SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Police Department said four people were cited Monday at a homeless encampment known as Camp Resolution.
Some people put up barbed wire and propane tanks to block the entrance of the encampment earlier Monday. Four people were cited for charges of resisting/obstructing/delaying, according to the police department, and were released.
The site needed to be vacated today after the lease was terminated, according to the city of Sacramento. Officers were seen cutting open the entrance gates. Heavy equipment was being used to begin removing some of the trailers.
Camp Resolution, which describes itself as a self-governing camp, has existed for two years on a North Sacramento lot at Colfax Street and the Arden-Garden Connector.
Sacramento said it's sending a team Monday to begin the process of clearing and securing Camp Resolution after the city announced the lease would be terminated earlier in the summer.
A spokesperson for Sacramento said in a news release several agencies and organizations will be there to try to connect people with resources before removing the city's 16 trailers from the site.
What is the conflict over Camp Resolution?
In early 2023, the nonprofit Safe Ground Sacramento established a lease with the city on behalf of the residents, but issues with the site and lease this year led to the nonprofit terminating the agreement with the city earlier this summer, with an ultimate eviction date of August 26.
“Instead of being able to focus on our people, we’re having to focus on U-hauls and storages and community support and praying that something is going to happen,” said Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, which represents the residents. She’s also the Western Regional Director for the National Union of the Homeless.
She said 48 people live at Camp Resolution.
“Forty-four of the 48 residents have chronic medical illness or a severe disability that impairs them,” Sanchez said. “They’re seniors; the majority of them are over 55 years old.”
On Sunday afternoon — hours before they had to be out — residents of Camp Resolution told ABC10 they felt panicked and anxious. They, aided by volunteers like Herman Barahona with the Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition, were busy getting ready to leave the property.
“Most people are storing stuff in storage, and then they’re finding wherever they can stay — in a tent, by the levy,” Barahona said, standing next to a moving truck his organization donated to help the residents. “They’re moving where they can.”
Shonn Adams lives in Camp Resolution and has been unhoused for 14 years after getting laid off from her call center job.
“I didn’t ask to be homeless. I lost my job, that’s how I got homeless,” she said through tears, sitting on her bed in a trailer parked on the lot. “I raised three daughters here (in Sacramento). I went to college here.”
The Sacramento Homeless Union has asked a judge to step in and delay the eviction to accommodate all the residents with disabilities.
“Many, many severe disabilities, and so we requested that they be given additional time,” said civil rights attorney Andrea Henson, who is helping the residents. “If it doesn’t happen, I think you’re going to have a crisis on your hands.”
The city said it has been working with residents, offering all of them shelter at either the Outreach and Engagement Center off Auburn Boulevard, near Watt Avenue, or at the Roseville Road Campus shelter in North Highlands.
But the sleep cabins at Roseville Road do not yet have electricity and generators are not allowed, the city said. That’s a worry for Adams, who relies on oxygen 24/7.
“If they kick me out of here, I’ll die without that. What am I supposed to do?” she said over the sound of generators powering her oxygen supply. “I’m still a human being. Just because I’m homeless doesn’t mean I’m not.”
Plus, she said Roseville Road is among the available housing options that won’t allow her dog. She also has two cats.
“They already said I can’t take my dog, and I’m not leaving her behind. I can’t,” Adams said. “People don’t understand: these are my babies. These are my family. This is like taking one of my kids away from me.”
The city said both shelters offer common areas with electricity, air conditioning and heating, plus showers and bathrooms.
The homeless union said residents want permanent supportive housing, not temporary shelters.
“These are people that are hurting that, at the end of the day, are going to be kicked out,” Sanchez said. “The city of Sacramento is creating this harm and we will hold the city accountable for anything that happens to these people.”
In an open letter published Aug. 19, the city detailed what it is offering to the residents of Camp Resolution.
“Outreach workers from the City’s Department of Community Response, who have been and will continue to visit the site daily, are distributing copies of the letter at the site to support the offer of shelter and connection to other services,” an introduction to the letter said.
The entire letter is available here, which includes these paragraphs:
The first step on the path to permanent housing for all Camp Resolution guests is to engage with a homeless service provider, enroll in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), and complete an assessment regarding personal needs and history. Our records indicate that only a few guests at Camp Resolution have completed a needs assessment. Department of Community Response (DCR) Neighborhood Resource Coordinators or staff at the OEC and/or the RRC can help you and all other guests complete the assessment of personal needs and history. The assessment takes about 20 minutes and consists of questions that are designed to help establish the type of housing and level of services needed.
In addition to the resources above, any guest with behavioral health needs may qualify for additional housing support through Sacramento County. Enrollment into Cal-AIM is another resource that may offer support and housing assistance. DCR Neighborhood Resource Coordinators or staff at the OEC and/or the RRC can help all guests to connect with any of these programs.
We also want to inform you that recently a total of 247 units of permanent supportive housing were opened in Sacramento, and approximately 2,000 affordable and permanent supportive housing units will be coming online within the next few years. Accepting the current shelter offer would enable all guests to begin the process of obtaining the documents needed to qualify for housing. Here too, DCR Neighborhood Resource Coordinators or staff at the OEC and/or the RRC can help all guests to navigate this process.
While it can take time to receive all the documentation needed to transition to more permanent housing, both the RRC and the OEC provide safe, indoor spaces where you and all guests can stay while a case manager helps to complete the housing readiness process.
