Fight over Sacramento homeless camps between District Attorney, Mayor Steinberg escalates

A fight over homelessness between Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and city officials is escalating.

Ho sent a letter Monday to city officials to give official written notice that he plans to file charges against city officials if the city does not comply with a long list of demands, including a citywide daytime camping ban.

The ban would take place between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. every day, during which time people would need to place their tents and belongings in storage and then get them out every night.

“Our community is caught between compassion and chaos as we reach a breaking point that requires action,” the letter Ho sent Mayor Darrell Steinberg Monday stated.

“I just decided I’m not going to continue to have my city being threatened by someone who’s not doing his part,” Steinberg said Tuesday during a news conference at City Hall. “The DA’s politicizing of this issue should be worrisome to the entire community.”

In response to Steinberg’s criticism, Ho said in a statement: “This local crisis has been made worse by local decisions and indecisions. Therefore, we have taken the first formal step towards litigation against the city of Sacramento. However, we are providing the city an opportunity to adequately address this public safety crisis.”

DA spokeswoman Shelly Orio declined to answer questions about the specific claims Steinberg made.

Ho also requested the city audit its homeless spending, pay for more frequent homeless counts, clear 16 camps within 30 days, and for the city to set up sanctioned campsites, which the city is planning to do already.

Background on Sacramento DA dispute with city officials

The letter is the latest step in the fight that started last month, when Ho sent a letter asking the city to clear camps around the courthouse, which the city did. Ho then put out a survey, and said he plans to file civil or criminal charges against city officials. The survey has gotten over 1,600 responses in a matter of days, the letter stated.

“Residents reported they were assaulted at gunpoint by an unhoused individual; a girls’ soccer game was postponed because of hypodermic needles on the field; a homeowner was diagnosed with PTSD due to the constant harassment and break-ins by unhoused people living in an encampment across the street from her home,” Ho’s letter stated.

Many of the issues identified in the survey involve low-level misdemeanors, which often do not result in an arrest or jail time. Both Ho and Steinberg say they want more prosecution of those crimes. But they disagree over which entity should do so and how. Steinberg suggested the DA’s Office hire more staff to prosecute misdemeanors, but with a mandatory diversion to avoid jail if they are homeless. Ho asked the city for more city attorney’s office staff to hand out more citations to people violating city ordinances such as ordinance banning camps from fully blocking sidewalks.

The DA’s Office currently has alternative courts in lieu of traditional prosecution, such as Veteran’s Court, Mental Health Court, and Drug Court, Ho’s letter stated. Those voluntary courts have served over 5,000 people in the last several years.

Steinberg requested the DA’s Office expand alternative courts and hire more staff, and provide public reports. He also requested alternatives to jail booking sites for low-level offenses, and for expanded probation capacity.

Ho has said potential criminal charges would stem from violations of California Penal Code 370, which prohibits “public nuisance” and cites “anything which is injurious to health, or is indecent, or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by an entire community or neighborhood...”

City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood has said she disagrees that the state public nuisance statute could be used against Sacramento officials. California law does not expressly place on government agencies “an affirmative obligation to eliminate public nuisances on their property,” she wrote in a letter to Ho on June 30.

The city has roughly 1,100 shelter beds, but they are all typically full, meaning it cannot legally move people off public property, under the city’s interpretation of the 2018 Martin v. Boise U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. That ruling states cities and counties cannot criminalize homeless people living on public property unless there is a place to take them. The city has interpreted “criminalize” to mean it cannot tell people in tents on public property to move unless it has a shelter bed or space for them. Even without an available bed, the city does clear tents blocking the sidewalks on critical infrastructure, as well as vehicles that have been in the same spot for more than 72 hours. Ho’s letter stated he does not believe the city is interpreting the Boise ruling strictly enough.

There are an estimated 9,300 homeless people living in Sacramento County, according to a federally mandated January 2022 count. The vast majority of them are living outdoors and are within the city limits.

It may not be the first public fight for Ho and Steinberg. Steinberg has said he is not running for re-election next year, but that he may run for Attorney General in 2026, if Rob Bonta runs for governor. Ho may also be interested in the AG post, according to a source with knowledge of the race, and could be setting himself up as the “tough on homeless” candidate compared to Steinberg’s more compassionate approach.