Following weeks of daily outreach that has included the offer of alternate shelter, the City of Sacramento this morning sent an interdepartmental team to its property at 2225 Colfax St., also known as Camp Resolution, to begin the process of clearing and securing the site.

Staff from the Department of Community Response, Public Works, Code Enforcement, Animal Control, the Fire Department, the Police Department and others are working together to make one final attempt to connect the people staying there with all available resources before removing the 16 City-owned trailers from the site and eventually clearing the property.

In addition to City staff, several other organizations have sent representatives to the property, offering support and services to the exiting guests.

Wellspace Health, which delivers mental and behavioral health services to underserved communities, is on site with two street nurses and four case managers to assist people leaving the property. Wellspace operates the Gregory Bunker Care Transitions Center of Excellence, a recuperative care center that provides healthcare and case management services to people who are experiencing homelessness, medically vulnerable and transitioning back into the community.

Sacramento County Behavioral Health also has a presence with two clinicians and two peer specialists, with support available from its Community Wellness Response Team (formerly known as Wellness Crisis Call Center and Response Team).

Local service provider Hope Cooperative is on site, offering hygiene kits, water and snacks, as is CalAIM -funded Community Heath Works, which helps people access services for food, housing, healthcare and other support.

Camp Resolution organizers have stated there are 48 guests at the site. The City has offered each person shelter at its Roseville Road campus or its Outreach and Engagement Center. The City last week also offered to place people in motel rooms to accommodate the needs of certain guests, with intensive outreach continuing over the weekend.

To date, five people at Camp Resolution have agreed to transition to a City shelter.

Transportation is available Monday for people who would like to accept the City’s offer of shelter. If people cannot take all their property with them, items of value will be stored temporarily. In addition, the County of Sacramento, through a grant, is helping to provide temporary shelter for people’s animals. Generally, people are allowed to have one dog at City shelters.

Safe Ground Sacramento in July notified the City that it was terminating its lease for the Colfax site, effective Aug. 10. The lease provided Safe Ground Sacramento with 15 days to clean up the site and deliver it free of all property and guests. The City has been in communication with Camp organizers and posted multiple notifications at the site with this information, as well as notices to vacate.

Here is general background information on the site:

* The City of Sacramento in March 2023 leased its property at 2225 Colfax St. to the non-profit organization Safe Ground Sacramento.

* Safe Ground Sacramento had approached the City with the idea of creating a self-governing and self-sustaining community providing a safe place for unsheltered residents to stay temporarily as they sought more suitable housing.

* Land at the site has been designated as hazardous by the State Water Quality Control Board. The board granted a temporary “variance” allowing residents in vehicles to remain at the site but forbidding tent camping on the ground. It was agreed that the lessee would be responsible for complying with the conditions of the variance.

* The City viewed Camp Resolution as a pilot program and a potential model for other cities working to address the ongoing homelessness crisis.

* Unfortunately, Camp Resolution has proven to be a failed experiment, largely because of the counterproductive interventions from the Sacramento Homeless Union, which purports to represent the best interests of the people staying there.

* The Union refused to abide by the terms of the lease agreement and continually blocked City and social service workers from entering the site to work with the people staying there, which is a necessary step to obtaining housing.

* The Union also tried to thwart a routine safety inspection by the State Water Board and the Sacramento Fire Department, even though it was agreed to by Safe Ground Sacramento.

* Nevertheless, the City made good faith efforts to work with the people at Camp Resolution and help them to transition to better shelter and housing options.

* The City earlier this spring offered to relocate the entire camp to a new location – one that did not have any environmental concerns and did not require a variance from the State Water Board. The offer was rebuffed by the Sacramento Homeless Union.

* The City this summer made multiple offers to transition people at Camp Resolution into more durable housing in the City’s motel program. The offer was not accepted.

* Overall, the City since March 2024 has attempted outreach at Camp Resolution more than 60 times, including numerous monthly site visits from outreach workers and phone calls to camp leadership requesting access.

* Following direction from the Union, Camp Resolution residents have generally refused contact with outreach staff from the City’s Department of Community Response, and calls to camp leadership for access to the site have not been successful.

* Safe Ground Sacramento in July terminated its lease with the City for the Colfax site — effective Aug. 10 — because it could not meet the terms of the lease agreement. In addition, people continued to camp in tents on the ground in violation of the Water Board’s variance.

* Following termination, the lease agreement provides a 15-day period for Safe Ground Sacramento to clean the site and deliver it vacant of all property and guests.

* The lease also requires Safe Ground Sacramento and its guests to “peaceably vacate the premises.”

* Accordingly, the site must be vacated on or before Aug. 26, 2024.

* Outreach workers from the City’s Department of Community Response have been visiting the site daily with the standing offer of shelter at the City’s Roseville Road campus or the Outreach and Engagement Center, including over this past weekend.

* The City also has offered motel rooms to accommodate the needs of certain guests.

* Moving forward, the City will continue to strike a balance of offering intensive outreach to people experiencing homelessness while also seeking compliance with our laws and ordinances, including our unlawful camping ordinance, as allowed under the Supreme Court’s recent Grants Pass ruling.