The city of Sacramento removed residents from a high-profile, self-governed homeless camp on Monday, marking the end of what had been a celebrated but ultimately unsuccessful experiment in how to manage the city’s sprawling homeless encampments.
The camp’s closure comes after months of threats by the city to shut down the tight-knit community of about 50 unhoused men, women and their pets. Residents and their supporters challenged those threats in court and won a series of reprieves, until this week.
The closure takes place nearly a year-and-a-half after the city signed a lease with residents, allowing them to govern many of the camp’s operations, a first for the region.
Camp Resolution was led by a largely female group of residents, several of whom moved to the property after floods washed out their camps along the American River. It was located on city property in North Sacramento, on Colfax Street at Arden Way.
The end of the high-profile camp comes weeks after Governor Gavin Newsom urged cities and counties to do more to remove encampments and follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to enforce camping bans.
On Monday, tow trucks removed cars from the city-owned lot as camp supporters watched and filmed videos during a tense but ultimately orderly camp closure. Police blocked traffic from entering streets bordering the camp. Meanwhile, outreach workers set up tables nearby offering residents services from healthcare to case management.
A bulldozer throws away the trash and belongings left behind by residents Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, at Camp Resolution in Sacramento.Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio
The Sacramento Police Department said officers arrested four people Monday morning for “resisting/obstructing/delaying,” at or near the camp property. All were released, and police said they haven’t determined whether they lived in Camp Resolution.
Resident Betty Edwards cried as advocates asked her what she wanted to take out from her trailer and bring to the city-provided motel room she’s staying at by herself.
Living at the camp gave her stability, Edwards said, and the community helped her get to dialysis appointments.
“It took me months to get it situated over here,” Edwards said. “And now they’re destroying my whole life again.”
Edwards is one of 10 residents who had agreed by Monday afternoon to move to other shelters offered by the city, which included motel rooms and Sacramento’s Roseville Road homeless shelter campus, city officials said. It’s unknown where the 40 or so other residents ended up.
Sacramento Homeless Union President Crystal Sanchez (right) comforts Camp Resolution resident Betty Edwards (left) as the city removes vehicles from the encampment in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 26, 2024.Kristin Lam/CapRadio
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he hopes more people accept offers for shelter at motel rooms, pallet homes at Roseville Road and beds at the city’s Outreach and Engagement Center, a short-stay shelter in northeast Sacramento. He said Safe Ground Sacramento, the nonprofit that operated the camp, initiated the closure by deciding to end the lease for the property.
Steinberg added he believes camp residents have an obligation to accept help.
“We cannot have people living in squalor,” Steinberg said. “And Camp Resolution, well intended, but didn’t really work out.”
Council member Shoun Thao, who represents the district where Camp Resolution is located, said in a statement that remaining at the property isn’t safe. He referenced soil contamination at the site, an issue raised repeatedly by the city, a water board and Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho.
Residents say camp offered them community, stability
For residents John and Valerie Bowen, Camp Resolution allowed them to mourn the death of their son and provided them with a community that understood what they were going through.
“I lost my son two years ago and it gave me a place to mourn, and it’s been good not to have to worry to go to a different spot every time,” Valerie said, while watching bulldozers scoop up the trash and belongings some residents left behind. “We were able to unite with each other and come up with solutions on how to survive out here.”
Valerie Bowen, 46, is an artist. She’s made a living selling the drawings and paintings she created while living at the encampment.
“Now they’re taking that from me, and here they are telling us they want us to get a job,” she asserted.
John Bowen, 54, noted he and Valerie looked at tiny home shelters at 3900 Roseville Road in North Sacramento. What he found was too small.
“It’s a pallet home… the size of an aluminum coffin,” he said.
Additionally, the Bowens said they were offered separate dorms by one of several organizations providing support outside of the encampment on Monday.
“We’ve been married for 28 years and have never been apart,” he remarked. “All these people bombarded me saying, ‘Are you ready to go?’ No, I’m not ready to go. I’m still trying to figure out what the hell just went on.”
John Bowen added that another person offered them a place where they could be together with the requirement of being on the premises by 8:30 p.m. every day. He denied the offer.
“Come on man, it’s still daytime,” he said, adding the rules at some shelters simply aren’t reasonable.
The couple said they don’t know where they’ll sleep tonight.
