Winter storms have killed Sacramento’s homeless before. Have we learned nothing? | Opinion
When a storm barreled through Sacramento in January 2021, at least three homeless people died in the wind and rain, their deaths a consequence of their government’s inability to provide shelter.
Local officials still clearly haven’t learned their lesson. Thousands of unhoused people are enduring the worst storms of another winter with no more than a thin tent between them and the elements.
“They should open up every empty building they’ve got, including City Hall,” said Bob Erlenbusch of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. “This is a disaster. This should be an emergency. The top priority for the city and county should be that people don’t die in these storms.”
At least one homeless man has already died of hypothermia, in November near the American River Parkway’s Camp Pollock. The temperature dipped below 40 degrees that night.
The risk of hypothermia increases when the body is wet, and with floodwaters still lingering from the New Year’s Eve storm, more rain and cold are expected throughout the next week.
“(County) behavioral health staff were out in camps offering to get people places, and of course at the last minute, the city had these shuttles,” said Niki Jones of the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee. “I think people worked very hard on the things they worked on, (but) what’s discouraging is the lack of long-term, big-picture planning around how this is related to the escalating climate crisis and what that means for our very poorest communities.”
More unhoused people face dying in these storms, and Sacramento officials are letting it happen again. They continue to endanger the poorest and most vulnerable Sacramentans with a lack of forethought.
The county government, with more than six times the city’s budget, should be taking the lead on providing emergency shelter during these storms, not relying on the city to cover its tracks. Within the county, unincorporated areas are second only to the city of Sacramento in homeless population. And yet the county has opened only two walk-in shelters for the entire region during this storm.
While the Howe Park Community Center in Arden Arcade and North A Street shelter downtown are serving as warming centers, the county has yet to open Cal Expo, which would provide a large, central location for respite that local governments already have access to. It should have been an option from the moment officials knew a storm of this magnitude was headed Sacramento’s way.
The county’s North A shelter was opened on New Year’s Eve and is currently at capacity, but county representative Janna Haynes stressed Thursday afternoon that the Howe shelter was being used by only three people and a dog, suggesting there was no need to open up more shelters.
The city has opened two walk-up warming centers of its own, according to an official blog post, at 3615 Auburn Blvd., near North Highlands, and the lobby of the North Fifth Street shelter downtown, which can fit about 70 people total. The city has also arranged for free transportation to both via Regional Transit. (Pickup is at City Hall, with shuttles arriving at 2, 4 and 6 p.m.)
The morning before the storm hit, however, the city towed at least five vehicles that were being used as shelter on Auburn Boulevard. Several of the unhoused people living in those vehicles told The Bee they were not offered alternative shelter or assistance.
Both city and county representatives pointed out that none of their shelters were near capacity on Wednesday evening, but there may be a good reason for that: The shelters often require people to leave their cars, belongings and sometimes even their pets behind, and many understandably hesitate to do so.
It’s yet another reason the county must invest more in safe spaces for car camping and low-barrier shelters like the tiny homes on Florin Road (which have yet to open) and a shelter in North Highlands (also yet to open.)
Jones, of the Homeless Organizing Committee, said such temporary shelters require more efforts to make people aware of them.
“If the services are open and consistent and available and transparent about what they are, then they’ll be accessed, but this sort of pop-up, the day of the storm, we have to do the appropriate outreach,” Jones said. “We can’t just have a few outreach workers in a few spaces; we have to lay the groundwork with the population that you’re trying to serve in an emergency, and that was missing this time.”
She also noted that the days following the storm will be just as important as unhoused people move from a state of survival to one of recovery.
“Things like dry blankets and socks, warm food, heat sources, hand warmers, doing laundry, tents, tarps and sleeping bags (will be needed) for people,” she said. “The mutual aid community is doing this work, but it needs an infusion of support, and the city and county should recognize storm recovery as an important intervention.”
How many more times must Sacramento learn its lesson? Real, long-term housing is the only policy solution to prevent emergencies like the one we are now facing.
“If we don’t do it, we’re going to be in this situation over and over again,” Jones said. “It’s going to mean increased loss of life, and that’s the tragic part.”
Climate change is creating increasingly worse winter conditions. Yet we continue to sacrifice unhoused people to the weather as though they are not, like the rest of us, Sacramentans who deserve shelter from the storm.
This story was updated to reflect the correct number and timing of storm deaths.
This story was originally published January 7, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
