Anti-camping rules and sweeps: Homelessness roils race for new Sacramento Assembly district

The two Democratic candidates in a newly-drawn Assembly district straddling Sacramento and Elk Grove are competing to show voters who has been most effective in curbing homelessness, trading charges about their records.

Elk Grove City Councilwoman Stephanie Nguyen has used her suburban community and its relatively few encampments as a backdrop for attacks on Sacramento City Councilman Eric Guerra, whose district is home to sprawling tent communities.

Guerra has responded by touting his efforts to address the homeless camps and attacking Nguyen on affordable housing issues.

Here’s how both candidates and their campaigns have handled top homeless and housing issues.

Attack ads, campaigning in a new district

Redistricting made homelessness a top-tier issue in the race.

The candidates are running to replace outgoing Democratic Assemblyman Jim Cooper in a new Assembly District 10 that previously included a portion of south Sacramento, as well as Elk Grove and communities south to Lodi.

Elk Grove remains in the redrawn district, which now includes a larger chunk of Sacramento neighborhoods. This has brought the city and its homelessness problems to the forefront of the election.

Guerra and Nguyen have responded accordingly, attacking each other through mailers and Twitter statements.

A primary election ad from Nguyen showed a manicured Elk Grove park side-by-side with a Sacramento tent city, accompanied by the words, “We don’t need Sacramento’s politicians representing Elk Grove.”

A more recent mailer from Guerra seemingly responded to Nguyen. The front shows tents surrounded by garbage with the message, ‘It’s just not OK’ in big letters at the top. The inside of the mailer discusses his efforts to clear “the massive homeless encampment on Stockton Blvd.”

Guerra also came after Nguyen on Thursday after state housing officials warned Elk Grove leaders they may have violated California laws. Nguyen and other City Council members rejected an affordable housing complex for not complying with zoning rules but then approved a market rate project with the same issues.

“We must look for opportunities to build more affordable housing — not hide behind excuses as to why it cannot be done,” Guerra said in a statement he posted on Twitter.

Homelessness in Sacramento vs. Elk Grove

Homelessness is not an exclusively urban problem. Elk Grove has far fewer unhoused residents than Sacramento, but its homeless population has grown substantially in the past three years. This has been the case for nearly all Sacramento-area communities.

During a recent candidate forum, Nguyen repeatedly claimed, “We have the lowest rates of homelessness in the county of Sacramento.”

The 2022 Sacramento County point in time count shows Elk Grove with 45 unsheltered homeless, the second-lowest total for all unincorporated cities behind Folsom, which had 20. Both cities had roughly the same number of unsheltered homeless residents per capita with about 2.5 per 10,000 people.

The same survey showed Sacramento with 4,444 unsheltered homeless residents, for a rate of nearly 85 homeless per 10,000 people.

Sacramento maintains 1,400 indoor shelter beds, while Elk Grove has no permanent shelter for homeless residents.

Guerra on homelessness

Guerra has been on the Sacramento City Council since 2015. Since that time, he and other city leaders have grappled with an increasing homeless population and residents and business owners fed up with encampments.

These issues came to a head with a November ballot measure that would allow the city to clear more camps, as well as a new ordinance that bans tents from completely blocking sidewalks.

Guerra’s mailer details his work on Stockton Boulevard, where several vacant lots have become sizeable camps of unhoused people in recent years. It describes the councilman’s efforts to turn the site of “the largest homeless encampment in Sacramento County” into an affordable housing complex.

Guerra said the mailer is referring to the former Jon’s Home Furnishings site in the 4900 block of Stockton, which Mercy Housing California is now turning into 200 affordable housing units.

It is unclear whether that lot ever contained the largest encampment in the county. However, the campaign ad angered some homeless advocates, who claim it is “fraudulent” and called on Guerra to retract it.

Guerra said campers were cleared from the site in a “thoughtful attempt to make sure the camp wasn’t just moved out of one place to the other.”

“People were offered services each time,” Guerra said. “Many people declined.”

In August, Guerra cast a ‘yes’ vote on a measure allowing the city to remove encampments that do not leave at least four feet of sidewalk for passersby. At the meeting, Guerra said the ordinance is important to “maintain the health and safety of our neighborhoods” while the city searches for better homelessness solutions.

“I think the best way to characterize this is that it’s a tool,” Guerra said. “... Tools have their strengths, but they have their limitations. And this is one of those that does have its limitations, and it can be used effectively, although we see the challenges.”

He also voted to put Measure O on the November ballot. If voters approve it, the measure will allow the city to start clearing camps of four or more people on public property, as long as Sacramento and the county sign a legally-binding agreement spelling out responsibility for homeless services.

“I support it with the legally binding partnership agreement,” Guerra said. “So that we have, yes, coordinated enforcement, but, most importantly, the coordinated access and coordinated support for the folks that that are out on the street. And coordinated communication so that both the city and county getting the right information out there.”

Nguyen on housing, homelessness

Nguyen has served on the Elk Grove City Council since 2017. Her city has dealt with increased homelessness by passing anti-camping ordinances, although the suburb’s lack of shelter space and affordable housing poses additional challenges.

In June, Elk Grove passed an ordinance prohibiting camps of more than four people and banning them near day cares, schools, playgrounds and other places.

When the council discussed the ordinance, Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen suggested delaying it to allow more involvement from homeless advocacy groups.

But Nguyen and other councilmembers were not in favor of waiting.

“The encampment process is getting out of hand in other cities,” Nguyen said during the meeting. “And we need to take action. We need to be leaders here in this city to ensure that the encampments are not going to happen in so many different pockets throughout the entire city here, as you’re seeing in other areas.”

Just after the council approved the anti-camping ordinance, members rejected an appeal from a developer to build a 67-unit affordable housing development in the Old Town neighborhood. The Planning Commission had already unanimously voted against the Oak Rose Apartments, and the City Council upheld that decision.

Members said the project was too dense and plans for ground floor apartments did not fit with neighborhood zoning rules.

The developer sued Elk Grove over the decision. On Oct. 14, the state Department of Housing and Community Development sent Elk Grove a letter saying the city violated California housing laws by not allowing the Oak Rose project to move forward. Among other violations, the state claimed the city allowed ground-floor residential units in a different market-rate complex, but not in the affordable housing development.

During her comments at the July council meeting, Nguyen referred to her own background growing up in affordable housing but still said she planned to vote against the project. She declined to discuss her decision with the Bee, citing litigation.

“We’re not all bad people,” she said. We need help. We need resources. We need services. We need the wraparound services. And that’s what the county is there for. That’s what some of these nonprofits are there for. That’s what I do every day.”

“But as somebody that governs this city here, I have to go back to we have standards for a (reason),” Nguyen added. “We put (criteria) in place for a reason. And unfortunately, this project does not meet the standards or the criteria.”

This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Anti-camping rules and sweeps: Homelessness roils race for new Sacramento Assembly district."