Vanguard Sacramento Bureau Chief
SACRAMENTO, CA – The Sacramento Homeless Union chief counsel Tuesday charged the city of Sacramento – in its mass eviction of the unhoused Camp Resolution Monday – destroyed “evidence” and committed “numerous violations of the law” during the eviction.
The Vanguard reported Monday a small army of city of Sacramento police, firefighters, code enforcement, animal control and other workers invaded the previously sanctioned homeless outpost known as Camp Resolution early Monday, rousting about 50 disabled and senior residents.
Tuesday, Anthony Prince, chief counsel of the homeless union, wrote the city “you were previously notified regarding the City’s obligation to preserve and not destroy evidence. To the extent that the City has destroyed vehicles, habitations and property belonging to the residents the City has violated that obligation and, going forward, must not commit any further acts of destruction.”
Prince said “vehicles, habitations and personal property of the residents (are) clearly evidence,” and added, “We will (be) notifying the Court and filing supplemental declarations and additional claims on this issue and the numerous violations of the law and abuses of my clients that took place yesterday from which they are now suffering great loss, deprivation, physical and psychological harm and an increased risk of harm.”
The union will be in court this coming Friday, asking a Sacramento County Superior Court judge for a temporary restraining order to prevent further action by the city.
The city closed the camp after the lease was cancelled by Safe Ground Sacramento, a longstanding ally of the unhoused that now claims it could no longer provide necessities to the residents, largely because of the city of Sacramento’s apparent desire to close the encampment, which has city-provided trailers but not much else.
Prince, in his statement Tuesday, said the city informed him “all trailers would be left at the camp so that people could return and retrieve their belongings as well as the privately owned trailers. Instead, vehicles and RVs were towed, some reportedly destroyed and, in any event, the site has been cleared of all persons, vehicles and property.
“We need to know where the RVs, vehicles and property that was towed is currently being stored. In one case, an 80-year-old resident had his trailer towed with two dogs inside. He has no idea which company did the towing. We have had other trailers towed under similar circumstances and animals left inside died.”
Andrea Henson, co-counsel with Prince, said she was informed “ALL of the possessions inside would remain untouched for 60 days in the impound so that every Camp Resolution resident could visit their trailer in impound yard and remove their belongings from their trailers. I explained that our most disabled residents were unable to pack all of their belongings.”
Henson said she did observe police knocking on doors of the trailers in some cases and going inside, but added, “I was not with the police officers the entire time so I cannot confirm all of their actions throughout the entire camp.”
The city of Sacramento issued a statement Tuesday claiming, “City-owned trailers have been relocated to the North Area Corporation Yard…other vehicles and trailers that were abandoned on the street or within City property have been towed by a third-party tow and storage company through City Code Enforcement.”
The city explained the vehicles were “deemed abandoned,” and may be scattered throughout the area in various tow yards. The city said those seeking access to their trailers or possessions should contact the police.
Monday, Prince said, “The mayor, the City’s official website and a handful of phony ‘homeless advocates’ today blamed the Homeless Union for the spectacle of destruction and human suffering at what for two years was a safe refuge for the majority female, majority elderly and majority disabled residents.”
“Today the City of Sacramento indelibly smeared itself with disgrace, violating state and federal disability laws after being warned not to do so by the Disability Rights California, designated the states’ official agency in1978 for protection and advocacy of the disabled by an act of Congress,” Prince added.
Prince said city “bulldozers crushed the RVs in which human beings have safely lived for two years… skip loaders dumped clothing, food, medicine, and other personal property belonging to the residents… caused people to suffer seizures and mental health crises, to watch everything they owned get crushed and carted off like trash.”
“For our part, the Union and the Camp Resolution residents will rise from this massacre stronger than before. And we are confident that, while some will cheer, still others will share our disgust that a City that pays its City Manager over half-a-million dollars and wasted another $125 million taxpayer dollars can’t figure out a way to house its residents,” added Prince.