Valerie Bowen, 46, and her dog Barbie stand next to their SUV Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, across the street from Sacramento’s Camp Resolution. Bowen said rats chewed through the vehicle’s wiring, so repairs are needed before she can use it again.Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio
Background on Camp Resolution
In April 2023, residents at Camp Resolution reached a first-of-its kind lease with the city of Sacramento to remain on the city-owned property as a self-governing community. They had occupied the lot for several months and refused the city’s orders to leave before reaching the lease agreement, with legal help from the California Homeless Union and Sacramento Homeless Union.
But the deal with the city did more than just give residents a say in how to govern the camp. It also promised they could stay there until all had obtained permanent housing, something that would become a major point of contention months later.
Early on, advocates for the camp celebrated the deal and called it unprecedented in the Sacramento region and possibly nationwide.
City officials agreed to provide up to 33 city-owned trailers to the camp. They also allowed a group of camp leaders, called the resident council, to create rules governing maintenance and security for the site and gave them the power to determine how to admit new residents as spaces became available. The city required that it approve this operations plan.
After the unique deal was struck, some community leaders, including mayoral candidates Dr. Flojaune Cofer and Assembly member Kevin McCarty, even cited Camp Resolution as one possible model for how to manage homeless encampments citywide, especially given the high cost of camps run by city contractors.
Camp Resolution in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022.Andrew Nixon / CapRadio
Threats to remove the camp
Camp Resolution’s lease was signed six months after the city had threatened to clear residents from the site. City officials said at the time removal was necessary because soil at the partially paved lot was contaminated and presented health risks, citing an assessment by the Central Valley Regional Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The property sits at Arden Way and Colfax Street near Woodlake in North Sacramento.
“The people currently occupying the Colfax lot are violating the terms set by the state Water Board, and they are in potential danger from the toxic chemicals in the soil, especially people in tents,” Assistant City Manager Mario Lara said in a written statement in November 2022. “The City is liable if people are allowed to stay there.”
Under the lease signed months later, residents agreed to use the RVs instead of tents and not to camp on the dirt portion of the property.
The promise of affordable housing
Residents at Camp Resolution and their supporters have maintained the city has no right to remove the camp. They’ve pointed to a line in the lease saying the agreement would be renewed until all residents have permanent housing.
“The length of this lease shall extend for 120-days from the Execution Date and shall be automatically renewed for an additional 120 days or until all residents have been placed in individual, permanent, durable housing,” the lease said.
But city officials say residents violated the lease by camping on contaminated portions of the property, thereby negating the agreement.
In addition, Sacramento officials have “attempted to work with the organizers of Camp Resolution numerous times” city spokesperson Tim Swanson said in a May statement to CapRadio. He added that those efforts included offering a new location for the camp and discussing building affordable housing at the site — as long as residents move off of the soil.
“Unfortunately, the Sacramento Homeless Union has not been open to the City’s repeated offers to collaborate and find solutions for the campers,” Swanson added. “The City finds the Sacramento Homeless Union’s unwillingness to work together toward meaningful solutions to the issues at Camp Resolution both dispiriting and disappointing.”
Despite the camp’s high profile and promises to connect residents with housing, camp leaders say only 16 people ultimately found permanent housing.
Anthony Prince, attorney for the California Homeless Union, filed a lawsuit against the city of Sacramento in May 2024, saying the city has no grounds to terminate the lease that allows a group of unhoused residents to run their own encampment.Chris Nichols/CapRadio
What’s next for Camp Resolution?
Arturo Baiocchi, an associate professor of social work at Sacramento State, has studied Camp Resolution for the past year. Unlike the mayor, he said he doesn’t see the camp as a failed experiment, given how it empowered and gave people a sense of community and was more affordable compared to other programs.
“I do think other communities should look at this with some optimism that this kind of arrangement can work,” Baiocchi said. “But obviously something here didn’t happen right at the end.”
The professor added he plans to continue researching the fallout and what happens next to the former residents.
Camp Resolution residents and their attorney asked a Sacramento County judge to prevent the city from closing the camp until it fulfills their requests for disability accommodations at city shelters. But motel rooms and pallet homes at Roseville Road can meet accessibility needs, city spokesperson Tim Swanson said in an email.
A related court hearing on the matter is scheduled for Friday morning.
The same judge earlier this month denied the camp’s request for an injunction, saying residents don’t face immediate harm.
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