Over the last year, California’s state capitol, Sacramento has been working hard to balance a responsibility to find or create shelter for the city’s homeless. It has been a challenge to balance compassion as well a safety for the homeless with the pressures from citizens and businesses who want solutions yesterday, not tomorrow.
Quickie camp clearance solutions across the state would probably continue to be a modus operandi. But the courts have been responding to ‘sweep them away’ lawsuits by declining to order the removal of the homeless and their tent encampments unless they are offered shelter alternatives.
The City of Sacramento has been looking for more proactive solutions, thanks to activists who have supported people who are homeless.
We’ve followed some of the quarrels about competing rights and responsibilities over the last year. Try: Sacramento “Right To Housing” A Whirlwind Of Praise, Condemnation
Leading the charge to create a legal right to shelter has been San Francisco Mayor Darrell Steinberg. A recent article written by him in the Sacramento Bee explains the status of city initiatives as it becomes the first city in North America to enshrine in law the human right of homeless people to have housing. Read more: The Sacramento homeless ballot measure gets us closer to housing everyone. Here’s how
