California keeps up effort to combat homelessness as businesses in Sacramento struggle

Downtown businesses in Sacramento are on the brink of closing due to the city’s homelessness crisis, despite efforts from officials to tackle the rising homeless population.

Since 2019, Sacramento County’s homeless population has increased by 67%, according to the 2022 Homeless Point-In-Time Count. Three years ago, 5,570 individuals were estimated to be homeless, and that figure soared to nearly 9,300 people in 2022. Comparably, Fresno and Madera counties, which have a similar population to Sacramento, have seen a 68% increase in homelessness from 2019 to 2022, according to the Point-In-Time Count.

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Last week, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a safe parking program to give people living in their cars a legal place to stay overnight. The lot located in North Highlands will hold up to 30 cars and have services such as showers, restrooms, and food for those who need to stay in the long term. The designated lot was purchased in October 2022 and is expected to open starting early next year.

A decades-old taproom warned it might have to close down soon, citing the rising crime around the area, along with the lack of office workers coming downtown since the pandemic.

J.E. Paino, the proprietor and founder of Ruhstaller Beer, posted a letter outside his business, as well as on social media, writing, “Downtown is dirty, dangerous, and dead,” adding, “I don’t really see anything changing.”

“In the last couple years, the pressure from the homeless population, and other people that, for some reason, have picked Sacramento to live … has changed downtown.”

Paino said various programs aimed at homeless people launched by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg have brought an influx of individuals into the city who want to benefit from the measures.

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“We should help those that struggle with alcohol and drugs, education, homelessness, and physical ailments,” the letter states. “That’s what a community should do, but there’s only so much we can do and it sure looks like all Mayor Steinberg could talk about the last couple years was how much we were going to help those less fortunate.”

In September, city District Attorney Thien Ho filed a lawsuit against Sacramento after months of back-and-forth with officials, alleging leaders have been too lenient on actions regarding the homelessness crisis. City officials pushed back, claiming the homelessness crisis exceeds Ho’s authority and leaders are limited in what they can implement in the case of private properties.