SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A video showing two Yolo County deputies dropping off a homeless man at a Sacramento McDonald's parking lot has sparked Sacramento’s mayor to write a strongly worded letter to Yolo County officials demanding answers.
A 26 second clip filmed by Public Safety News, shows two Yolo deputies helping the transient man unload his belongings at the McDonald's on Richards Boulevard.
At about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 25, Yolo County deputies made contact with the man about 15 miles south of Downtown Sacramento near the town of Clarksburg, according to Lt. Matthew Davis in an e-mail, a spokesperson for the Yolo County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies initially responded to reports of a person trespassing and possible vandalism in the area.
The man told deputies that he had traveled from the Midwest and had been in Sacramento for more than a week but was unfamiliar with the area, Lt. Davis said in an e-mail.
“The area where the man was contacted is rural and void of any type of services,” Lt. Davis said in an e-mail.
Deputies offered to give the man some money but he declined because he had his own, Lt. Davis said. The deputies drove the man back to Sacramento after he requested to be dropped off in an area where he could get food.
“We understand the appearance this activity had. Unfortunately, this individual inadvertently made his way into a very rural area of unincorporated Yolo County leaving him without options,” Lt. Davis said. “The man was not found to meet the criteria for an involuntary detention due to his mental health challenges and providing him and his belongings with a transport into an area nearby services was determined to be the best solution at the time.”
Sacramento’s Mayor Darrel Steinberg wrote in a Sept. 27 letter that he’s “unhappy” about the implications of the incident. He addressed the letter to Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez and copied both the Yolo County Board of Supervisors and Sacramento’s City Council members.
“My colleagues and I are very unhappy about the implications of your office’s action in this case,” Steinberg wrote. “We have a serious homeless challenge already and are taking aggressive actions to bring people indoors and enforce illegal behavior.”
The City of Sacramento, among several other major cities in California, are struggling with a large homeless population. Sacramento saw a 19% increase in the number of homeless over the last two years, according to a recent report by Sacramento Steps Forward.
The June report estimates that there are between 10,000 and 11,000 homeless people who will experience homelessness in Sacramento County each year.
“We hear rumors frequently that other jurisdictions are busing people into Sacramento,” Mayor Steinberg wrote. “We are doing more than our fair share”
Steinberg asked the Yolo County Sheriff to respond to 15 questions regarding the incident on behalf of the City. Steinberg asked if deputies were aware of the services provided in Yolo County and whether they attempted to contact those services first, among several others pertaining to why the man was brought to Sacramento.
The Yolo County Deputy Sheriff's Association appeared to take exception to Mayor Steinberg's comments, arguing on Facebook that their deputies "did the right thing".
Their full response reads:
Hey Steinberg, our deputies did the right thing! Instead of whining and pouting about something you have very little facts about. Take a minute to ask a question or two.
By the way, we don’t have a homeless shelter in Clarksburg so naturally if the gentleman we contacted wanted to go somewhere he could find food and shelter the good people at Loaves and Fishes have always been there to help those in need.
I would think that the mayor of Sacramento would be proud to have a place like Loaves and Fishes to help those less fortunate.
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