Presiding judge, DA plead with Sacramento leaders to do something about homeless

Public sex acts, assaults, open fires, feces and a man in the lobby with a hammer are among the incidents that have prompted recent letters from Sacramento County's presiding judge and district attorney, pleading with the city to deal with homeless people in and around the courthouse.

On June 29, Presiding Judge Michael G. Bowman wrote to Mayor Darrell Steinberg complaining that access to justice is threatened by the "disheartening conditions surrounding the Court's facilities and the growing number of encounters between the unsheltered" and court users such as jury members, attorneys, witnesses and participants in cases.

"These daily incidents include, but are not limited to, physical and verbal assault, public sex acts, open fires, nudity, urinating and defecating on walkways," Bowman wrote. "Court security removes unsheltered individuals, who have no business with the court, from the Main Courthouse daily and our facilities team must regularly remove feces and other waste from our entryways and grounds."

"The presiding judge and the district attorney are right," Steinberg said in a statement shared by his office Friday. "I'm working with the City Manager to open up the Miller Park Safe Camping no later than two weeks from now. The first priority will be to address the encampments surrounding the DA's office and the courthouse. Those areas will be cleaned."

On June 30, District Attorney Thien Ho wrote to Sacramento City Council Member Katie Valenzuela "formally requesting the consistent enforcement of city code and ordinance violations" around the Gordon D. Schaber Courthouse and that the "Sacramento Police Department increase its presence" in the area. Valenzuela's district covers the downtown area.

"Every day, people encounter growing unhoused encampments with open-air drug use and dealing, tents blocking sidewalk access, unhoused individuals engaged in erratic and violent behavior -- all within the three-block area that encompasses the Courthouse, the District Attorney's Office, and Sacramento City Hall," Ho wrote. "In the past 12 months, my office documented 86 incidents in and around the District Attorney's Office often involving unhoused individuals."

Among these incidents, Ho said, a "young deputy district attorney was accosted and struck in the head by an unhoused individual," another employee was subjected to "racial slurs from an unhoused man regarding the hijab she wore," and "a man entered the lobby of the D.A.'s Office with a hammer."

Valenzuela wasn't pleased to receive the letter.

"I'm disappointed that the District Attorney did not see fit to discuss this matter with me or anyone else at the city before releasing this letter to the public," she wrote on her Twitter account on July 1.

Valenzuela also wrote that Ho's "action is out of step" with the Homeless Services Partnership Agreement the city and county signed last year. Reached on Friday, spokesman Skyler Henry said Valenzuela had "no further comment at this time."

Neither letter mentioned the pandemic. But COVID-19 came at an unlucky time for downtown Sacramento. After years of neglect while the city's suburbs saw exponential growth, the area had seen a recent surge of investment. The Golden 1 Center, housing the NBA's Sacramento Kings, opened in 2016, revitalizing a downtown entertainment district between the courthouse and the State Capitol.

Several new construction projects also broke ground in the city's old Railyards District, just north of the courts. In late 2020, construction began on Steinberg's pet project: a new 18-story, half-billion-dollar courthouse one block west of the current location. It is scheduled to open next year.

"I can't really say it's been worse since the pandemic because I do think the downtown area has had trouble with those identified issues prior to the pandemic," Josiah M. Young, a business and contracts attorney whose office is a block from the courthouse, said in an email. "I think given the impact of the pandemic, whereby more legitimate businesses are operating remotely or the fact downtown has become less populated, just has given rise to an increase in the visibility of less desirable activity. To put it another way, you probably see more vagrancy than bustling business activity now."

John A. Campanella, whose driving under the influence defense practice is across the street from the courthouse, said in an email, "At one point in the pandemic" people were living on courthouse property. But he added the area is actually "better now."

"I have not thought about moving my office," Campanella said. "I have not been harassed, but seeing people living in squalor on the streets is sad. Judge Bowman's letter lacks compassion and understanding for the plight of the unhoused. I understand that it is a difficult problem with no easy solution, but I have concerns that the homeless are not having a voice in this."