Sacramento Steps Forward initiative announced

2009-11-06T04:36:58Z

Thursday morning, journalist Lisa Ling, members of the City Council and the homeless and formerly-homeless community joined Mayor Kevin Johnson in launching the "Sacramento Steps Forward" initiative. A crowd of several hundred waved blue initiative flags and cheered as Johnson announced his goal "to end homelessness and focus on permanent housing."

He applauded permanent housing shelters such as Mercy Housing, Turning Point and Martin Luther King Jr. Village, 3900 47th Avenue, where the launch was held.

Johnson said the goal of Sacramento Steps Forward is to provide 2,400 "decent and affordable" permanent housing units over the next three years. That would nearly quadruple the amount of permanent housing units created in the city over the last two years.

The mayor asked the Sacramento residents to advocate for the homeless, educate others about services needed to end homelessness, and to help find public, corporate and nonprofit funding.

"The homeless do not need a handout, they need a hand up," Johnson said. "They want to be empowered."

Johnson is chairman of a multiagency task force, part of the Policy Board to End Homelessness, that found funding for 269 winter shelter beds last month. This came despite an 84 percent cut in county funding for homelessness and the elimination of funding for winter shelters in September.

Tim Brown, director of the Sacramento Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative, said last week that federal stimulus money will house 150 people who are now in shelters, freeing up 150 shelter beds over the next few months.

With an expected 419 beds, the city and county intend to provide 151 more beds this year than last year's 268 beds. According to the 2009 Homeless Count Summary Report, there are about 2,800 homeless people in Sacramento, including 711 in emergency shelters, 895 in transitional housing and 1,194 who have no shelter.

After Johnson thanked Brown, Sister Libby Fernandez and Joan Burke, both of of Loaves and Fishes, he introduced Sacramento-native Ling, the host of National Geographic Explorer. Earlier this year, as a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show, she reported on Sacramento's "tent city," which brought other media outlets to the site.

"Your mayor, so many members of the homeless advocacy community, members of the city and county rose to the occasion and decided to tackle (homelessness) head on," Ling said. "I'm so proud of the way so many members of this community have come together (and) if Sacramento is successful (housing the homeless), it could be a model for the rest of the country."

County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, St. John's Shelter director, Michelle Steeb, and City Council member Rob Fong also spoke. Fong explained the Faith and Families initiative that he helped create.

"We're asking the faith communities to see if they would be willing through their congregation to make a commitment for one year to help house a homeless family," he said. "In the last year we've housed 10 homeless families (and) we're hoping to get a dozen more housed before the holidays."

Three formerly homeless people spoke about their experiences. They credited programs such as Serna Village, St. John's Shelter and Lutheran Social Services with changing their lives and giving them hope.

"It was absolutely marvelous," Fernandez of Loaves and Fishes said about the city's effort. "In one year, this mayor has talked more about the issue of homelessness than any mayor ever has. He spends time with the homeless, policymakers and advocates."

Although she applauded the push for transitional and permanent housing, she noted the nine-month waiting period to get into Quinn Cottages, a transitional housing shelter. This means that homeless need somewhere to go in the meantime, Fernandez said.

"It takes too long for the next step. (Creating a) 'safe ground' is just an added piece to get to the final goal, which is permanent housing."

Mayor Kevin Johnson addresses homelessness

2009-09-23T04:02:45Z

Tuesday morning, Mayor Kevin Johnson was joined by a handful of Safe Ground supporters for a weekly press conference inside City Hall. After reiterating his goal to end homelessness in Sacramento, he invited Sister Libby Fernandez and Greg Bunker, the respective executive directors of Loaves and Fishes and Francis house, as well as a homeless man named Thomas Jackson Ashmore III, to speak.

Johnson spoke about his meeting over the weekend with campers at the recently vacated 1220 C St. campground owned by Mark Merin. At the camp site, Merin had also been involved in a property dispute over the land with the neighboring Pedro and Gracilla Hernandez residence.

Johnson mentioned that a comprehensive plan to end homelessness would be launched in October, but also that two immediate issues are the most pressing: creating a legal "safe ground" called Stepping Stone; and helping finda location for winter shelters as they are set to open in mid November.

Johnson has created a task force for both issues, but it will take up to three to six months to create Stepping Stone, he said. Some key factors the task force is looking at for Stepping Stone include size, location, resident selection criteria, governance, security and services.

"The county cut 84 percent of their funding for the homeless," Johnson said. "They're talking about making even more cuts; that means there's a disproportionate amount of cuts going to the homeless population."

"This is a moment that we advocates really appreciate," said Fernandez. "This is the first time a city mayor has stepped up to the plate to think not only for the city but also for the county and the region of Sacramento when it deals with homelessness."

"We need to stop the arrests on people being homeless; we need to put a memorandum on enforcement of camping ordinances," said Ashmore, a homeless man, whom Johnson introduced to the crowd by the nickname "Hawk."

"It's a waste of taxpayer money. Every time we are arrested, it costs between $1500 and $2000 to take us all into jail," he added. "Then we're put back eight hours later on the streets, just to be arrested again."

Bunker also applauded Johnson and asked the entire community to join the effort to think of solutions to house the homeless.

Asked if Johnson would do a good job in helping homeless people, Merin said last week, "I think the Mayor is certainly well intentioned. The question is: can he get the majority of the city council to support him? It just depends on him knowing how to get something accomplished."

"The goal is to get people into housing," said Tim Brown, director of the Ending Chronic Homelessness initiative, in a phone call before the press conference on Tuesday. "We're spending so much on keeping them homeless, it's cheaper to provide housing and services in a lot of cases for chronically homeless."

"With federal stimulus money, for the first time, we're going to be able to prevent homelessness," Brown added. About $4.8 million will become available Oct. 1 for homelessness.

"We've housed 350 people in two-and-a-half years," Brown said. "What has made a dent is the switch to permanent housing."

As far as the vacated Safe Ground location at the Merin property (only a pair of port-a-potties remains), the Hernandez family have expressed "gratitude and relief" that the camp is gone, said their lawyer Aldon Bolanos. Their health has been deteriorating since the campers moved behind their property, Bolanos said.

"They're trying to get on with their lives," he added. "They absolutely are traumatized and it's going to be a while if ever before life gets back to normal for them."

"I'm not going to tell you that what [Merin] is trying to do [for the homeless] is wrong," Bolanos said. "This time when he did what he did, it really trampled on the lives of some innocent people; the real civil rights that were violated here were Pedro and Gracilla Hernandez."

Bolanos explained his view of the homeless.

"This whole episode really seems to underscore a leadership problem in this city, where no individual or group is willing to take accountability for what was happening here for over a month. This [homeless] situation is not going to go away, and providing this 'safe ground' outside of the downtown grid is just going to push the problem into someone else's backyard and the city is going to experience sad and difficult times and consequences."

Photographs one, two and three credit Sacramento Press staff reporter Suzanne Hurt. All other photographs credit staff reporter Jonathan Mendick.

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Sacramento Steps Forward initiative announced

Mayor Kevin Johnson addresses homelessness