City council plan may remove homeless from around California State Capitol for good
SACRAMENTO — There are an estimated 10,000 homeless people in Sacramento County.
No neighborhood is immune from its impacts, but now, one of the most high-profile spots in the capital city may no longer have problems with people setting up camp.
Homelessness in Sacramento is the source of many neighborhood complaints.
"A lot of people that obviously have mental issues that are wandering around and yelling," said Sacramento resident Chris Pfost.
Much of the unhoused community is concentrated in the central city, but now there's one specific spot downtown where you may never see homeless again.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and California state lawmakers have approved spending one million dollars to get rid of the homeless on the grounds of the State Capitol where those elected officials work.
"It's disgusting to spend a million dollars on a little area downtown," Pfsot said.
Pfost says the million could be better spent
"There's parts of the city and the county that are worse than this, where people are really suffering," he said.
The money was approved as part of last year's state budget bill and was requested by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
"To work with the Capitol and to see if we might provide some help to the people who are unsheltered and homeless around the Capitol," the mayor said then.
The funding will go toward providing shelter, rental assistance and other services for homeless individuals in and around the California State Capitol Park.
"I've never heard of this specific kind of funding to target a specific geographical area," said Bob Erkenbusch of the Regional Coalition to End Homelessness.
Erlenbusch is supportive of the idea, saying there's a growing need to help people with no shelter.
"Drive around the perimeter of the State Capitol, you'll see tents and people sleeping in the park because they have nowhere else to go," he said.
But Erlenbusch said the main motive behind this type of focused effort is to mask a bigger problem.
"This is just an effort to remove homeless from the State Capitol so when visitors visit the State Capitol, they don't see people experiencing homelessness," he said.
The Sacramento City Council approved the outreach plan last week and it will be implemented by the city's Department of Community Response.