Sacramento DA calls out city for allowing homeless encampment in underserved neighborhood
SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho is calling out the city of Sacramento for allowing a homeless encampment in an underserved section of the city while sweeping up encampments in more affluent areas in the months since he sued the city.
"They complain to the city they write reports, they send emails to 311," Ho said.
Sacramento's DA is defending the people living in and around Del Paso Heights.
"And it's easy for the city to go ahead and ignore this community versus other communities and that has to end," Ho said.
Ho said the city is allowing a north Sacramento homeless encampment to stand, even as it's swept some 16 other encampment zones around the city following his lawsuit against Sacramento and the mayor over the homeless crisis.
"One thing I say is no matter what happens in court, I'm not giving up and neither are we," Ho said.
While speaking with Ho, neighbor Nancy Acevedo walked up to show off the community garden she helped create next to the homeless encampment and also to criticize the city's inaction here.
"It's just another way to clean out their area and dump on District 2," Acevedo said.
"This city of Sacramento needs to listen and to serve the residents of north Sacramento," Ho said.
A final ruling in Ho's city-wide homeless lawsuit is expected soon, a tentative ruling showed a judge scaling back the DA's case.
"The judge will give us an opportunity to amend the complaint to deal with whatever issues he or she may see," Ho said.
CBS13 asked Ho why he was making his case on the streets of north Sacramento outside the courtroom.
"It feels less like a legal case than it feels like a political case, is there a mix of the two here? How would you describe it," CBS13 asked.
"There's no politics here, it's just about safety," Ho said.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg responded to Ho's District 2 inaction allegations with a statement.
"Will continue to lean in hopefully without more political noise and attention-grabbing lawsuits," Steinberg said in the statement.
This DA is campaigning for cleaner streets in this underserved neighborhood while awaiting a courtroom decision, engaging the Court of Public Opinion.
CBS13 asked Ho about his relationship with Mayor Steinberg. He said the lawsuit had made it challenging, but that he is always open to talking and listening.