Sacramento orders more homeless people’s cars moved in the same area as a Monday sweep

The day after Mayor Darrell Steinberg and City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela raised concerns about a massive homeless sweep in a North Sacramento business park, city crews returned to the same street to issue more notices.

Code compliance crews Wednesday issued seven notices ordering vehicles to move or be towed in the Commerce Circle/Lathrop Way area, said Kelli Trapani, a city spokeswoman. Among them was Alice’a Stanley’s white Honda Accord. After her other car was towed Monday, losing the second car Saturday would mean losing the main mode of transportation for herself and her two young daughters, she said.

The orange notice stuck to her window said the vehicle has been there for more than 72 hours. Stanley said it has not. She broke down crying on the curb Wednesday.

“This is the way I get my kids to their appointments, the only way I get to the store,” Stanley, 46, said. “I don’t know where they expect me to park it.”

Neoma Orndoff, 60, who is deaf, also received a notice Wednesday on her U-Haul and also on a trailer she acquired from Larry Jankiewicz, who died, Stanley said. But she lost the keys to the U-Haul so they didn’t know what they’re going to do.

Steve Chadwick Beebe also received a notice on his RV where he has been living, he said. It does not run and he did not know how to move it

“I’m having a hard time today,” Beebe, 44, said.

Matthew O’Donnell, who has Parkinson’s disease, also wondered where to go. His partner Happy Hedges, who has COPD, and their two dogs have been staying in the Lathrop Way area for nearly two years. After being cleared Monday, they moved their RV and pickup truck to another industrial area in North Sacramento. The city put a notice on it Tuesday.

“I’m just another guy trying to survive out here,” O’Donnell, 50, said. “All the safe (parking) zones are full. It’s a constant battle.”

In addition to O’Donnell’s RV, at least an additional three RVs on Land Avenue received notices from the police department Tuesday ordering them to move or be towed Wednesday.

The notices are part of an apparent crackdown on homeless vehicles in the city. City Councilman Jeff Harris, who represents the Commerce Circle/Lathrop Way area, said staff have identified about 3,000 vehicles in violation of the city vehicle parking code, and have recently made a priority list for enforcement. In addition, at a community meeting held at Two Rivers Park in October with Steinberg and Valenzuela, a police officer told those in attendance that the department is getting new direction from the city to treat homeless vehicles the same as others.

Activists say the crackdown could not come at a worse time, with all shelters full on any given night, temperatures forecast to dip into the 30s this week, rain in the forecast Saturday and Sunday, and no warming centers yet open. Four homeless people in Sacramento County died of hypothermia last winter.

“With temperatures dropping they are giving permission to remove the only shelter that families have,” said Crystal Sanchez, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union. “We are getting reports of children as young as 2 months old to seniors losing RVs. The streets of Sacramento are extremely dangerous not only due to the elements of weather but of physical harm.”

The city’s Department of Community Response, which responds to homeless camps, is working to get Stanley into housing, she said.

“I’m very thankful for that ... but in the meantime what am I supposed to do?” she said.

Most of the people cleared over the weekend did not get housing or shelter. All the motels, shelters and Safe Ground sites were full Monday. The council in August adopted a $100 million Comprehensive Siting Plan to Address Homelessness, but none of the 20 new sites have opened.

One of those sites is a Safe Ground parking lot at the Roseville Road light rail station. It will allow unhoused people to safely park where they will not be towed, but there is no timeline for when it will open said Jessica Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Regional Transit.

Steinberg plans to schedule a City Council discussion Tuesday about how to speed up the opening of the new sites, and also about how the city should handle enforcement, he said.

But before then, the vehicles belonging to Stanley, O’Donnell, Beebe and Orndoff are all scheduled to be towed, according to the notices.

“I understand they want us to just disappear into nowhere,” Stanley said. “But we have nowhere to disappear to.”