Sacramento considers banning overnight sleeping near City Hall, regionalizing homeless approach
A former Sacramento city councilmember turned state senator is pushing for a regional approach to address the homeless crisis. This comes as city leaders are looking to ban overnight camping in front of City Hall.
As she introduced Senate Bill 802, Senator Angelique Ashby was joined by people from across the political sphere, including several Sacramento city councilmembers, District Attorney Thien Ho and former mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Ashby's idea is to combine the minds and money of local governments within Sacramento to provide shelter and care for people living on the streets. By working together, she said they will have about $417.2 million to work with.
"If we do not work together, if we continue to be in silos, if we fear collaboration, we will not garner success. I am convinced of this," she said. "At the local level, I do not begrudge any of my colleagues this feeling that it is hard to let go of something you want to control."
A representative from Sacramento County was not present at the presentation, but a county spokesperson gave CBS13 this statement:
"Senator Ashby's SB 802 calls for major restructuring and was introduced less than 24 hours ago; therefore, County officials have not had adequate time to analyze a bill of this magnitude.
The County values partnerships, collaboration, and shared responsibility as evidenced by our success serving the unhoused in our region. The Board of Supervisors is set to consider plans on a shared governance structure that best serves the region in August and allows for robust community input."
This collaboration idea comes as Sacramento city leaders look to ban lying or sitting on the ground around City Hall between 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily.
"There shouldn't be any reason for me not to be inside, but I like being outside during the summertime," said Deborah Dickson, who is homeless.
Dickson told CBS13 that she has been sleeping out in front of City Hall pretty much every night for the past five years, since the pandemic.
"This has become a permanent solution for a lot of folks," said Councilmember Phil Pluckenbaum, who represents the downtown area where City Hall is.
Pluckenbaum is concerned about the safety of city staff and the community when leaving late-night council meetings.
"This is not just about sweeping people from site to site," he said. "This is about providing opportunities for folks so they can come off the street permanently."
The city started allowing overnight sleeping in front of City Hall back in 2019 under Steinberg, but the current mayor, Kevin McCarty, said it costs the city around $353,000 per year in cleanup – money he thinks could be used for resources.
"It's difficult emotionally to deal with the reality that we don't have enough places for people to go, but we keep telling people where they can't go," said Sacramento City Councilmember for District 5 Caity Maple.
Maple said they would need to do outreach first and make sure there is enough shelter space.
"I think it probably should have been done a long time ago," said Hugo Cervantes, the owner of Cilantro's Mexican Restaurant on J Street.
Some business owners support this ban, but also wonder where the homeless will move instead.
"It has gotten way more dangerous for me, my staff and even for my customers," Cervantes said.
Dickson does not see the ban as a bad thing and thinks it may be the motivation she needs to get off the streets.
"I will get into shelter," she said. "It's the next step to having your own place."
The Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness is calling this an "anti-homeless" policy. It said in a statement:
"It's clear that Mayor McCarty is working towards no safe or legal place for our unhoused community to rest at night in the city of Sacramento. These anti rest, anti-homeless policies contribute to the 20–30-year gap in life expectancy compared to housed peers. This criminalization and stigmatization by leaders also leads to social isolation, fear, and even vigilante violence against our unhoused community as we recently saw here in Sac. When we need real solutions more than ever, our leaders first substantiative action on homelessness, will be to further cruel status quo criminalization through this expansion of its sit/lie policy at City Hall. It is clear there is no safe alternative, and folks will spread throughout the downtown core instead."
Overnight camping is already banned outside state, federal and other city buildings, so this would align city hall with that. City council plans to discuss this possible ban at a future meeting.
