The Aftermath of Sacramento’s Measure O

Proponents of Measure O, the city of Sacramento’s “Emergency Shelter and Enforcement Act of 2022," claimed victory Tuesday with around 100,000 votes counted from the Nov. 8 general election.

The question now is what comes next for the controversial measure—which would allow the city to clear encampments set up by homeless Sacramentans, among other provisions—if it’s able to go into effect and withstand legal challenges.

The Sacramento City Council amended Measure O in August with a provision that it wouldn’t become operative unless the city and county reached a “legally-binding memorandum of understanding that, at a minimum, memorializes the respective roles of the city and county to improve the homelessness crisis,” according to a staff report.

Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce CEO Amanda Blackwood, who has been part of a group of city and county leaders meeting since August to hash out the MOU, told California Local on Nov. 22 that a partnership deal “is 99 percent of the way complete” and would go to city council and the board of supervisors within the next couple weeks for approval.

Meanwhile, opponents of Measure O, who had sued unsuccessfully to keep it off the ballot, confirmed they are preparing a federal lawsuit that could be filed in the weeks to come.

“I do know at this point that neither the city nor the county has indicated any real understanding of the enormity of the problem,” said Mark Merin, a Sacramento-based attorney for the opponents. “So until they do that, until they recognize that housing has to be provided for poor and homeless people and that has to be a policy and it has to be a priority, then we’re not gonna even make a dent in the problem.”

It’s only the latest chapter in one of the most glaring public crises in the city in recent years.

How the City Reached This Point

Homelessness has soared in Sacramento in recent years, with Sacramento Steps Forward noting that more than 9,000 people had been found to be experiencing homelessness in the county in the most recent point-in-time count in February, representing a 67 percent increase since 2019.

The dramatic increase has arguably been driven by any number of different factors, from rising income inequality and housing unaffordability to substandard mental health treatment to federal court decisions such as Martin v. Boise, which prohibit cities from clearing encampments from public land if shelter space is unavailable.

Capital Public Radio reported in June that the county had roughly 3,400 shelter and housing beds for people experiencing homelessness.

A group of business leaders led by Blackwood and Joshua Wood of Region Business, who was unavailable for comment for this story, and lobbyist Daniel Conway, who didn’t respond to an interview request, introduced Measure O in March.

“The Sacramento region’s homelessness crisis has gone on too long, it’s time for a real solution,” Blackwood said in a press release at the time. “It’s a complex crisis only solved by a collaborative partnership between public officials, private business, and local communities. No one entity has to carry it all; it requires an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ type of approach.”

Blackwood stuck by her support of Measure O in speaking Nov. 22 with California Local.

“Our problem is just increasing so much faster than our response,” Blackwood said. “So to just accept the status quo and sit on the sidelines and not do anything legislatively— I think everybody felt was not going to be the right tactic.”

Bob Erlenbusch of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness said he wasn’t surprised that his group’s initial lawsuit to keep the measure off the ballot fell short, because judges “want the people to speak rather than just removing it from the ballot.”

Another Measure O opponent, Kendra Lewis, outgoing executive director of the Sacramento Housing Alliance, found difficulty in messaging with prospective voters. “When I was at the NAACP, people were, ‘This is a solution. We’re tired of this,’” Lewis said. “So when I went back to the group, I’m like, ‘The messaging needs to be very clear to people.’”

At a press conference on Nov. 9, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who had supported putting Measure O on the ballot, expressed ambivalence.

“I supported it for one reason, because it gave us and still gives us a greater ability to complete a legally binding partnership agreement with the county of Sacramento to get the help that we need to make a real and demonstrable difference on homelessness,” Steinberg told reporters.

The mayor offered to take questions related to the election. Every question that the mayor received was related to Measure O.

Historically, the city and county have not had a great reputation working together on homelessness. California Local asked the mayor during his press conference why things had reached this point. The mayor replied that county residents and their elected representatives seem to think it’s the city’s problem.

“We have a math problem,” Steinberg said. “The Point-in-Time Count says that at least, depending on how you read it, two-thirds of the problem exists within the city of Sacramento. Three-fifths of the county’s outside of the city of Sacramento and the representation that goes with it. I mean, that’s just a fact.”

What Could Come Next

Lewis, who is due to soon start a job with the Sierra Health Foundation, worries about potential civil rights violations associated with Measure O enforcement.

“Forty percent of the people that are on the streets are black people,” Lewis said. “And so the concern is that [enforcement] is going to be extraordinarily targeted. And then you’re going to have people who are already historically targeted and terrorized” being trapped “in a system of which they can never get out.”

Spokespeople for the city and county each declined to say much beyond that both sides were actively working toward the partnership agreement.

“If/when the County certifies the election results with Measure O passing, and if an agreement is reached and adopted by the Sacramento City Council and the County Board of Supervisors, the City will be sharing information with the public on how the ordinance will be implemented,” city spokesman Tim Swanson told California Local via email.

Measure O caps the city’s general fund obligation at $5 million annually. It also doesn’t require the city to provide indoor shelter to every person whose encampment is moved, which would seemingly put the measure at odds with Martin v. Boise.

Merin, who plans to file suit against the city in federal court, said the measure could be challenged on a variety of fronts legally, including its potential conflicts with Martin v. Boise and a recent federal decision, Johnson v. Grants Pass. He also claimed that the measure violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

“All those challenges will be mounted at the appropriate time,” Merin said. “And I’m confident that the measure itself will be struck down. It’s a ridiculous waste of time for the city and whoever supported it to have wasted all this time and energy trying to qualify it for ballot.”

For now, the unhoused people Erlenbusch interacts with don’t appear to be focusing too much concern on Measure O.

“My sense of it is it’s more immediate than that,” Erlenbusch said. “It’s the weather’s turned cold. The city has only opened up a warming center for 50 people, the county’s trying to mobilize, to have motel vouchers. So right now, obviously, it’s a year-round struggle to survive.”