SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The battle between Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and the city of Sacramento over the homeless continues.
The media was invited Tuesday to walk along the levees with the district attorney and the River City Waterway Alliance, which has taken it upon themselves to perform clean ups.
“Every time they go there, they are collecting 50,000 pounds of garbage each time,” said Ho.
Encampments were deeply built into the levee, and some even have chain-link fences.
According to the district attorney, one resident has lived along the levee for 12 years.
“He has a generator, an air conditioning unit. He has had couches and mattress, he had refrigerators. He had essentially home. The city has allowed him to be there for 12 years polluting the river,” said Ho.
The situation prompted Ho to expand his lawsuit against the city of Sacramento in regard to the homeless to include environmental concerns. According to the district attorney's office, they alleged three causes of action, which included private nuisance and inverse condemnation. However, they said they're replaced them with "statutory public nuisance" and "violation of Fish and Game Code section 5650."
According to a public records search, the area that Ho and his office toured Tuesday and used as their example with the media are not owned by the city. It’s owned by Reclamation District 1000. The area under the bridge belongs to North Sacramento Land Company and the rest of the property belongs to the county.
In response, the district attorney's office provided the following comment: “While that particular parcel (#26302600160000) is owned by reclamation district (rd) 1000, it is located within the city’s limits. Rd 1000 is responsible for levee integrity and flood control, not law enforcement actions. The city is responsible for enforcement of the laws within the city limits. The city’s failure to enforce the law has resulted in this environmental disaster.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s office released a statement in response to Ho.
“In politics, they say there are two kinds of people: work horses and show horses. While the DA was traipsing around on a levee with the press in tow this morning, the City and County of Sacramento were jointly taking an important step toward actually getting people off the street. The County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve a Safe Stay sleeping cabin community on Stockton Boulevard with cabins allotted to the city by the state. We are also working with Governor Newsom’s office to place an additional 175 sleeping cabins in a county Safe Stay community on Watt Avenue. These developments represent real progress on our partnership. I am grateful to our partners at the county and in the governor’s office. We are now up to thousands of new and planned beds since 2017. Enough of the show.”
District Attorney Ho says he will continue to fight for a camping ban in Sacramento, similar to the one San Diego has.
“This isn’t about politics. I’m not the one that is terming out of office. I’m not the unelected official. I’m not the one who’s opened up an accountant to run for another office. This the only office and job I want as the prosecutor of the people of this community, so this isn’t about politics and those that want to make it about politics are doing it to distract attention away from their failures,” said Ho.
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