SACRAMENTO, CA – In 2023, the Sacramento Bee reported Sacramento authorities increased criminal citations against homeless individuals, a move that has raised concerns among the homeless community.
Theresa Rivera, a 45-year-old homeless woman who uses a wheelchair, has experienced firsthand the impact of these conditions, explains The Sacramento Bee. Living on the streets for over a decade, The Sacramento Bee states Rivera sustains herself by looking after belongings for other homeless individuals in exchange for small amounts of money or food.
In March 2024, the Sacramento Bee wrote she received a criminal misdemeanor citation for camping, and because she cannot afford transportation to her court date, she now owes $333—the simple misdemeanor could further hinder her chances of securing stable housing.
Rivera questioned in the Bee story, “What are the tickets helping? It’s not helping the city because I can’t afford to pay for it. It’s not helping us because it’s affecting us getting housing. Instead of tickets…they should help us with housing.”
A Sacramento Bee analysis revealed a substantial rise in citations beginning in 2023—between August 2023 and December 2024, Sacramento police issued 543 citations for camping-related offenses, compared to just 30 in the prior 17 months.
The Bee explained the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office increased its citations from 272 in 2022 to 705 in 2023, with 655 already issued by early October 2024.
Despite the increase, city and county officials assert that elected representatives had no direct role in ramping up enforcement, the Bee noted, adding newly-elected Mayor Kevin McCarty has pledged to review the issue with the city council.
McCarty expressed support for enforcing ordinances, reported the Bee, but community advocates argue criminal citations do more harm than good.
Crystal Sanchez of the Sacramento Homeless Union urged the council to halt the citations, particularly amid poor weather conditions, charging in the Bee story, “Citations do not end homelessness and create state-created dangers to the community as a whole.”
The Sacramento Bee states: The Sacramento Police Department has not provided data on how many individuals were offered housing or shelter before receiving citations.
The Sacramento Bee added a department spokesperson stated that multiple factors contributed to the increase but could not confirm whether homeless individuals were being offered support before being cited.
The surge in citations coincided with a lawsuit filed by Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho, against the city in September 2023, accusing officials of allowing homeless camps to create a public nuisance, explained the Sacramento Bee.
Though a judge ruled parts of Ho’s argument unconstitutional, the lawsuit’s pressure appears to have influenced city actions, cited the Bee.
Since the lawsuit, all 16 encampments identified in the case have been cleared, and the homeless population in Sacramento has declined for the first time in seven years, reported the Sacramento Bee.
The Sacramento Bee noted the increase in citations also followed an August 2023 council vote to approve officers being paid overtime to respond to homeless encampments.
As the debate over criminal citations continues, Sacramento’s homeless population remains affected, with city officials promising discussions while advocates call for immediate change, the Bee explains.
Another article on people who commit crimes but are also branded “homeless” should get special treatment and not be cited because they are labelled “homeless”. The picture says it all. Leave garbage in a pile in a public place, and the “homeless” advocates say ‘let them trash our cities and not clean up after themselves like decent human beings, it’s the price you homed people all must pay #sneering# you nasty homed people who pick up after yourselves’. Oh, and as a bonus, ‘let them set fires and threaten your communities’.
You want to see the awful effects of allowing homelessness to thrive in your community, check out ultra-tolerant San Jose for a slice of paradise: “San Jose tackles thousands of homeless camp fires”: [ https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-tackles-thousands-of-homeless-camp-fires/ ]
As I have testified recently at City Council meetings, we have the same issue here on a smaller scale, just google it and you’ll find increasing arson and encampment fires in Davis. As I’ve also pointed out, there were two fires in ‘homeless’ encampments along the railroad tracks behind Design House near Olive & Richards. Both fires, suspiciously in exactly the same place, were so intense (I saw the smoke from both from my house) that they burned through the railroad signal wires that control the signalling system for the railroad and in both cases the railroad was paralyzed for three days while new cables were strung and the system was replaced and tested. I was told they knew who did it but couldn’t prove it. These are usually unsafe camping/cooking fires or intentionally set as acts of revenge.
Another problem: poop. I stepped in human poop recently 200′ from my house retrieving stolen mail in a pile to try to get it back to its owner. Years ago I took the Sacramento Northern bike trail north out of downtown not realizing how scary it had become with hundreds of ‘homeless’ camping along it for miles and miles (dodged a literally-still-steaming human poop freshly left on the bike trail). I saw thousands of white streamers in the reeds of the adjacent drainage ditches, and after miles of this I realized they were all toilet paper! Untreated raw human feces in our waterways, that is another legacy of allowing people to camp wherever the f*ck they please. Where are the ‘environmentalists’ on this? On a smaller scale this is happening in Davis at the drainage canal crossing F Street on the north side of town where Davis has allowed a long-time encampment to flourish.
Fires, Poop & Garbage Piles . . . the legacy.