New Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty's top priority is tackling homeless crisis
SACRAMENTO — Kevin McCarty was officially sworn in as Sacramento's new mayor Tuesday evening after he defeated epidemiologist Flo Cofer in a very close race.
McCarty made it clear that the homeless crisis will be his top priority starting with a day-one audit of the city's homeless spending.
The City of Sacramento has been following a plan to respond to homelessness and has been enforcing illegal camping under voluntary compliance, but McCarty said he will enforce the law as mayor.
The Supreme Court's Grants Pass v. Johnson decision earlier this year allowed cities to prohibit camping on public property, regardless of if there are shelter beds for them.
"Where are you going to put the people? You can sweep them, but where are you sweeping them to?" said one woman who lives in Sacramento.
During his campaign, McCarty said the homeless need a safe place to go, not just moved around. He also said he wants to collaborate with the county more in creating shelter spaces and mental health treatment programs.
"It's tough because, obviously, they are homeless and they don't really have a place to go and then people don't want them next to their houses," said Daniel Opher, who lives in Sacramento.
A spokesperson from Sacramento County said they already have a robust collaboration with the city that is securing funding opportunities, co-deploying street teams and co-deploying mental health clinicians and peer specialists from the county to do mental health and substance abuse treatment screenings.
The county is also in partnership with the city on several shelters including North 5th Shelter, St. John's and Joshua's House.
"I am quite worried," said Niki Jones, director of Sacramento's Regional Coalition to End Homelessness.
She is concerned the change in leadership could cause more homeless sweeps without enough shelter space.
"Mayor McCarty, we need real solutions that are evidence-based, that are transformative in nature, that take a system of market-based access and turn it into a real human-centered needs-based system where access to housing is a human right," Jones said.
Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho sued the city last year over its handling of the homeless crisis. He gave CBS13 this statement about McCarty being elected as the new mayor:
"I congratulate Kevin McCarty on his successful election as Mayor of Sacramento. I look forward to working alongside him to continue our progress on homelessness, retail theft and other public safety challenges our community faces. I am confident that together, we will continue to bring about positive change for all residents, and that Sacramento will thrive as a place of opportunity, growth and unity."
During his campaign, McCarty said he would be putting an item about homelessness on every single city council agenda.
