Thank you Phil Serna for lending a hand.
As reported in the Sacramento Bee, Serna helped secure more than $35,000 worth of funding so the homeless living at Safe Ground will have places to go. Sacramento County Park Rangers passed out fliers informing campers sheriff’s work crews will be cleaning up the camp next week. The park rangers can hardly be blamed for their lack of enforcement; they’re stretched too thin as it is.
So where’s the City been in all of this?
The City acted with a sense of urgency as the homeless camped downtown, but appeared stoic when they moved up north.
When the homeless set up camp near the Blue Diamond Plant and the New Era Park neighborhood, the City came out in full force to remove them. The homeless advocacy group Safe Ground has since been looking to set up a site for the homeless somewhere in the City for campers. They’ve had meetings with the Mayor and spoke at numerous City Council meetings.
The issue seemed to fade under the radar until an article appeared in the Sacramento Press with photos of the damage left by campers along their new site – a site not widely publicized or discussed – along the American River Parkway in North Sacramento. The photos were provided by prominent North Sacramento resident and landowner Bob Slobe.
The American River Parkway is overseen by the County, but neighbors the City neighborhoods of Old North Sacramento and Woodlake.
Why no involvement like when the last camp near residents in New Era Park?
Of course this isn’t to say the City isn’t engaged in the homeless issue. Meetings do take place behind closed and doors solutions are found.
If that’s the case, then it’s a little odd they didn’t want to show their efforts to the public this time around as they did the last time.
As an editorial pointed out, Serna believes the parkway is the wrong place for the homeless, but also feels authorities must provide them with safe and legal alternatives before aggressively moving them.
Thankfully, he’s not simply looking to push them up the road.