Free screening of homeless documentary featuring tight-knit Sacramento camp
A documentary on homelessness focusing on the dramatic closure of a Sacramento camp screens Thursday at a free public showing.
The documentary, called “The Right to Exist,” documents the city’s 2024 closure of Camp Resolution, a homeless camp of mostly senior women that was on a city-owned North Sacramento lot.
It also includes interviews with national experts on homelessness, as well as former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
The screening takes place 6 p.m. Thursday at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento, located at 2425 Sierra Blvd. in Arden Arcade.
Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion with Sacramento State professor Arturo Biaocchi, film director Nick Anderson, Loaves & Fishes executive director Angela Hassell and Sharon Jones, Camp Resolution co-founder and a formerly unhoused woman.
“I’m thrilled to share this film with Sacramento audiences,” Anderson said in a statement. “It’s a timely story that our community needs right now and it was made with the talent of some of the best filmmakers in the region. Together we created a film with visuals and storytelling on par with anything you’d see out in Hollywood.”
Camp Resolution came to be after The Sacramento Bee reported that the city had paid $617,000 to pave and fence a city lot for a homeless shelter that never opened. A handful of homeless women broke in and started camping on the lot. Instead of clearing them off the property, as the city had in the past, the city got on board.
City officials signed a lease with Safe Ground Sacramento, a nonprofit run by civil rights attorney Mark Merin, which was running a Safe Ground at 12th and C streets. The city dropped off trailers, which had been sitting empty, from the state for guests to use. Unlike other shelters, which cost several million dollars a year to run, the site did not cost the city anything. Camp Resolution existed with relatively few problems for over a year. But disagreements started between Safe Ground Sacramento and the Sacramento Homeless Union, leaving Camp Resolution residents in the middle. Ultimately the city closed it due to numerous fire code violations. During the closure, police blocked journalists from getting too close, which may have violated state law.
Some of the residents found permanent housing or shelters, while others went back to the streets. Shonn Adams, one of the roughly 50 people who lived in Camp Resolution, died in late 2024.
The city does not plan to use the self-governed model again, Department of Community Response director Brian Pedro said during a council meeting. The City Council on Tuesday approved a new safe camping site in the River District, where people may camp in tents, but with supervision from staff and security.
To register for the free Thursday event visit this website. The screening is also a fundraiser, with proceeds benefiting Loaves & Fishes, said Anderson, the film’s director.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 3:27 PM.
