By Madelaine Church and Robert Hansen, OBSERVER Staff Writers
Nearly 50 residents at Camp Resolution – a homeless campsite in North Sacramento since 2022 – were forced out of the area by Sacramento police on Monday, Aug. 26.
The City of Sacramento had a lease agreement with Safe Ground Sacramento for the property located at 2225 Colfax St., which ended Aug. 10.
Camp Resolution resident Betty Edwards, 60, who recently underwent heart surgery, watched the place they called home be stripped away. “I want my trailer! I don’t want them to take my home!” Edwards sobbed as she watched her trailer being towed away. “That’s my home, where am I gonna go? I want my home back.”
Camp residents left the site on foot, by bike, and in vehicles before law enforcement arrived and declared the area a crime scene. Many left the campground scared and confused about where to go. Four individuals were issued citations for resisting, obstruction, and delaying moving out, according to police.
Tow trucks carried campers and vehicles as many former residents watched their homes hauled away. Cats and dogs, pets of the residents, were removed and taken to Front Street Animal Shelter to be held there for five days.
The camp was cleared about a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing state agencies “to move urgently to address dangerous” homeless encampments while urging city and local leaders to do the same.
Nothing in Newsom’s order mandates that cities or counties clear homeless encampments. The City has maintained that they have been clearing encampments after a Supreme Court ruling in June which allowed cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places.
Crystal Sanchez, president of Sacramento Homeless Union, spent Sunday trying to help relocate some residents, but most people didn’t have anywhere else to go.
Residents scrambled to secure storage units and U-Hauls to pack their belongings. According to Sanchez, two people suffered major seizures and were unable to continue packing. Among them was 55-year-old Shonn Adams.
Adams, diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, relies on oxygen to live. Adams, along with others, was offered to transfer to the Roseville Road Campus, which lacks electricity and restricts the use of generators. “People forget you’re a human being out here,” Adams wept. “I have to have my generator, so I can live and not die.”
Brian Pedro, director of the Department of Community Response, said the city has offered residents shelter at its Roseville Road campus or the Outreach and Engagement Center.
“The above offer is consistent with Camp Resolution’s stated objective to place all guests into permanent housing, as every guest who accepts placement at the Roseville Road or the Outreach Center will be assigned a case manager who will assist them in obtaining and organizing the documentation needed to transition into more permanent housing,” Pedro said in a statement.
According to the Department of Community Response, “only a few guests at Camp Resolution” have completed the needs assessment required to receive permanent supportive housing.
Andrew Imparato, Executive Director of Disability Rights California wrote a letter of support for the residents of Camp Resolution to the city, strongly urging the city to postpone the closure of the camp.
Imparato also expressed concern that the alternatives that the city offered were inadequate for the disabled residents of Camp Resolution.
“We are especially troubled that the proposed shelter at the Roseville Road campus will not meet the disability-related needs of all Camp Resolution residents with disabilities,” Imparato wrote. “In our experience, persons with disabilities encounter significant barriers to accessing shelters throughout California … In light of the high risk of grave bodily harm or death facing these residents, we strongly urge the City of Sacramento to postpone the closure of Camp Resolution pending the consideration of the residents’ reasonable accommodation request(s) and to further allow a comprehensive assessment of the individualized needs of each resident.”
Forty-four out of 48 residents are disabled or have a medically chronic medical condition and many were supposed to be given accommodations but arrangements couldn’t be made given the short time frame, according to Sanchez.
“We were guaranteed housing through a contract and it was ripped away from these individuals,” Sanchez said. “The police are protecting the property, not these people.”
The residents of Camp Resolution have not posed a public nuisance, or been linked to area crimes. But Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement that allowing residents to remain at Camp Resolution is not a “viable option…The Sacramento Homeless Union, a non-lessee group that purports to speak for the residents, has blocked them from meeting with city outreach workers to take the steps they need to get housed.
“The Union has also allowed camping on the non-paved portion of the site, which is off-limits due to toxic contamination, and they have tried to block safety inspections,” Steinberg said. “Since March the city has attempted outreach more than 60 times and made numerous offers of shelter, including long-term stay motel rooms for the medically vulnerable. City crews and representatives of health and service organizations are on site today to get people who are willing into services and certainly hope they accept as this is the surest path to obtaining permanent housing.”
Dennis McGlothen, 57, has been unhoused for a decade and was a resident of Camp Resolution for two years. McGlothen was diagnosed with epilepsy and eczema, conditions that make it challenging for him to cope in Sacramento’s extreme heat. Among many residents at Camp Resolution, he feels stuck and hopeless trying to figure out the next steps.
“I have no idea what I am going to do,” said McGlothen “I was just thrown out like garbage. I don’t know where I am supposed to go.”
Sanchez noted how inaccessible Roseville Road would be for residents with disabilities and needs accommodations.
Anthony Prince, attorney for the Sacramento Homeless Union and who represents the residents at Camp Resolution, urged Safe Ground Sacramento to rescind its notice of the closure of Camp Resolution last month. The lessee holder, attorney Mark Merin, told the city in July he planned to terminate Camp Resolution’s lease, but made clear it was up to the city whether to clear the site.
Judge Jilly H. Talley denied a request to prevent the closure of Camp Resolution. Prince filed a third request for an injunction and a same-day hearing. They are scheduled for a hearing on Aug. 30.
Sanchez claimed that most people in the camp have been waiting to receive an assessment for over 20 years. They’ve been relocated hundreds of times. Sanchez said in a press conference that the only way they could be housed was by having an assessment.
Vina Carter, 63, became unhoused when her brother passed away, leading her to become a resident at Camp Resolution. Carter retired with disability through the state after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel, a form of athetosis in her hands. Devastated by the clearing of the camp, Carter struggled to express her feelings. Despite everything, she remained resilient and hopeful.
‘It’s gonna be hard, but I’m gonna make it,” Carter said. ‘I have to, I have to make it.”