The D4 HomelessTask Force, led by Councilperson Katie Valenzuela met on June 30th. District 4 neighborhoods have been asked to attend these meetings, provide feedback and hear the latest updates. LPCA board member Ignacio Barragan represents our community at these meetings and receiving helpful information for Land Park and the wider community. We’d like to thank Ignacio for his time and passion for improving the quality of life for all in Land Park!
Below is the report from the 6/30/21 D4 Homeless Task Force Meeting:
- Councilperson Valenzuela’s office is meeting with Sierra Health Foundation to get involved and find a place for homeless folks in the interim. This is a private/public partnership.
- Old Raley’s Site: Raley’s is looking for a new leasee for the big building on the property. Conversations with Councilperson Katie Valenzuela and her team are on hold for now. It appears Katie intends to continue conversations to explore the use of the parking lot as a possible homeless family shelter site. This location won’t be on the July list for prospective sites. Her office is currently working with South Land Park Community Association as part of this effort. The LPCA is welcome to participate and share feedback.
- Councilperson Katie Valenzuela shared that the City of Sacramento is exploring cross-collaboration with other neighboring cities to address the homelessness crisis.
- The Master Plan has a consultant who is working on the final July site list coming up for a July 27th vote. Per Mayor Steinberg, they are actively working to identify a minimum of 5,000 spots. Katie said she does not have any insight or information about what the consultant’s recommendation or final list will look like until the information is published ahead of the meeting. Ignacio asked Katie to please keep the D4 Taskforce apprised of any public information that is shared ahead of the meeting so that we have ample time to review; she obliged.
- The Office of Community Response is staffing up significantly and that non-criminal 311 calls are being routed to that department with a 1-2 day response time. Further clarified that police are exclusively in charge of crime related homeless issues but concerns related to non-criminal encampments are handled by the office of the Community Response.
- Increased Cleaning Services Contract voted on June 29, 2021. Councilperson Katie Valenzuela said they are noticing more trash around the area. An expanded cleaning services contract will be going to put out more trash cans. She welcomes LPCA and the public to provide location ideas for trash cans.
- The City also approved a contract for additional mental health staffing. No further information about this was shared with the Taskforce.
- Shifting the Narrative: Katie’s office is working with Organize Sacrament to develop new training to foster social narrative shift about homelessness. She is hoping these will be attended by community association members or otherwise. The first training will be on Saturday July 24, at 1pm at Organize Sacramento (https://www.organizesacramento.org/). They will distribute an info graphic soon, which the LPCA will share. Katie also welcomes videos of folks who want to share their personal stories around homelessness to “change the narrative” on social media platforms like Facebook and Next-door.
- The LPCA received questions from the community and passed along to Councilperson Valenzuela and her staff. She was very responsive and added Bridgette Dean and Ginger Weagraff from Department of Community Response to the email thread to have them assist with responses. We have not heard anything from them yet, but will keep you posted. The following questions were ask by Ignacio Barragan on behalf of our community:
- Can you provide an update on the W/X 6th – specifically, how many people are there right now? How many have been transitioned into services and housing?
- Are there any new services or phone numbers people need to know about?
- Are there any stats about the people being helped? For instance, how many are…
- Elderly and disabled?
- Drug addicted and trying to get clean?
- Veterans?
- Aged-out foster-youth in need of support?
- Released from prison and have nowhere to go?
- Mentally ill?
- What is the average length of stay for people at these sites?
- How many homeless clients come, leave and come back to you?
- When they move on from this site, where do they move to; another encampment, hotel, back into housing, other?
- Can you explain how the drug dealing trade is impacting this site and the surrounding area? What is the strategy to reach out to other entities to help curb this problem?
- Now that a number of safe sites are set up, and many of the emergency orders governing the pandemic have been lifted, are there are any plans for police to clear out the other unauthorized sites along the freeway? (NOTE: The pandemic was one of the reasons cited for not being able to remove these sites and people’s belongings.)
The LPCA will continue to accept your questions and share them with our District 4 Councilperson. Here are links to previous informational posts about the W/X & 6th site, including contact numbers to resources:
https://landpark.wpengine.com/safe-ground-qa-sheet-ready-to-review/
https://landpark.wpengine.com/land-park-wants-to-know-how-safe-is-safe-ground/