The city of Sacramento is being sued by the top prosecutor of its surrounding county for its refusal to remove people sleeping on the streets and sidewalks, claiming in a lawsuit that a problem that could have been contained has turned into a full-blown crisis in California’s capital city.
The lawsuit, the first of its kind in the nation, is just the latest sign of mounting frustration over homelessness in the largely liberal state that has thrown millions of taxpayer dollars at the problem only to see it get worse, with sprawling encampments downtown, on freeways, and even outside of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) office.
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Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho said the city had “collapsed into chaos” because authorities were not doing enough to remove homeless people from the streets. Not only were homeless people left to live in “Third World” squalor but residents had complained of repeated threats of violence. He said residents encountered daily incidents that included but were not limited to “physical and verbal assault, public sex acts, open fires, nudity, urinating and defecating on walkways.”
City officials accused Ho of being an opportunistic prosecutor who is trying to make a name for himself by making them look bad. They also denounced a companion lawsuit brought by local business leaders and residents, which blames the city for failing to enforce local laws on public safety, as a political stunt.
Ho pushed back and said he filed the 36-page lawsuit after receiving widespread complaints from people living and working in the area.
“Enough is enough,” he said earlier this week. “We need to address this public safety crisis for both the housed and the unhoused.”
Nearly one-third of the nation’s unhoused people, more than 170,000, live in California, according to a statewide study released in June. Of those, 115,000 people sleep on the streets, in cars, in tents, or simply wherever they can find or fashion a makeshift shelter, according to a federal count of homelessness across the county last year.
Lawyers representing homeless people have long complained that the state has failed to provide enough housing for those in need and that rising rents have forced Californians to sleep in their cars or in tents.
The disturbing situation unfolding is not only in Sacramento but also in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Compton, and San Diego. Republicans have repeatedly criticized pricey failed attempts to address the problem and have labeled it an exercise in liberal excess. While complaints have traditionally come from conservatives, Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed recently made headlines for demanding encampments be swept, a move that didn’t go over well with homeless activists.
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Last month, Newsom called a court order preventing San Francisco officials from clearing most of the tent encampments in the city “preposterous” and said people have acted in disbelief when he told them his hands were tied by the courts. He called out left-leaning judges and liberal advocates who have held up street-sweeping efforts by arguing the policies violate a person’s civil rights.
The Democratic governor said he knew he would ultimately bear the brunt of the blame but added, “Damn it, they need to be accountable as well.”
