Jessica and Felipe Davila packed their belongings and left the steps of Sacramento City Hall before dawn on Thursday, just as the city’s new camping ban took effect. For months, the couple had relied on the plaza’s cameras and bright lights to feel secure while they slept.
“Where we stay at, it’s kind of safe. We got cameras. We got security guards watching us 24/7 to make sure everything’s okay with all of us,” Felipe Davila said.
The city now prohibits sitting, lying down, or sleeping on the grounds at all times. The penalties for someone if caught could now range from $250 to $25,000. The ordinance was passed by the Sacramento City Council last month through a 6–3 vote. The change ends a six-year exemption that allowed people to camp outside City Hall overnight.
Mayor Kevin McCarty pushed for this change. The mayor says that he wanted the building rules to align with those of state and federal buildings, which don’t allow camping, and to protect city staff.
He also pointed to sanitation costs. He said the $353,000 the city spends on cleanup annually could be used for investing in other homeless resources.
“We’re saving to not have to power wash literally feces and urine from the sidewalks every morning,” McCarty said in an earlier interview.
But for Jessica Davila, losing the space means losing community.
“We could be somebody’s family… But they don’t care. They just treat us like trash. That’s not fair. We’re human beings… You know we have feelings, too,” she said.
The couple said outreach workers pointed them toward the city’s tiny home shelter programs, but they refused. Jessica described past experiences in shelters as unsafe and unhealthy.
“I’m not going back to any shelter,” she said. “It feels like jail.”
The Davilas said they also worry about their friend Josh Ames, who stays with them at City Hall. The couple said they would not consider going to a city-operated shelter unless Ames can find placement with them, something they doubt will happen. They say he was recently kicked in the leg by a drunk man and now struggles to walk.
“They’ll probably deny him because of his injury,” Jessica Davila said.
Hours after the ban went into effect for the first time on Thursday, McCarty stood on Roseville Road to unveil 135 new tiny homes under construction at the city’s shelter-and-service campus. The mayor framed it as part of his broader vision to address homelessness.
“We need to have some balance in there,” McCarty said in a previous interview with CapRadio. “You need to expand places where people can go and you need to have some balance and order as far as where our no-go camping locations [are], government facilities, public places.”
Not everyone sees the new homes as an answer. Advocates say short-term shelters do not replace permanent housing. Nikki Jones, executive director of the Sacramento Coalition to End Homelessness, said the city is “banishing” people from one site to another.
“We’re increasing people’s heart rate. We’re pushing people closer to death with these policies and further from safety,” Jones said.
When CapRadio called him Thursday morning, McCarty declined to comment on the ban going into effect.
Business owners near Cesar Chavez Plaza hope the new restrictions improve conditions outside of their business. Hector Melchor, who manages Mercado Urbano, a small restaurant across the street, said customers and staff regularly deal with theft and harassment.
“Of course, this problem is affecting our business,” he said. “Today in the morning when we opened…[someone] tried to take a sandwich and said it was free for him.”
The Sacramento Bee reported that when the ban was being debated by city council in early July, McCarty exchanged tense words with Councilmember Mai Vang who voted against the ban. The mayor told the South Sacramento councilmember that he would “make sure there are encampments” near a community center in her district after she opposed the camping ban. Vang later described the comment as inappropriate and part of a “hostile” pattern. McCarty apologized in writing at the time.
At the Roseville Road press event, CapRadio asked about the controversy. McCarty responded that he and Vang had “moved on” from the dispute and were focused on city priorities.
McCarty has insisted the city will offer shelter placements to the “regulars” at City Hall. But advocates say what’s being offered isn’t supportive housing, only short-term beds.
Nikki Jones, executive director of the Sacramento Coalition to End Homelessness, called it “a coercive service delivery model” that forces people into programs they don’t want.
For people like the Davilas, the ban represents another move away from the one place they felt visible and protected.
“I feel mad that it’s going to happen. I’m disappointed,” Felipe said. “[The mayor] needs to look… how it feels to be on the streets and know what’s going on.”
Additional reporting by Greg Micek.
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