73-year-old homeless woman trapped in tent during Sacramento storm: ‘I couldn’t move’

Ruby Stonebraker and her dog heard a boom next to their tent.

The 73-year-old and her West Highland White Terrier, Dammy, had bedded down on a strip of grass between a bike trail and Arden Way in north Sacramento during the Sunday storm that was accompanied by 70 mph wind gusts. She poked her head out and saw a large tree about 20 feet away had fallen to the ground, roots sticking in the air.

Not long after, the tree right next to her followed suit. The thick branches trapped her inside the tent. Dammy was shaking between her legs.

“The tree just in slow motion came down,” Stonebraker said Monday, recounting the experience, her blue fleece pajama pants still damp and muddy from the previous day. “I couldn’t move. I was just thinking ‘How am I gonna get outta here?’”

Sacramento Homeless Union President Crystal Sanchez and other Camp Resolution leaders arrived to her rescue. Sanchez cut Stonebaker out of the tent. Dammy barked the whole time.

She made it out OK, without injuries — at least she thinks.

“At my age you can’t tell the difference between cold and being hurt,” said Stonebraker, who was still able to smile despite her predicament.

Now she doesn’t have a tent to stay in. She likely will have to wait until she can save enough Social Security checks to buy a new one, she said. At the same time, the wait drags on for a shelter that can do more than keep her dry.

Why is she homeless?

Stonebacker has been on waiting lists for housing for two years, she said. And like thousands here, she has yet to be offered a unit.

“I always heard that age has priority and everything, but they ignore us,” Stonebraker said.

Stonebraker has been homeless since January 2022, when she lost her rental housing, she said. She can’t afford an apartment because the rent and security deposit are higher than her $1,100 Social Security checks. Despite working as a Sacramento-area bartender and horse trainer her whole life, she has no savings.

Unable to afford rent, she’s resorted to sleeping in tents. In the last two years the city police and code enforcement crews have swept her six times, taking her tent each time, she said. The city swept her as recently as last week on Front Street.

City spokesman Tim Swanson said that it was up to an individual to disclose which services have been offered and which services have been accepted.

The city has offered to put her in a shelter, but she has been uncomfortable with the accommodations for her dog, she said.

“It’s worth noting that if the City engages in a compliance action, it also offers all available services, such as space at the Outreach and Engagement Center or, more recently, the new Roseville Road campus,” Swanson wrote in an email Monday.

“I just went out three days ago and bought this tent with my only paycheck,” she said, pointing to the destroyed light green tent, its poles now bent and branches covering it. “I’m going to have to save two more months to get another tent.”

City and county elected officials have for months known about Stonebraker’s plight.

Homeless activist Herman Barahona has been emailing city and county leaders since the summer, when Stonebraker was in a tent in 110-degree temperatures, begging them to find a way to get her indoors. When they did not, and temperatures dipped, he sent another email last month.

“Ruby is so frail it is obvious she may not survive the winter on the streets without her tent and makeshift survival gear,” Barahona wrote in an email to city and county leaders Jan. 13 after he said city crews trashed Stonebraker’s belongings on Front Street.

Representatives from the offices of Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and Supervisors Phil Serna and Patrick Kennedy did respond to Barahona, saying they would try to help. But weeks later, Stonebraker is living outdoors and has never been offered housing, she said.

What can be done?

Barahona thinks there should be more subsidized affordable housing, and more Safe Grounds to help people in the interim. The city and county have roughly 2,600 shelter beds, including in Safe Grounds, but it’s not enough for the estimated 9,300 homeless people in Sacramento.

The city and county each opened a warming center during the storm, but there were only 100 spaces, and they are hard to to get to for many unhoused people.

It’s possible the city may even close some of its roughly 1,300 beds as it faces a $50 million budget deficit.

“We need to consider this a disaster response,” Barahona said Monday. “We just haven’t had any response that means anything for her. That’s the problem with this whole town. Everyone hands out Band-Aids.”

In January 2023, two unhoused people in other parts of the city died when large trees fell on their tents during a similar atmospheric river storm. Although the wind was about 10 mph stronger in Sunday’s storm, there were no weather-related homeless deaths this time, said Kim Nava, county spokeswoman.

However, Chad Ensey, 41, died at his Carmichael residence after a tree fell on him in his backyard, Nava said.

Even without storms, unhoused people face the danger of dying due to hypothermia in Sacramento, where nighttime temperatures frequently dip into the 30s. In November 2022, three homeless people died of hypothermia in Sacramento.