‘Languishing’: Sacramento sheriff homeless outreach finds mental illness, addiction, crime

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper on Wednesday announced the results of a recent homeless outreach effort and called for robust funding to address serious problems that prevent unhoused people from receiving or accepting help.

Over five days in May, sheriff’s deputies went to areas throughout the county including homeless encampments to speak to people experiencing homelessness.

The deputies spoke with 198 homeless people. They said only one person accepted their offer of services to help them get off the streets.

“My job is public safety, number one,” Cooper said during a news conference Wednesday. “It doesn’t matter if you’re housed, unhoused. We want to make sure that you’re safe and you’re not a victim.”

But he said there are rarely discussed issues that prevent homeless people from accepting help: sexual assaults, mental illness and drug addiction. He said these are underlying issues that need to be addressed; a complicated problem that won’t be solved by solely focusing on building housing.

“We’re not anti-homeless. We want to help the homeless,” Cooper said. “It’s not just one answer. It’s many answers to help solve this problem and alleviate it.”

Bob Erlenbusch of Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness said he’s not surprised the deputies found very few homeless accepting help. In fact, he’s surprised they had as many as one. He said reaching out to the unhoused needs to be a trauma-informed approach with teams of skilled social workers; ideally, one of them a former homeless person who can offer a way out based on experience.

“No matter how well-intentioned, it’s still going to re-traumatize (homeless) people,” Erlenbusch said of armed deputies conducting homeless outreach. “We need to move away from law enforcement offering services.”

Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, said sheriff’s officials, if they truly wanted to help, should have reached out to her group to help organize such an outreach effort.

“It is problematic for law enforcement officers to show up in uniform and try to provide services when in the same tone they also show up and sweep individuals experiencing homelessness,” Sanchez said. “There is no trust in that system.”

Reported crimes and sexual assaults

Deputies, in their uniforms, badges, tactical vests and with their guns, spoke with homeless people during the five-day operation.

Cooper said the deputies were out there equipped because they also need to be ready to investigate any crime they encounter. He said his deputies made 15 felony arrests, along with confiscating guns and drugs.

Out of the nearly 200 homeless people contacted, 69 had violent criminal histories, or 35%. The deputies found that 87 of them reported being a victim of a crime (44%). The homeless people reported 150 sexual assaults; 62 of those (41%) were initially unreported.

What seemed to trouble Cooper more was the reluctance by some victims to speak to the deputies about the sexual assaults. He said the victims had trouble speaking about the attacks with the presumed perpetrator standing nearby.

“You do have some predators in there that prey upon other homeless individuals,” Cooper said. “When we think about sex crimes, about rape, it’s under-reported in the public. So, in the homeless community, it’s vastly under-reported.”

Mental illness and drug addiction

The sheriff said more funding is needed to establish drug rehabilitation and mental illness programs that can handle the demand. Out of the 198 homeless people contacted in May, the deputies found that 59, or about 30% of them, were suffering from mental illness. The deputies also learned that 132, exactly two-thirds, had a drug addiction.

“If I skin my knee, I can go to a med clinic and get it fixed,” Cooper said. “If I’m having having a mental health crisis, where do I go in California? Nowhere to go. You’re screwed.”

He said the same goes for people suffering with a drug addiction; and the problem is even worse for homeless people. Cooper, since he was sworn in as sheriff in December, has listed homelessness as among his top priorities. He also has pushed the idea of conservatorships to help those mired in homelessness because of mental illness or drug addiction.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California’s Mental Health Services overhaul and funding to build on his Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Court, or CARE Court. The state Legislature last year approved that program, which creates a system of civil mental health courts and requires counties to provide treatment for residents struggling with serious mental illnesses.

But CARE Court critics have pointed out the program did not provide housing for participants, even though it is targeted at homeless residents.

On Wednesday, Cooper said the governor’s CARE Court is a start, but the sheriff called for conservatorships for those with severe mental illness and drug courts to compel those addicted get into rehab programs.

Cooper said all he hears from homeless advocates is the urgent need for housing. But he said those who are mentally ill or have a drug addiction will often have a difficult time making the decision to accept help.

“But the other option is to what? To leave them languishing. That’s inhumane. We can’t do that. We’ve done it far too long,” Cooper said. “What’s more important? Them having that freedom to do that, or us being responsible adults and taking them in protective custody and getting them the help they need.”

Forced conservatorships ‘simply won’t work,’ some critics say

Erlenbusch said he agrees with the sheriff, as his advocacy group has been asking the county Board of Supervisors for more funding for mental illness treatment and drug rehabilitation programs.

The Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness releases an annual report on homeless deaths based on its review of data compiled by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. Erlenbusch said drug overdose and violence are among the leading causes of death.

But he said forcing homeless people to help isn’t the answer. Erlenbusch said building trust and rapport with a homeless person is the way to steer them to helpful services.

“Forced treatment or forced conservatorships simply won’t work,” Erlenbusch said. “It has to be voluntary to be effective.”

Sanchez, of the Sacramento Homeless Union, also agrees with the urgent need for more services for the homeless, but she doesn’t believe the sheriff should be pushing for conservatorship.

“This shouldn’t be about criminalizing people, because criminalizing people bars them from getting housing in the end,” Sanchez said.

The sheriff said more than half of the county jail population is suffering from some type of mental illness. But the jails are “de-facto psychiatric wards,” he said, and it shouldn’t be that way.

“They don’t belong in jail if they’re mentally ill. They belong somewhere else,” Cooper said. “And for far too long, the jails have had to deal with that. Most of our calls for service involve the mentally ill.”

It draws valuable time from deputies, while his office is trying to focus on responding to violent crimes, Cooper said.

“I’ve got shootings to deal with. I’ve got violent crime to deal with,” Cooper said. “This is a social issue that has to be fixed, but it’s impacting public safety.”