Sacramento vice mayor proposes no-camping zone around schools, daycares after incidents involving homeless people
SACRAMENTO -- The week after an unhoused man was arrested near Sutter Middle School in Sacramento for making sexual gestures towards students who were off-campus walking to school and banging on car windows nearby, Sacramento's Vice Mayor introduced an amendment to an ordinance for a 500-foot buffer around schools.
The amendment would be added to the Critical Infrastructure Ordinance and would mean a camping ban in a buffer zone around schools and daycares. Childcare centers, according to Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby, are already part of the ordinance.
Ashby said the amendment was in direct correlation to "multiple" calls she received from families and community members concerned for the safety of students who attend schools with homeless encampments nearby.
"This Is getting to the point where we have to do something, this 500 feet is to me, it's not enough, but it's a start," said Stephanie Crowe, a parent of a Sutter Middle School student.
On enforcement, Ashby and City Councilmember Jeff Harris both said that the intent of the ordinance, including a sidewalk camping ban that just went into effect Friday in Sacramento, is not to criminalize homelessness. Instead, they say enforcement comes through self-implementation. Social workers speak with people who live unhoused, according to Ashby, and connect them with the necessary resources.
The loophole for cities like Sacramento is to pass an amendment on the Critical Infrastructure Ordinance saying they are not bound by the Boise decision. Martin v. Boise was a 2018 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in response to a 2009 lawsuit filed by six unhoused people against the city of Boise, Idaho. Their case was in response to the city's anti-camping ordinance.
I took this photo outside of Sutter Middle last Fri. a day after an unhoused man was arrested for harassing a child. This person was camping by the playground on campus.
— Madisen Keavy (@madisenkeavy) September 27, 2022
Vice Mayor’s critical infrastructure ordinance amendment + 500ft buffer around schools/daycare/childcare. pic.twitter.com/UKGIoWTQQz
From this decision, people cannot be punished for sleeping outside if an alternate form of housing is not available. In this case, to move homeless encampments in California city officials must provide housing, which in total, is 1,100 beds in Sacramento. Compare this to the city's more than 10,000 people who live unhoused, according to the latest Point in Time Count.
Sacramento Mayor Darryl Steinberg said he supports the amendment to the critical infrastructure ordinance but says it must come with "humane enforcement." That, he explained to CBS13, must happen in partnership with Sacramento County.