Sacramento DA Accuses City of Allowing Homeless Vagrants to Pollute Rivers

The stark contrast between Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is growing over how to deal with the homeless vagrant population in the region.

DA Ho filed a lawsuit in September against the City of Sacramento for failing to abate the homeless crisis in the Capitol city. DA Ho said Sacramento’s homeless crisis has exploded by more than 250% in just 7 years – the exact amount of time Steinberg has been Mayor.

Mayor Steinberg retorted that DA Ho is seeking to run for State Attorney General and is using the lawsuit to bolster his public image.

The District Attorney and Sacramento Attorney Ognian Gavrilov explained they had to file lawsuits against the city, to force city officials to uphold the laws they are ignoring. Ho and Gavrilov say they have more than 400 witnesses for the trial and plan to depose Mayor Steinberg.

What it comes down to is that the DA is listening to the people, and the Mayor is not – he’s got his own agenda and it appears to involve the plethora of federal and state homeless funding he’s received. However, as we noted previously, politicians don’t spend all of that funding to help get the drug addicted and mentally ill vagrants off the streets. Instead the billions spent have been funneled into ill-conceived housing, as well as dubious non-profit organizations and non-governmental organizations, often paying out big salaries, as the Globe has reported for many years. This model is not at all prioritizing eradicating the homeless plague but in growing it so the funding spigot remains on.

And there is enough money involved that Mayor Steinberg appears to be just fine resembling an arrogant politician who hates his constituents.

And, it is Steinberg who has his sites set on the State Attorney General position – and has for many years.

This week, DA Ho added two environmental violations to his lawsuit – violation of a fish and game code, and state water code, caused by illegal homeless camps along the waterways.

The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board beclowned themselves this week claiming that the river pollution is caused by goose poo from Canada Geese – and not the human excrement, used hypodermic syringes, drugs and hundreds of other items discarded by homeless vagrants.

DA Ho said he asked Mayor Steinberg to pass a daytime camping ban, but the Mayor refused to. Instead, three city council members – Eric Guerra, Rick Jennings and Lisa Kaplan – stepped up and have proposed the daytime camping ban.

You can watch DA Ho’s press conference along the banks of Steelhead Creek on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023.

“The rivers run through the heart of our community and they are the true natural jewels of our community,” Ho said at his press meeting at Steelhead Creek. “But over the last seven years, the city of Sacramento has allowed that natural jewel to be soiled, sullied and polluted.”

Ho said garbage and human waste from the homeless camps are polluting the rivers and waterways.

“If you grew up in Sacramento, how many times did you go to the river?” Ho asked. “Would anybody now want to swim in the American River? Would anybody want to fish in the American River? Would anybody even want to kayak in the American River anymore?” Ho asked. “And the answer’s no. Shame on the city.”

A member of the media asked DA Ho his response to the city attorney and Mayor Steinberg claiming that he is just grandstanding so he can run for AG. Da Ho said he was elected by a large majority “to represent the people of this community. And as the people’s prosecutor, that is what I am doing. I am protecting the community.”

“I’m not the one terming out of office,” Ho said. “I’m not the one who has opened up an account to run for another office. This is the only office and job that I want.”

DA Ho said this isn’t about politics for him – but the Mayor and City Attorney “are making it about politics to distract away from their failures.”

“It’s just about facts and the law,” he added.

Ho has repeatedly said the primary mandate of the District Attorney is to ensure public safety for all while balancing the equal administration of justice.

In his lawsuit, DA Ho describes violence, intimidation, threats, assaults and attacks, as well as animal abuse and other actual crimes, homeless individuals have perpetrated on local home owners, business owners, and on each other. He tells of a resident who called police for four hours as a dog was screaming and crying loudly as it was getting beaten. She described it as the “noise of an animal screaming in torment.”

What is clear when reading through the DA’s lawsuit is that city residents have made every attempt to properly report the physical attacks, fire incidents, violence, drug dealing, open sex, but the city is repeatedly and consistently unresponsive.

In one case, a building owner repeatedly requested permits from the City to demolish his vacant building, which was constantly broken into by homeless who set fires. Ironically, even though the City had deemed his building as “dangerous,” the City nonetheless routinely and inexplicably denied the owner’s requests for a demolition permit.

His repeated requests for the City to enforce the law by expelling trespassers, arresting arsonists, and clearing the unhoused from a vacant building, were refused. “The City refused to act-choosing instead to fine the property owner. During this time, Sacramento City Code Enforcement routinely fined the property owner for violations.”

His amended complaint names the waterways – Arcade Creek, Dry Creek, Steelhead Creek, Magpie Creek and Morrison Creek are creeks that flow through the City of Sacramento and flow into the American and Sacramento Rivers.

DA Ho says the City of Sacramento owns and exercise control over property along each of these waterways where homeless camps exist, adjacent to levees and on the banks of the rivers and creeks. The camps alter the habitat surrounding the creeks due to eliminating vegetation and increasing soil erosion, resulting in increased dirt and silt runoff and is dangerous to aquatic life – and the homeless vagrants “utilize the waterways as open toilets and trash receptacles.”

DA Ho lists the waste in the waterways: “Human and animal excreta, used hypodermic syringes, drugs and medicines, surfactants, food waste, cans, bottles, plastics, paper, bio-hazardous, toxic, and flammable items, large and small debris including tents, tarps, sleeping bags, carpets’ rugs’ clothing, rags, ropes wires and cordage, and other textiles, bicycles, bicycle parts, wagons and shopping carts, machinery, electronics, batteries, dishes and cooking utensils including camp stoves and fuel and petroleum products.”

District Attorney Ho provided the Globe a follow-up statement:

“On December 5, 2023, our office filed an amended complaint in our civil case against the City of Sacramento (Docket 23CV008658).

This amendment will allow us to focus on the violations that cause the most significant harm to the health and safety of everyone in the community, including environmental hazards that impact people and wildlife.

The initial complaint alleged three causes of action: 1) public nuisance, 2) private nuisance, and 3) inverse condemnation. After further investigation revealed that Sacramento waterways are being contaminated due to the City’s refusal to abate the nuisance caused by unhoused zones along the levees, we have replaced the last two causes of action with two new and more egregious violations: 1) Statutory Public Nuisance, and 2) Violation of Fish and Game Code section 5650 et.sec.

Before our office sued the City, I asked them to pass a daytime camping ban similar to the successful San Diego ordinance. Mayor Steinberg refused to do so. I am supportive of the leadership shown by Councilmembers Jennings, Guerra and Kaplan in proposing this new law. It is a long overdue step in the right direction to address our unhoused crisis on the streets and along our rivers.”

– District Attorney Thien Ho