is not done to address homeless issues.

The DA has taken no such action thus far, and Ho said in a statement Thursday he was studying the city’s letter.

“We are in receipt of the City Attorney’s response to our August 7, 2023, letter,” Ho said. “We are currently evaluating the merits of the City’s response to our proposals to deal with the unhoused crisis affecting the entire city.

“A final decision on future litigation is forthcoming but will only be made after a thorough analysis of the facts, the law, and a review of the City’s efforts, or lack thereof, to effectuate meaningful change.”

The six-page letter from the city attorney comes as both sides have been engaged in accusations over how best to address the issue of homeless camps that have sprung up throughout downtown and midtown Sacramento.

The issue also has been complicated by a homeless advocacy group’s legal filings that resulted in a federal court order temporarily forbidding the city from clearing any homeless camps.

In her letter, Alcala Wood thanked Ho for a “very productive” July meeting with two officials from his office in which they discussed “re-invigorating the collaborative approach our two offices have historically employed and agreeing on joint training for law enforcement regarding encampment enforcement at both the state and city level.”

But she contended that some of what Ho is demanding is already being done, and wrote that the city and the DA’s office both have the authority to prosecute violations of city codes, something the two offices agreed to as far back as 2006.

Responding to Ho’s Aug. 7 letter in a point-by-point fashion and quoting from it, she also pushed back on his contention that the city must prosecute violations of its codes for violations such as blocking sidewalks with tents.

“I think now that I have made you more aware of our long history of collaboration stretching as far back as 2001, and the fact that you in fact do have jurisdiction to prosecute Sacramento City code violations - including unlawful camping violations - in the downtown core, that moving forward we will be in a much better position to ‘equitably share responsibility for prosecuting violations of the City Code in order to improve the quality of life in city neighborhoods,’” she wrote.

Ho has said he wants 16 homeless camps cleared, but Alcala Wood wrote that “more information is needed from (Ho) before a response is possible.”

“Was there a list of 16 encampments your office prepared?” she wrote. “If so, you have not yet provided it despite our requests and so no specific response about such encampments can be provided.

“In any event, as you know, the city of Sacramento was prohibited from clearing or moving any encampments in the City by (U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley’s) order dated August 3, 2023, for a majority of your 30-day time period,” she wrote.

Nunley’s order has since expired, but the Sacramento Homeless Union is asking the judge to extend it through the third week of September. The group also has sent a letter to the State Bar of California accusing Ho of abusing his position in the dispute with the city.

Alcala Wood added that when the city learned of the homeless union’s efforts to obtain a restraining order barring the clearing of camps, “my office reached out to your office approximately 4 times for assistance.”

Instead of providing a written declaration that could be presented to the judge, Alcala Wood wrote, Ho’s office “declined to get involved.”

She took a shot at Ho’s demand that the city create protocols for outreach, camp management and cleanup and the use of police and non-law enforcement to enforce state law and city codes.

“Given your recent focus on homelessness, I am candidly surprised that you are unaware that the City has a formal policy on outreach, camp management/cleanup, and enforcement of state law and City Code violations through its Citywide Protocols,” she wrote.

She also noted Ho’s aggressive public stance in the dispute, something that led Mayor Darrell Steinberg last month to accuse the DA of politicizing the issue.

“The City is well represented by its legal office and efforts to undermine its effectiveness by making spurious comments to the media only serve to throw blame around rather than actually partner with my office to solve the issues our community demands of us,” Alcala Wood wrote.