Updated May 3, 1:39 p.m.:
On Thursday, Sacramento officials announced they would hold off on terminating a lease with self-governed homeless encampment Camp Resolution, allowing it to continue operation “if various conditions were met.”
Assistant City Manager Mario Lara sent a letter outlining these conditions to Safe Ground Sacramento, which leases the land where Camp Resolution sits from the city.
Those include only allowing people to live in vehicles on paved portions of the site, as the soil has been found to contain contaminants.
The letter also stipulates that “representatives of Safe Ground and Camp Resolution must agree to negotiate in good faith starting the week of May 6 to plan for the possible construction of affordable housing on the Colfax site and the provision of alternative, temporary or permanent living arrangements for residents.”
Original story, published May 1:
Negotiations over closing a self-governed homeless encampment called Camp Resolution continued Tuesday with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and City Council member Shoun Thao proposing transferring ownership of the land.
They suggested the city explore giving the North Sacramento lot to an affordable housing developer that can agree to build housing there.
Instead of selling the property at market rate, Steinberg said the city could work out terms to make a housing project financially feasible.
The proposal comes about a week after an attorney representing the residents of Camp Resolution told the city he would file a lawsuit if it didn’t rescind an eviction letter. Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho has also threatened legal action against the city over the camp and sent a letter in November saying the city could face criminal liability for allowing people to live on contaminated soil.
Steinberg said the city wants to avoid a lawsuit, but isn’t making the land transfer proposal out of fear. He added that Safe Ground Sacramento, which leases the land from the city, or a similar organization could offer the first slots of affordable housing to people who currently live in Camp Resolution.
“We believe it needs to be closed,” Steinberg said. “But we want to work with the residents, we want to work with Safe Ground, we want to find safe alternatives that are temporary.”
Attorney Anthony Prince represents Camp Resolution residents and said they have concerns over whether agreements reached in the city lease signed last year would transfer to a new owner. He added the lease allows people to stay at the camp until they all obtain permanent housing.
Prince alleged the city broke the terms of the lease by sending a letter on March 28 ordering residents to leave by May 16. He gave the city a deadline of May 9 to rescind the letter or face a lawsuit, but said Camp Resolution is prepared to move it up after seeing the public statement on the land transfer proposal.
“What the city is trying to do now is cram something down peoples’ throats under the threat of closing the camp,” Prince said. “That is totally unacceptable, not in good faith, and a violation of the lease itself.”
In an emailed statement to CapRadio, Ho said he supports the city moving people living at Camp Resolution to a site without toxic chemicals in the ground. But he said the proposal to build housing on the lot is disingenuous.
“The remediation required to make that lot habitable for humans is economically unfeasible for a nonprofit or affordable housing developer,” Ho said. “This is why the City never remediated the land themselves. The unhoused deserve to live on an environmentally safe property and negotiate with a City in good faith.”
Steinberg said building housing at the site would take time and the city is committed to finding temporary shelter for Camp Resolution residents, such as at the Roseville Road site, which is about a five-mile drive away.
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