Story and photos by Isidore Mika Székely Manes-Dragan
Residents of Camp Resolution stand behind Anthony Prince in front of the gate (photo by Isidore Mika Székely Manes-Dragan)
Three weeks after the City of Sacramento stopped water delivery to Camp Resolution, and one week after camp residents announced that they would resist an unwanted inspection, camp members are now being forced to terminate their lease.
The residents at the self-governing homeless encampment, which the homeless advocacy organization Safe Ground established in 2022, staged a press conference on July 18 outside their campsite. A visit from City inspectors was scheduled for 1 p.m. that same day.
Anthony Prince, attorney for the camp and for the Sacramento Homeless Union, and Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, spoke at the press conference.
At the press conference, Prince said that he suspected that the City wanted to sell or give away the property to a third party.
“We are opposed to this,” Prince said. “The lease agreement that was signed a year ago specifically grants the residents of this camp the right to remain here and restrains the City of Sacramento from closing this site until everyone is provided individual, durable, and permanent housing.”
Prince and Sanchez also declared opposition to an inspection by the Sacramento Water Board and the Department of Community Resources scheduled for 1 p.m. that same day, arguing that the inspection is merely a pretext to justify the camp’s eviction. Prince added that the City didn’t respect privacy concerns without advance notice.
“Our objection today is there is no notice,” Prince said. “It would constitute an invasion of privacy. We were not involved in any way shape or form. Apparently there were discussions with the water board, City of Sacramento, Sacramento Safe Ground, and the city council members.”
Prince added that the camp would be willing to work with the city on terms of the inspection.
“We are willing to cooperate,” Prince said. “Please don’t report that we don’t want an inspection. We do. But it has to be organized, it has to be planned. If they all sat down and said we need to do this, we need to be included.”
When the inspection team arrived at 1 p.m., Prince greeted them across the street before they had a chance to enter the guarded gates. He shook hands with two team members, including a police officer, but Bryan Pedro of the Community Resources Department had other things in mind.
Anthony Prince is unable to make an agreement with Brian Pedro, from the Department of Community Resources (photo by Isidore Mika Székely Manes-Dragan)
Pedro insisted to Prince that Safe Ground board director Mark Merin, who also held the lease, gave him explicit permission to inspect the property. Prince demanded proof. Pedro showed the press an email that Merin purportedly sent. The email, timestamped at 12:47 p.m. on July 18, read: “After the press conference I saw two folks guarding the gate, they informed me they would not allow the inspection to go forward. I informed the city that the inspection would not be permitted today, Gus Martinez (City Attorney) said they would appear and then issue a warrant for inspection. Best, Mark.”
Then Prince insisted on proof of anything corroborating this email, at which time Pedro called off the inspection.
On July 24, Safe Ground announced that it was unable to maintain terms of the lease, which means it will terminate it on August 1. Camp Resolution and its advocates have not publicly responded.
In a letter to camp residents, Merin listed multiple reasons for the termination in bullet points. He wrote:
Some of the barriers which have led the Safe Ground Board of Directors to come to this conclusion include the following:
- The site needs a water supply and electricity which cannot be supplied without some substantial City financial support, which we have been advised the City cannot provide;
- Restrictions imposed by the Regional Water Board on the use of the property, excluding residents from half of the property (the unpaved portion), has created significant divisions among the residents which can only be resolved by pursuit of a completely revised variance by the City which we have been advised the City is not interested in pursuing;
- No liability insurance can be secured by Safe Ground to protect it from liability for damages which could occur from any number of accidents possible on the property; and
- The excessive heat and anticipated inclement weather makes injury more likely in the absence of water and electricity supplies.
This marks a dramatic reversal from June 11, when the camp successfully renewed its lease. But shortly thereafter, the City announced removing water and sanitation support from numerous encampments, including Camp Resolution, citing a lack of available funding.
The removal of this support came during a month where the region approached or met record daily high temperatures. In Sacramento alone, two people have died this month due to heat exposure: Steve “Snoop” Easely, who was homeless, and Kevin Gerhardt, who didn’t have air conditioning in his home. . On July 23, water distribution was temporarily restored, but only until the August 1 termination date..
State, U.N. Recognizes Human Right to Water
John Stiefel, a water, sanitation and hygiene consultant in San Francisco, told Street Sheet that the U.N. sets a bare minimum standard for living for everyone, under one of its sustainable development goals to “achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.”
The international community’s minimum benchmark is 15 liters of potable water per person per day, Stiefel continued. Also, waiting for and collecting water should not take more than 30 minutes per day on a round trip, he added.
“In a post-pandemic/post-emergency context like SF or Sacramento, it is 50 liters per person, per day, of potable drinking water,” Stifel said, citing recommended water standards under the Sphere Standards handbook.
Stiefel also referenced the state water board’s own guidelines, which recognizes the human right to water under state law that Jerry Brown signed in 2012.
‘Constructed eviction’
After the July 18 presser, Prince described what the City committed to the media as a “constructed eviction.”
“It’s a historic lease, they can’t take the camp down, and they can’t make the conditions so bad that people just leave,” Prince said. “That’s when your landlord doesn’t give you an eviction notice, but they turn off the heat and they turn off the gas, ya know what I’m saying? And it makes it impossible to stay there. When you worsen the conditions and force people to go.”
“We’ve already had people leave here because it’s intolerable for them: The temperature in those trailers is 120 degrees, you’ll die from that, and out here it’s not much better,” Prince continued. “And where’s the air conditioning? How come they brought in trailers that were lacking the original equipment? And how come we can’t get electricity so we can get some kind of relief out there? How come they haven’t brought in a portable cooling system? Into this camp, which they have? How come none of these steps have been taken? And how come we’re paying the city manager over half a million dollars a year to manage the city when he can’t even manage to take care of fifty people who are homeless out here in a city sanctioned encampment?”
The City is taking a lot of political heat for attempting to close Camp Resolution and other encampments. But that’s nothing compared to the actual heat unhoused Sacramentans are braving.
