Sacramento DA sued the city over homelessness. Now he’s demanding a ‘toxic’ camp be shut down

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho ratcheted up his fight with the city of Sacramento over the homeless crisis, issuing a letter suggesting officials may face “criminal liability” for allowing unhoused citizens to live at a toxic site dubbed Camp Resolution.

The move is the latest in a series of efforts by Ho to force the city to take greater action to police the growing number of homeless camps throughout the city, and raises the suggestion that he may pursue misdemeanor prosecutions of officials for allowing a “public nuisance” at the former vehicle maintenance yard at 2225 Colfax St. in Old North Sacramento.

“Providing shelter is an important part of the solution, and I have consistently advocated for the establishment of additional ‘Safe Ground’ sites,” Ho wrote in a letter to Sacramento City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood and prominent civil rights attorney Mark Merin, who runs a nonprofit group that leases the Camp Resolution site.

“However, it is dangerous and deplorable to house the unsheltered on a toxic dumpsite where people are exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. To do so is not only inhumane but raises questions regarding criminal liability.”

Comparison made to Camp Lejeune cases

Ho’s letter likens conditions at the Colfax Street site to contamination issues at the Marine Corps Base in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where the presence of the same chemicals found at Camp Resolution has “resulted in claims of over $3 trillion against the federal government.”

And Ho is demanding the city and Merin’s Safe Ground Sacramento nonprofit “abate this ‘public nuisance,’ and relocate the unhoused at Camp Resolution to a safe place, one that is not contaminated by cancerous causing agents.”

A city spokesman said the city “has received the letter from the District Attorney and is in the process of evaluating its contents.”

Mayor Darrell Steinberg and homeless advocates involved with Camp Resolution have previously denounced Ho’s actions and accused him of playing politics with the issue.

Merin, who has championed the cause of helping homeless residents for years, called the letter “a political stunt.”

“It’s a diatribe from somebody who has no solutions,” Merin said. “He just wants to point to a problem of which everyone is aware. We have people living and dying on the streets.

“We’d appreciate it if he’d offer some solutions.”

Merin also disputed Ho’s characterization of the site as a toxic dump, noting that it once served as a maintenance yard. “There have been different studies, and one of the studies found the level of benzene is no different than what’s found throughout the state,” he said.

The location has been the subject of a lengthy fight between residents of the camp and the city, which tried to shut it down and planned a sweep of it in November 2022 until Councilman Sean Loloee, who represents the neighborhood, said the sweep was being postponed.

The city ultimately provided trailers for some residents and agreed to lease the site to Merin’s group in exchange for an agreement that campers would abide by safety regulations to prevent them from being harmed by chemical contamination.

Ho’s letter cites repeated safety violations of water board regulators’ requirements, saying that the city lease of the site to the group requires that residents of the camp live only on paved surfaces in vehicles.

His letter noted that the city received permission from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in January 2022 that permitted the “safe parking” of up to 50 vehicles at the site.

Residents living in tents risk exposure to chemicals

“The use of tents sitting directly on the ground was specifically and explicitly prohibited because it increased the risk of benzene vapors becoming trapped inside the tent and exposing its occupants to dangerous poisons,” Ho’s letter noted.

Despite that, Ho wrote, city leaders have visited the camp and witnessed residents living in tents at the site, including a June 21 visit by Steinberg, who can be seen in a photo included in Ho’s letter talking to a resident in a tent on the ground.

“This was three months after the lease was signed,” Ho’s letter states. “It is inhumane to knowingly have homeless people living on a toxic waste dump.

“It is not compassionate to purposefully expose the unsheltered to poison.”

Ho and city officials have been feuding over how to address Sacramento’s growing homeless population for much of the year, and the district attorney sued the city in September in what he said was a bid to get officials to enforce city ordinances against camps blocking sidewalks and daytime camping at public buildings.

That suit is pending, and Ho has made clear in the past that he was investigating whether city officials may be criminally liable for how they have handled homeless issues.

“Public safety for everyone, including the unhoused, is the core mandate of the district attorney,” Ho wrote in a statement to The Bee. “I have consistently advocated for additional ‘Safe Ground’ shelter space, but it is dangerous and shameful to knowingly expose the unhoused to cancer-causing chemicals on a toxic dumpsite under the guise of ‘housing them.’

“Before filing criminal charges for nuisance, the law requires us to provide notice and allow the offending parties to abate this dangerous condition. We have served the offending parties with notice.

Now, my office will carefully monitor whether the city and Safe Ground Sacramento will stop exposing the unhoused to Sacramento’s version of Camp Lejeune. This criminal investigation is separate and apart from the pending civil lawsuit.

Charges can be filed over ‘public nuisance’

The D.A.’s letter Tuesday cites the California Penal Code section that allows for misdemeanor prosecution for anyone permitting a “public nuisance” to exist on their property, and he asked in the letter for a meeting to “discuss these issues and the steps necessary to achieve complete abatement of the nuisance activities” occurring at Camp Resolution.

The city agreed to lease the 2.3-acre site to the nonprofit Safe Ground group rent-free “as long as lessee develops, operates and maintains the premises as a Safe Parking Shelter and complies with the use restrictions,” according to the lease.

The lease cites the presence of hazardous chemicals such as benzene, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, and required Merin’s group to purchase a $2 million liability insurance policy.

Ho’s letter says regulations designed to protect residents from chemical contamination were not enforced and that, as of last week, “there are still tents sitting on the ground.”

“Additionally, people are still living directly on the dirt area where toxic chemicals contaminate the ground and air,” Ho wrote. “The city, its leaders, its attorney and the nonprofit tasked with protecting our unhoused continue to ‘look the other way’ and shift blame.”

Ho also noted that water board officials have repeatedly contacted the city and Merin about safety violations at Camp Resolution.

“In a series of emails starting in August of 2023, the city denies responsibility for the property and directs the water board investigator to Mr. Merin,” Ho wrote. “In turn, Mr. Merin directs the Water Board to members of the Sacramento Homeless Union and Mr. Merin’s nonprofit — Crystal Sanchez (the Homeless Union president) and attorney Anthony Prince.

“The water board’s inquiries to Ms. Sanchez and Mr. Price have been met with silence.”

Sanchez and Prince did not respond to requests for comment, but Merin said he had been at the site Tuesday afternoon and saw no tents. He added that the camp is in compliance with safety regulations.

Water board asking about safety violations

As recently as Oct. 19, the water board was emailing Sanchez and Prince asking whether safety regulations at the site were being followed, according to emails obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

“Have all enclosed tents on the ground been removed?” engineering geologist Vera Fischer asked in an email. “Do any of the trailers, RVs, etc. have skirting or barriers that prevent airflow to cycle fresh air into the space?

“Is anyone camping or in an RV or trailer on the unpaved area of the property?”

The email notes that the water board variance that allowed the site to be used as a camp expires June 1, 2024, and asks whether an extension will be requested.

“We all want this to work, and we all have our individual goals, but we are all working to make this happen and share a common interest in the safe utilization of the property,” Fischer wrote. “You will need to demonstrate compliance with the variance if you want us to consider an extension of the variance.”

In Ho’s letter, the D.A. also noted that the camp is in violation of the city’s voter-approved Measure O, which required the city manager to authorize new emergency shelter space but prohibited the spaces from being within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center, library or playground.

“Camp Resolution is located within 1,000 feet of both a licensed day care and playground, which is in direct violation of Measure O,” Ho wrote. “Sacramento City Attorney Alcala Wood and the city of Sacramento approved and entered into a lease agreement that directly violates their own ordinance.”