SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A seven month legal battle about how to handle the homelessness crisis between Sacramento city officials and District Attorney Thien Ho is still ongoing.
The DA made arguments Friday morning that their suit against city regarding homelessness should not be scaled down.
A superior court judge is currently considering which parts of lawsuit filed by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office against the city regarding homelessness should move forward.
“People might ask why is the DA getting involved in homelessness, at the end of day my core mandate as the DA is public safety,” said Ho.
Ho filed his lawsuit against the city in September, claiming he feared for the safety of his employees and residents walking through encampments to get to the court house.
“Regardless of the resolution in the case this case and this lawsuit has been a victory for the everyday person it’s an everyday win because in the seven months since the lawsuit was filed, the city has done more enforcement and cleanup than in the seven previous years and you can look at their own data dashboard and see that,” said Ho.
The case is broken down into three claims: First, the city’s alleged failure to enforce its laws regarding homelessness is a public nuisance. Second, the city is allegedly violating the water code by not keeping parks and sidewalks clean from encampments. Third, the city is allegedly violating fish and game code by allowing encampment to pollute waterways.
Ho says he feels most confident about the immunity argument.
“Does the city have immunity to do nothing or to interfere with law enforcement or those that are trying to enforce the law? The answer is going to be no,” said Ho.
The judge issued a tentative ruling Friday saying there is a lack of evidence for the nuisance and water code claims.
The case might only move forward on the violation of California Fish and Game code.
The city's attorney office said “the city declines to comment until the ruling is final.” Mayor Darrell Steinberg echoed the sentiment, telling ABC10 “it’s a tentative ruling, we will have a comment when there’s a final ruling.”
The final ruling is expected next week.
