Homeless encampments across Sacramento County could be cleared out after the county's public health order ends.
Kim Lau from Sacramento Street Medicine says providing the homeless with individual, non-communal housing helps with good health outcomes and prevents death. Homeless advocates and medical students are urging local law enforcement not to clear homeless encampments starting June 15th. They marched from City Hall to the Sacramento County Administration Building Tuesday, holding signs that read "SWEEPS KILL."
The order expires next week, but until then, the city and county can't cite the homeless or remove "life necessities" from encampments unless people can be moved into individual housing. Sacramento County's Janna Haynes says at this time there are no plans to have an extension of the public health order after June 15th.
According to The San Francisco Chronicle, for much of the past year, local governments across Northern California found themselves in an uneasy truce with encampments.