Sacramento City Council bans homeless camps near schools, adding to existing law

Updated Oct. 19, 12:36 p.m.

UPDATE: The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved banning homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools. 

Officials added schools to a so-called critical infrastructure ordinance last updated in July 2021, which bans camping near locations including child care centers, colleges, hospitals and levees. 

Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby, who called for the addition last month, said the ban shows the city is prioritizing children’s safety. But advocates for unhoused residents again opposed the amendment. They said the city can work on ensuring students can walk to school without punishing people living on the streets. 

Niki Jones, an activist with the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, questioned why Ashby made the proposal when there’s a measure on the November ballot that would ban encampments on public property in the city. If voters pass Measure O and the city meets a few requirements, unhoused people could face misdemeanor charges for refusing to move or rejecting an offer for an available shelter space. 

“How superfluous is this ordinance if Measure O passes?” Jones said. “You’ll have every right to sweep everywhere. So, what is this even about except some kind of pre-election rallying of the guard in your favor?”

Ashby is running for the state senate District 8 seat and will finish her term on the council in December. She announced the proposal about a week after a man who appeared to be homeless reportedly harassed children walking to Sutter Middle School. 

“This isn’t about one person; it’s not about one school site; it’s not about one incident,” Ashby said. “This is about kids being safe at school and it’s about schools being a priority to this city.” 

(The original article published on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 follows below.)

Sacramento Council member Angelique Ashby is calling on the city to ban homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and childcare centers, a proposal supported by some parents but opposed by area homeless advocates. 

Ashby, who is running for state Senate, said at a Tuesday news conference in East Sacramento that the city and county are making progress on new homeless shelters and housing.

“But in the meantime, we have kids to keep safe. And this is an important step in that goal,” she said. 

Her proposal follows reports last week that a man who appeared to be homeless had harassed children on their way to Sutter Middle School.

A statement from Sacramento City Unified School District, as reported by KCRA, read in part:

“...Sutter Middle School administrators responded to reports of an individual demonstrating either mental or intoxicated behaviors making sexual gestures toward students who were off-campus walking to school. Sacramento Police were called and the individual was arrested as a result. A message regarding the incident was then sent to notify Sutter Middle School families.”

Stephanie Crowe, a Sacramento mother of three, also spoke at the press conference. She described being chased by an unhoused person while walking her children to school. Crowe, who has a daughter at Sutter Middle School, said there is “no safe path to school.” 

Advocates for homeless residents agreed student safety is a top priority. They added, however, that safe routes to school can be designed without criminalizing unhoused people.

“In the same way that young children deserve safe walking paths to and from school, unhoused people are deserving of safe spaces to sleep,” Shannon Dominguez-Stevens, who runs the Maryhouse shelter for women and children at Loaves & Fishes, wrote in an email. 

Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, described Ashby’s proposal “as a way to circumvent (the federal court ruling) Martin versus Boise which states that no municipality may criminalize (homelessness) when no adequate shelter is available.” 

Ashby said she wants to add the 500-foot ban to the city’s existing critical infrastructure ordinance at a council meeting next month.  

She suggested at the news conference that having schools listed as critical infrastructure would exempt the city from having to first offer available shelter to people camped near schools before they could be moved. She said other jurisdictions have taken similar approaches. 

In August, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved two ordinances that will outlaw homeless encampments along the American River Parkway, near schools, libraries and other areas supervisors deemed “critical infrastructure.”

Ashby said approving the citywide ban won’t mean moving all encampments near schools overnight. She said the city has limited enforcement resources and that she does not expect unhoused residents would be fined or arrested, noting such action is not effective. 

Council member Katie Valenzuela, who represents the central city where a large portion of Sacramento’s homeless population is concentrated, said she will oppose Ashby’s recommendation.

“The incident at Sutter Middle last week was completely unacceptable,” Valenzuela wrote in an email, “however the proposed measure would have done nothing to prevent it from happening.”

“Rather than attempt more half-measures,” Valenzuela added, “we should be pushing for the County services and shelter options we need to allow us to manage the complex needs of our unhoused population in a way that keeps our kids safe.”

Mayor Darrell Steinberg, meanwhile, said he supports adding schools to the list of critical infrastructure. 

“But let’s be clear,” he added in a written statement, “until we have a true partnership agreement with Sacramento County that enables us to offer housing, shelter, and mental health services to those in obvious need of help, our community will not receive the relief it rightfully demands.”

Ashby said the City Council could consider her proposal as early as Oct. 11.