Sacramento sweeps homeless encampment, but neighbors say city’s action was ineffective
Hope and relief have turned to renewed frustration for many of the residents and neighbors a public housing apartment complex off Broadway in Upper Land Park.
On Sept. 20, the city cleared a homeless encampment in a vacant lot near the Alder Grove Apartments. But just two weeks later, a new encampment with tents, loose mattresses and RVs has sprung up, taking up half of 1st Avenue, which dead ends into the apartment complex.
The camp — and the myriad problems associated with it — has merely moved from a vacant lot to the sidewalk and street.
Several residents of the housing project with low-slung brick buildings expressed recognition of the challenges of homelessness, but also dismay about loose dogs, strewn garbage, public safety concerns, foul odors and the city’s ineffectiveness in truly dealing with the problem.
Craig Chaffee, a longtime resident of the West Broadway neighborhood who owns a home nearby, said that officials need to be more aggressive in their response.
“The City should move all those at that camp to a shelter in another part of Sacramento,” Chaffee said. He added that it’s “simply unfair, wrong and very harmful for those needing a helping hand up” to be concentrated in his neighborhood, which struggles with poverty and crime.
Lee Archie, a local landlord, says he has already lost two commercial tenants — Nucleus Pump Services and A1 Towing—who moved out of his 1st Avenue buildings because of problems associated with the original encampment. Archie said with the new encampment “the situation has worsened.”
“The street is partially blocked with cars without license plates... the smells are terrible,” said Archie, who says he has called the city multiple times to complain. “It’s very frustrating, I feel the city is running me out of business.”
Alder Grove resident Frances Barrientos regularly provides homemade burritos and coffee to those living in the encampment. Nevertheless, she, too, agrees that the city should do something about the new encampment.
An example of the larger problem
For many, the situation is an example of the city’s failed strategy to effectively deal with its acute and ever-growing homelessness problem. On any given night, it is estimated that there are as many as 9,300 unhoused people in Sacramento County, including Sacramento. The city and county have roughly 2,300 shelter beds, all of which are typically full.
Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, who represents the area, told The Bee the fact that homeless people are just shifting from a vacant lot to the adjacent sidewalk and street is why she voted against the enhanced enforcement measure.
“We should be holding ourselves to a higher standard in terms of resolution,” Valenzuela said, “really finding people a place to go, so that we don’t just move people, frankly, from one non-compliant location to another.”
City spokeswoman Katharine Weir-Ebster told The Bee that the city has stepped up enforcement. Several departments, including code enforcement and a special outreach unit of the Sacramento Police Department, have worked overtime to deal with homelessness.
It’s illegal for anyone to block a public street, but it’s unclear if the city will take action on 1st Avenue. Weir-Ebster did not respond to specific questions about the situation on 1st Avenue but in a statement said, “it’s clear that people are feeling frustrated by this situation.”
More broadly, Weir-Ebster said “the City, in partnership with the County of Sacramento, is working urgently and diligently to respond to the ongoing homelessness crisis. The newly formed Incident Management Team is deploying interdepartmental teams daily to multiple locations to provide outreach, engagement, cleanup, and enforcement.”
The situation is not unique to the area around Alder Grove. Frustration has been mounting across the city over a number of sprawling homeless encampments. In August, the city council voted 7-2 to authorize overtime by city workers so the city could launch a more rapid response to city code violations and other quality-of-life issues.
Then last month, Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho filed a lawsuit blasting the city of Sacramento for its “descent into decay” in handling its sprawling homeless crisis.
That “decay” at the encampment near Alder Grove has come in the form of a series of fires. The last straw appears to have been a major fire in August, the 14th to hit the former California Shellfish Co. next to the encampment.
Several people in the encampment acknowledged that people experiencing mental health crises living among them likely started several of the fires. An arson suspect “known to experience homelessness,” according to the Sacramento Fire Department, was arrested in August and charged with setting a June fire.
Following the sweep, last week the city dispatched Ben Worrall, social services manager for the city’s Department of Community Response, to speak to some residents who had complained. The outdoor meeting occurred in the shadow of rubble from the recently torn down former California Shellfish building.
“There are priorities all over the city and there are encampments all over the city,” Worrall told about a half-dozen residents. “We will have more teams in the field and our rapid response teams will get out here as soon as they can.”
But for now the problems persist for the people living in the encampment as well as the neighbors living next to it.
This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
