Current:Home > ScamsSacramento prosecutor sues California’s capital city over failure to clean up homeless encampments -ProfitPoint
Sacramento prosecutor sues California’s capital city over failure to clean up homeless encampments
View
Date:2025-04-14 23:59:56
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Sacramento prosecutor is suing California’s capital city over failure to clean up homeless encampments.
Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho says his office asked the city to enforce laws around sidewalk obstruction and to create additional professionally operated camping sites.
He announced the suit Tuesday during a news conference in Sacramento.
Ho said the city is seeing a “collapse into chaos” and an “erosion of every day life.”
Sacramento County had nearly 9,300 homeless people in 2022, based on data from the annual Point in Time count. That was up 67% from 2019. Roughly three-quarters of the county’s homeless population is unsheltered.
Homeless tent encampments have grown visibly in cities across the U.S. but especially in California, which is home to nearly one-third of unhoused people in the country.
The prosecutor had threated in August to file charges against city officials if they didn’t implement changes within 30 days.
At the time, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Ho was politicizing the issue instead of being a partner with the city.
Steinberg didn’t immediately respond to request for comment through a spokesperson.
Ho, elected in 2022 after vowing on the campaign trail to address the city’s homelessness crisis, said he’s asked the city to share real-time data about available shelter beds with law enforcement.
“This is a rare opportunity — a rare opportunity — for us to effectuate meaningful, efficient means of getting the critically, chronically unhoused off the streets,” Ho said.
Ho said he supports a variety of solutions including enforcement of existing laws and establishing new programs to provide services to people facing addiction or mental health issues. He said he supports a statewide bond measure that would go toward building more treatment facilities. Voters will weigh in on that measure next year.
The dispute between the district attorney and the city was further complicated by a lawsuit filed by a homeless advocacy group that resulted in an order from a federal judge temporarily banning the city from clearing homeless encampments during extreme heat. That order is now lifted but the group wants to see it extended.
The attorney of the homeless coalition also filed a complaint with the state bar this month, saying Ho abused his power by pushing the city to clear encampments when the order was in place.
Ho’s news conference included testimony from residents who say the city is not providing resources to deal with homelessness.
Critics have said encampments are unsanitary and lawless, and block children, older residents and disabled people from using public space such as sidewalks. They say allowing people to deteriorate outdoors is neither humane nor compassionate.
But advocates for homeless people say they can’t alleviate the crisis without more investment in affordable housing and services, and that camping bans and encampment sweeps unnecessarily traumatize homeless people.
veryGood! (9)
Related
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Stock market today: Asian stocks lower after Wall Street holds steady near record highs
- Family Dollar's rat-infested warehouse, damaged products, lead to $41.6 million fine
- Police in suburban Chicago are sued over a fatal shooting of a man in his home
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Taylor Swift's father allegedly punched photographer in face after Australian leg of her Eras Tour ended
- Supreme Court grapples with whether to uphold ban on bump stocks for firearms
- Chanel Iman Marries Davon Godchaux 5 Months After Welcoming Baby No. 3
- Chuck Scarborough signs off: Hoda Kotb, Al Roker tribute legendary New York anchor
- Chrysler recalling more than 330,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees due to steering wheel issue
Ranking
- 'Most Whopper
- Ryan Gosling, Billie Eilish, Jon Batiste set to perform at the Oscars
- In Arizona, abortion politics are already playing out on the Senate campaign trail
- AI chatbots are serving up wildly inaccurate election information, new study says
- 'Kraven the Hunter' spoilers! Let's dig into that twisty ending, supervillain reveal
- Taylor Swift's father allegedly punched photographer in face after Australian leg of her Eras Tour ended
- Trump lawyers say he’s prepared to post $100 million bond while appealing staggering fraud penalty
- She wanted a space for her son, who has autism, to explore nature. So, she created a whimsical fairy forest.
Recommendation
A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
The Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas has charred more than 250,000 acres with no containment
Patients urge Alabama lawmakers to restore IVF services in the state
Pink's 12-year-old daughter Willow debuts shaved head
Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Drew Barrymore's 1995 Playboy cover comes back to haunt her with daughter's sass
Why did the Texas Panhandle fires grow so fast?
Biden gets annual physical exam, with summary expected later today