Eric Guerra will have a challenger for his Sacramento City Council seat. Who’s joining race?
Amreet Sandhu is running for Sacramento City Council next year.
She will challenge Councilman Eric Guerra to represent Elmhurst, Tahoe Park, and southeast Sacramento.
Sandhu, an Elmhurst resident, is former president of the Elmhurst Neighborhood Association and is a founding member of the Queer Democrats of Sacramento.
She said she is running for the 6th District seat to improve the city’s response to the growing environmental and homeless crises.
“My commitment to public service comes from the Sikh value sewa, which means service to others,” said Sandhu, a law librarian. “And right now we need people who are committed to service more than ever. The urgency of the situation in Sacramento requires me to jump in to ensure better outcomes for our region.”
Sandhu, whose father grew up in the public housing community on Seavey Circle in Upper Land Park, said she wants the city to require developers to build more affordable units when they build market-rate units, in order to alleviate the housing crisis. Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela has expressed support for the same idea but the council has not yet taken a vote on it.
“We’re seeing buildings go up all over town and at the end of the day the money they could make by selling those as market rate, it’s not translating into what we need,” Sandhu said. “The waiting list to get (Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency) housing is painfully long and we’re just not going to build the housing we need in time to house the people we need to house.”
For example, the wait list for SHRA’s new Mirasol Village housing mixed-income complex in the River District recently received 9,451 applications, according to SHRA. It includes 487 units.
Sandhu previously was an activist with the group Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which pushes for eviction protections and rent control across the state.
Sandhu said she would also want to open shelters and Safe Ground-sanctioned camping sites in the 6th District, even if the city has to pay to lease one of its many vacant buildings from private owners. The city has a couple of motels where it places homeless families in the district, but no large shelters or Safe Grounds, despite the large homeless community along Stockton Boulevard and bordering Morrison Creek.
“I think the situation has gotten so bad, we need to consider all options to get people housed,” Sandhu said. “We’re looking at another hot summer in Sacramento without a strong urban forest and we know that people die in this heat. I feel it’s an urgent situation.”
Sandhu will challenge Guerra, who was first elected to the council in 2015 and is now one of its longest serving members. In the March 2020 primary, he sailed to re-election with 65% of the vote against three opponents, avoiding a runoff.
Last year Guerra lost his bid for state Assembly to then-Elk Grove City Councilwoman Stephanie Nguyen. He announced earlier this year he would seek re-election to the council.
The March 2024 election would be Sandhu’s first run at public office.
The primary will be held March 5. If no single candidate gets at least 50.01% of the vote, the general election for the 6th District would be held Nov. 5.
