Sacramento homeless advocates sue city and county demanding more weather shelters
Homeless individuals and activists filed a lawsuit against the city and county of Sacramento on Friday seeking a court order to compel agencies to open many more buildings as emergency weather shelters in extreme heat.
The lawsuit, filed by an attorney for the Sacramento Homeless Union and three homeless individuals, seeks a court order to require the county and city to “dramatically increase the number of cooling stations and other locations where the region’s thousands of unsheltered homeless can survive the deadly extreme heat currently in the Sacramento Valley and forecasted to return throughout the summer,” the lawsuit said.
A city spokesperson did not immediately comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern California. A county spokeswoman also declined comment because the county has not yet been served with the lawsuit.
The county released a three-page letter from county counsel to the homeless union’s attorney. It said the county has been providing water to homeless camps during the coronavirus pandemic, and has opened several cooling centers.
“The county regularly and consistently takes action to mitigate the impact of weather on persons experiencing homelessness,” the letter said.
On a handful of days this month during bouts of extreme heat, the city and county have opened a total of four cooling centers, not counting libraries and community centers. The county’s cooling centers are located in Midtown, south Sacramento and North Highlands. The city’s new cooling center is in North Sacramento, in the former Powerhouse Science Center building on Auburn Boulevard.
Many homeless individuals can not get to the centers, the lawsuit said. Many do not have vehicles and cannot afford bus fare. The lawsuit names three homeless individuals who allege they have not been offered transportation to the cooling centers, including one woman who is staying in a tent at the city’s Safe Ground at Miller Park.
Two homeless individuals died with heat stroke as one of multiple causes of death in 2020, the latest year for which the information is available, according to the coroner’s office.
The homeless community is at a greater risk for heat-related illness and death because they often have underlying conditions and are in poorer health than the general population, Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist and activist, wrote in a declaration attached to the lawsuit.
“In my professional opinion, neither the city nor the county are providing Sacramento’s homeless community any meaningful relief from the heat and thereby placing members of the community at great risk of harm,” Cofer wrote.
The high in Sacramento is forecast to hit the triple digits Saturday through Monday, but if the National Weather Service does not issue a heat advisory, Sacramento would not open the new center.
The lawsuit asks a judge to require the city and county to declare an emergency whenever the temperature is above 90 degrees. On those days, the lawsuit asks the city and county to open at least 20 cooling centers and keep them open 24/7 whenever temperatures are forecast to exceed 90 degrees, the lawsuit says. Also during those days, the city and county would be barred from clearing encampments.
It’s not the first time the homeless union, which comprises more than 2,000 homeless people, has sued the city over the issue. In July 2020 a judge ruled in the union’s favor regarding sweeps, determining the city had violated a county public health order.
A January 2019 count found there are an estimated 5,570 homeless individuals living in the county on any given night, and all shelter beds are typically full. An updated report is expected to be released Tuesday and advocates expect it show a much higher number.