Tensions Escalate in Months-Long Feud Between Sacramento District Attorney and City Over Its Handling of Homeless Encampments

Frustrated Sacramento residents who called the city for help dealing with homeless encampments near their homes were directed to “be thankful” for being housed, a lawsuit against the city says, one of many allegations against Sacramento’s government as tensions over its handling of law enforcement escalate.The lawsuit against the city from the district attorney, Thien Ho, was consolidated with another suit from attorney Ognian Gavrilov as the cases were “nearly identical,” claiming the city’s lack of enforcement of its own public ordinances has led to a “spiraling descent into decay” and an “utter collapse into chaos.” Now, Mr. Gavrilov is demanding that the city’s attorney, Susana Alcaca Wood, recuse herself from the case because it is “inappropriate and unlawful” for her to represent Sacramento in a case in which she was a “material witness” because of her own role in not enforcing public ordinances. He also says he intends to depose Ms. Wood by the end of the month and says if he doesn’t receive deposition dates by end of day Wednesday, he will choose a date himself, the Sacramento Bee notes.“Sacramento is the most important and influential state capital in the country,” the lawsuit says. “As the epicenter of the fifth largest economy in the world, the decisions emanating from the City reverberate throughout the United States and across the globe,” it notes, adding that, “sadly, the city is dying.”While urban areas around the country grapple with homelessness, the lawsuit’s demands — and the escalating feud between the city and the district attorney — will raise questions about the responsibility local governments bear in addressing homelessness and what legal recourse is available if a city fails to enforce the law. “This lawsuit may have opened a can of worms that was best left sealed, as we could see all sorts of local prosecutors suing cities, counties, and states over what are effectively policy disagreements, such as to force liberal policy changes in conservative-run cities,” the Pacific Research Institute’s communications director, Tim Anaya, tells The New York Sun. Although the district attorney is right to criticize the city for its handling of homelessness, changing policy should be through elections, and voters “should be concerned that a district attorney would sue other governmental entities over policy matters,” Mr. Anaya says. The homelessness crisis has grown “exponentially worse since Mayor Steinberg took office,” despite the city “spending tens of millions of dollars on government homeless programs,” Mr. Anaya, whose office is at Sacramento, says.California’s capital city is home to two self-governing encampments known as “safe grounds,” city-owned plots equipped with resources for homeless people to live temporarily, as the Sun has reported.In July, Mr. Ho sent a survey to Sacramento residents asking about how encampments have affected their work, school, and home quality of life. He received nearly 3,000 responses.“Residents reported they were assaulted at gunpoint by an unhoused individual; a girls’ soccer game was postponed because of hypodermic needles on the field,” the lawsuit notes. Other responses detailed how “children have had to walk through human feces and urine to get to school.”Even more shocking, the lawsuit says, is what’s happening to the “homeless occupants of these Shanty Towns.” The encampments lack running water, are infested with rats and fleas, and an estimated two homeless individuals die each day. “Medieval diseases have reemerged and are decimating homeless communities,” the lawsuit notes.The city is working “day and night” to enforce the law, Sacramento’s mayor, Darrell Steinberg, who was not reachable by the Sun for comment, said in response to the lawsuit.“Frankly, we have no time for the District Attorney’s performative distraction from the hard work we all need to do together to solve this complex social problem plaguing urban centers throughout the state and nation,” he said.Messrs. Ho and Gavrilov did not respond to requests by the Sun for comment.

Tensions Escalate in Months-Long Feud Between Sacramento District Attorney and City Over Its Handling of Homeless Encampments

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