Advocates for the people living at Sacramento’s Camp Resolution want city leaders to rescind a March letter to the camp’s operator stating that they would be shutting the encampment down. This comes despite word the city planned to ease its efforts to shut down the site.“Today, the City of Sacramento notified Safe Ground Sacramento that it would hold off on the termination if various conditions were met,” a city spokesperson wrote in an online statement Thursday.The statement also included a link to a letter, dated May 2nd, between Assistant City Manager Mario Lara and Safe Ground Sacramento Executive Director Mark Merin. In it, Lara writes “the City is willing to hold in abeyance the requirement to vacate provided that Safe Ground Sacramento brings the property into compliance with the variance issued by the Water Board on Jan. 13, 2022, which allows habitation only in vehicles parked on the paved portion of the site.” Merin told KCRA 3 Thursday evening that while the notice seemed to be a positive development, the letter did not supersede a March letter sent by the city to him stating the occupants of Camp Resolution must be out by mid-May. “They’ve got to go all the way and rescind the notice,” he said. “The lease is extremely important.”The agreement between Safe Ground Sacramento and the city mandates that trailers must be off the ground for people living at the site. The land is approved to be a safe-parking site only due to concerns about soil contamination. Merin said it is his understanding that the crux of the current issue is that some of the camp’s residents are camping on unpaved parts of the property. The lease, however, also dictates the camp cannot be shut down until the occupants are in permanent housing.“The city – everybody, the city council, the city manager – has an opportunity to do something really good, really novel, really neat, that could serve as a model for going forward,” Merin said. “Instead of tripping over a technicality, they should rescind the notice and let’s get going. Let’s work on the real issue here.”Merin said the camp is working for the dozens of people who currently live there but acknowledges that building more permanent housing in the form of low-income housing could be a good next step for the site. In the meantime, he said, occupants need to be allowed to stay at Camp Resolution until they have housing. And an attorney for residents is ready to go to court to ensure they can stay.Anthony Prince, the attorney representing the Sacramento Homeless Union and the occupants of Camp Resolution, said Thursday the residents are anxious and concerned about the city’s actions and that the back-and-forth over the last few weeks.“There’s no reason to trust that the city is going to keep its word,” he said. “It’s broken its word already.”Prince acknowledged Thursday’s letter but reiterated that negotiations between the camp and the city cannot take place until the March letter is tossed out. He said he notified city officials Thursday that they have until Monday, May 6 to rescind the termination of their lease notice or he planned to take legal action to keep the camp open.“We’re willing to talk to them. We’re willing to discuss anything they want to talk about: variances, putting some kind of modification in the agreement,” he said. Those conversations can only come once the March letter is rescinded, Prince said.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.
Advocates for the people living at Sacramento’s Camp Resolution want city leaders to rescind a March letter to the camp’s operator stating that they would be shutting the encampment down.
This comes despite word the city planned to ease its efforts to shut down the site.
“Today, the City of Sacramento notified Safe Ground Sacramento that it would hold off on the termination if various conditions were met,” a city spokesperson wrote in an online statement Thursday.
The statement also included a link to a letter, dated May 2nd, between Assistant City Manager Mario Lara and Safe Ground Sacramento Executive Director Mark Merin.
In it, Lara writes “the City is willing to hold in abeyance the requirement to vacate provided that Safe Ground Sacramento brings the property into compliance with the variance issued by the Water Board on Jan. 13, 2022, which allows habitation only in vehicles parked on the paved portion of the site.”
Merin told KCRA 3 Thursday evening that while the notice seemed to be a positive development, the letter did not supersede a March letter sent by the city to him stating the occupants of Camp Resolution must be out by mid-May.
“They’ve got to go all the way and rescind the notice,” he said. “The lease is extremely important.”
The agreement between Safe Ground Sacramento and the city mandates that trailers must be off the ground for people living at the site. The land is approved to be a safe-parking site only due to concerns about soil contamination.
Merin said it is his understanding that the crux of the current issue is that some of the camp’s residents are camping on unpaved parts of the property. The lease, however, also dictates the camp cannot be shut down until the occupants are in permanent housing.
“The city – everybody, the city council, the city manager – has an opportunity to do something really good, really novel, really neat, that could serve as a model for going forward,” Merin said. “Instead of tripping over a technicality, they should rescind the notice and let’s get going. Let’s work on the real issue here.”
Merin said the camp is working for the dozens of people who currently live there but acknowledges that building more permanent housing in the form of low-income housing could be a good next step for the site. In the meantime, he said, occupants need to be allowed to stay at Camp Resolution until they have housing.
And an attorney for residents is ready to go to court to ensure they can stay.
Anthony Prince, the attorney representing the Sacramento Homeless Union and the occupants of Camp Resolution, said Thursday the residents are anxious and concerned about the city’s actions and that the back-and-forth over the last few weeks.
“There’s no reason to trust that the city is going to keep its word,” he said. “It’s broken its word already.”
Prince acknowledged Thursday’s letter but reiterated that negotiations between the camp and the city cannot take place until the March letter is tossed out. He said he notified city officials Thursday that they have until Monday, May 6 to rescind the termination of their lease notice or he planned to take legal action to keep the camp open.
“We’re willing to talk to them. We’re willing to discuss anything they want to talk about: variances, putting some kind of modification in the agreement,” he said.
Those conversations can only come once the March letter is rescinded, Prince said.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.
