Welcome to Sacramento, where people are jailed for being poor and unhoused | Opinion
On the way to work, I always see the same woman underneath the Interstate 80 bridge near the intersection of P street and Alhambra Boulevard. The hair on her head is thin, almost balding. Every day, she camps out on the sidewalk. She takes time to sweep the leaves from her area every day. She is not a nuisance to Sacramento. Her life matters to this community.
But since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last June that governments can legally sweep homeless people off the streets without providing them a place to live, it’s become more likely that the lady I see every day could be arrested for the crime of being destitute. She can be arrested for being a nuisance. In the eyes of the law, her life doesn’t matter as much to our community.
This isn’t just me saying this. We’re seeing this in Sacramento.
Data analyzed by Bee reporter Ariane Lange shows that at least two law enforcement agencies in the region - the Sacramento Police Department and the Sacramento County Regional Park Rangers - have increased arrests of homeless people since the Johnson vs Grants Pass ruling last June. By a 6-3 decision, the justices ruled that local governments can cite homeless people for sleeping outdoors.
Previous rulings in lower courts directed communities to only move homeless people if there was a place to put them. With that protection gone, we see how Sacramento is responding. The floodgates have opened.
Currently, 30% of the inmates at Sacramento County jails are unhoused people, according to Lange’s work in The Bee.
This court decision has been abused by governments..
I’ve only lived in Sacramento for a year, and it is clear to me that I joined a community that was fed up with homelessness. I get that. Recently, I described how my e-scooter was almost stolen as I shopped for groceries on Alhambra Blvd, at the edge of East Sacramento.
There is a chance that the man who tried to steal my property is unhoused. I don’t know because he walked away quickly, as I happened upon him. I wrote that the experience caused me to have a change of heart about Proposition 36, approved by state voters last year to increase the penalties for retail crime, among other things.
In the abstract, Prop. 36 seemed draconian to me. But my experience reinforced the idea that people who commit crimes should be punished. The trouble with the Grants Pass ruling is that it has made it easier for people to be punished just for being homeless.
The unhoused are not criminals
Between October 2023 and the end of September 2024, 10,548 bookings involved someone who had been homeless, The Bee reported. The data also show that on average, 838 homeless individuals were held in the jail each month. If each homeless person spent only 24 hours in jail for each arrest, it would cost the county $2,106,752 before any medical expenses.
It was also less than a year ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom created an executive order directing state agencies to remove homeless camps throughout the state.
“The state has been hard at work to address this crisis on our streets,” Newsom said at the time. “There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part.”
According to their website, the county has used $5.5 million to expand 50 new beds of scattered site shelter dedicated to their efforts on the American Parkway. How could they be spending millions of dollars to support homelessness yet have a significant number of homeless people in their jails?
Meanwhile, Newsom is bragging that California is the 4th largest economy in the world.
Help poor people, don’t punish them
The government is there to provide a safety net for every person in its community, whether they are sweeping the sidewalk underneath the interstate or pushing a cart down the street. The blame should not be pointed at these individuals but at those who criminalize poor people in the 4th largest economy in the world.
The law is there to uphold justice, not sweep away our civic problems or lock them up in jails so we don’t have to see them on the street, suffering.
This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
