With international attention focused on Sacramento's sprawling tent city of homeless, the city has moved in to close down the camp. But campers are scattering to other sites.
Homeless advocates are demanding a legal homeless tent city with basic services, but police have been instructed to enforce a city ordinance against camping.
Under pressure to deal with the sprawling encampment north of downtown, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson secured a $1 million commitment to find shelter beds for 150 to 200 campers and help accommodate their belongings and pets. Still, most of the campers remain outdoors.
Police vowed this week to take "enforcement action," including issuing citations and seizing possessions if the campers refuse to leave, while homeless advocates promised to go to jail if necessary to highlight the plight of about 1,200 people in the area who are without permanent shelter each night.
"I don't have a clue where we are going to go," Brian Hayes said, as he and his wife, Stephanie, gathered bottles, cans and clothing from their campsite. Hayes said the couple stayed for one night at the expanded shelter at Cal Expo but were turned away for lack of space earlier this week.
The last residents of Sacramento's tent city moved this week, freeing a utility company to begin a planned construction project. But the fate of 100 or more campers who relocated a short distance away, onto private property along the American River levee, remains a matter of debate.
Even on city property, though, it's illegal to camp in Sacramento, so police drove around the area in a pickup, urging people to leave and offering to transport belongings to other locations. They had few takers.
One way or the other, "these folks are going to be gone from here," said police Officer Mark Zoulas, who along with partner Mike Cooper has for more than a decade patrolled areas where homeless people gather. "We don't want to be out here bothering homeless people. But we have to do our jobs."
Police declined to discuss when citations might be issued.
"Right now we are asking people to take advantage of shelter and beds and warmth," said police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong. "But ultimately, if there are people who refuse to leave here, there will be enforcement action."
Sister Libby Fernandez of Loaves & Fishes, which provides a variety of services to homeless men, women and children, led a group of advocates demanding a moratorium on camping citations and pushing for a place where people can camp legally and with basic services, including toilets and garbage pickup.
"We've been campaigning for this for more than a year," she said. "Now we're back to square one again."
Fernandez and others said they will engage in nonviolent civil disobedience if campers are forced to leave, and said they will risk going to jail to make their point.
"I commend the city for adding more shelter beds," said Greg Bunker of Francis House, which offers help to the homeless and impoverished. "But it's woefully inadequate. We need a variety of things," including a safe, legal campground, he said.
SMUD owns the property that the campers have occupied, off and on, for years. The utility plans to fence the area this week in advance of a planned upgrade of its substation. Most have relocated about a quarter of a mile away onto privately owned, unoccupied land, but on Wednesday some began breaking that camp and heading for other city property.
Christie Holderegger of Volunteers of America, which runs the shelter, said 15 beds designated for couples have been occupied but that the organization has had open beds for singles most nights. She said the shelter, which is set to close June 30, will offer a few more beds for couples later this week.
City officials are collaborating with Loaves & Fishes to provide overnight housing for homeless people's pets and storage of their supplies. But many tent city residents are either unwilling or unable to navigate the system, said Fernandez and others. Many of those reluctant to live indoors have drug and alcohol addictions and mental illnesses.
Assistant City Manager Cassandra Jennings said that she is disappointed that so many of the campers remain outdoors.
"We have worked with a lot of different agencies to come up with viable options so that people can access a cleaner, safer environment," she said. "We need people to take advantage of those options."
Jennings said the city "is not looking to arrest anyone" who continues to camp, but will "escort people off the property" if necessary.
"At the end of the day, when the fences start to go up, we will do what we have to do," she said.
E-mail Cynthia Hubert at chubert(at)sacbee.com
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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