Sacramento DA Thien Ho chooses to go to war with city officials over homelessness | Opinion
Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s attempt at a homeless strategy partnership with District Attorney Thien Ho has resulted in Ho figuratively pointing a gun at the city’s head with a long list of demands and no similar set of actions of his own.
It is hard to imagine a worse relationship between the top county prosecutor and the largest city as it struggles to solve its largest problem. This is all Ho’s doing. It is a spectacularly unfortunate tactical decision that sets the district attorney and the city on a confrontational path just when the city has made some tough decisions about how to expand its shelter capacity for unhoused individuals.
Opinion
In a recent interview with members of The Bee Editorial Board, Ho explained that Steinberg had recently contacted him with some proposals on how to work together. Both leaders are frustrated with the proliferation of homeless encampments, the garbage on city streets, the discarded hypodermic needles and the disruption to civic life.
As events have revealed, the two leaders are polar opposites in approaches. Steinberg has sought a collaborative approach among their respective staffs to prioritize city actions leading to a greater district attorney caseload that hopefully leads to greater use of services such as addiction treatment.
Ho, meanwhile, has launched an investigation that may target unnamed city officials. And, on Monday, he responded to Steinberg’s olive branch with a club.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, Steinberg detailed how he had privately made Ho a very provocative offer. The mayor said he would support something that “I am not comfortable with,” which is citing homeless residents en masse for misdemeanor crimes. In turn, however, Ho would have to adopt a prosecution strategy for these cases that prioritizes “the care they deserve,” namely diversion into substance abuse and mental health services.
Ho so far has refused such a partnership. Instead on Monday, he basically offered nothing new from his office while asking the impossible of city hall. He wants shelters with 24-hour security for thousands of homeless (75% of the estimated outdoor population) established in 30 days. He wants four new city attorneys hired in 30 days to prosecute more code infractions, and he wants the 16 identified major encampments eliminated. All in 30 days.
Government cannot get through the advertising process for a new hire in 30 days, much less interview and hire new staff members. New ordinances take considerable time to craft and enact. Ho has been in government long enough to know this, yet demands it from Sacramento anyways. He appears to be playing to a different audience than the social service workers, law enforcement officers and non-profit organizations that confront this crisis each and every day.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, argues that Ho’s threat of prosecution is based on a misreading of a court decision that essentially prevents cities from criminalizing homelessness. The humanitarian crisis by definition is both a nuisance and a tragedy.
Ho’s investigation is both a waste of precious government resources and is based on a wildly unrealistic set of demands.
There is, however, a great price to be paid when one government chooses confrontation with another. It destroys the ability to develop a better working relationship. Conflict consumes the energy of both sides, and it reduces the amount of government capacity to confront the actual crisis.
The city should continue to offer a partnership path to the district attorney. Ho’s “offer,” with its absurd timetable and detail, is not intended to be taken seriously.
