Published TUESDAY September 17, 2024: 'No Way Out': Pulitzer winner ZUMA Press photographer Renee C. Byer staff at The Sacramento Bee, tackles this long term important story: Sacramento's Camp Resolution hoped to be a national model. The first-of-its-kind lease allowed unhoused residents to live on city owned land, many lauded what they hoped would become a national model. Dubbed 'Camp Resolution' the self-governing community of about 50 was a safe haven that would not close until every resident had been permanently housed. But in August, after roughly 17 months the city moved to terminate the lease. Police cleared the camp and evicted residents, many of whom are older than 55 and living with disabilities. They now face the same conditions they fought for years to avoid. Welcome to 'No Way Out'
© zReportage.com Issue #954 Story of the Week: Published TUESDAY September 17, 2024: 'No Way Out': Pulitzer winner ZUMA Press photographer Renee C. Byer staff at The Sacramento Bee, tackles this long term important story: Sacramento's Camp Resolution hoped to be a national model. The first-of-its-kind lease allowed unhoused residents to live on city owned land, many lauded what they hoped would become a national model. Dubbed 'Camp Resolution' the self-governing community of about 50 was a safe haven that would not close until every resident had been permanently housed. But in August, after roughly 17 months the city moved to terminate the lease. Police cleared the camp and evicted residents, many of whom are older than 55 and living with disabilities. They now face the same conditions they fought for years to avoid. Welcome to 'No Way Out'
CAROL DUTCHER, 60, disconnects a lighting fixture as she scurries to take what she can before her structure is bulldozed in Rio Linda. 'Guess I can't take my bed,' said Dutcher who was living there for four years. She was able to move a few things and was hoping a friend could come with a pick-up truck and all her things would not be trashed. She owned several cats and she said she was thankful they were taken by animal rescue but she was worried about the chickens. The county did not offer her a voucher for a hotel and she had no place to go.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
CAROL DUTCHER, 60, moves a few things away so they are not bulldozed during a sweep in a homeless encampment in Rio Linda. 'They don't care that they destroyed my home and I have no where to go or place to sleep tonight,' she said in tears. 'Could you move your whole house in two days, four days? I don't think anybody could' she said.
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CAROL DUTCHER, 60, cries while explaining she is now unsheltered in a park in Rio Linda after she was swept and her shelter was destroyed. 'They say there is a big difference between sheltered and unsheltered in the unhoused community and recognized that unsheltered is a lot worse and a lot more dangerous and that confuses me so why did they destroy my shelter and turn me from a sheltered homeless person to unsheltered homeless person? So all my medical problems will go away and mental health issues will just disappear because you destroyed my shelter and gave me a ticket' stated Dutcher.
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NIKKI BUCKLES, a former carpenter, sits with his beloved dog Opium near a small air conditioner he hooked up to a generator to stay cool in a small room inside a tent and wooden makeshift shelter. He was worried about leaving his possessions to go to a cooling center but admitted if he feels the dog is in danger of the heat he might.
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Sacramento County Park Rangers hold police tape as CHASING VANG, 38, uses a bicycle cart to move some of her belongings during a sweep of a homeless encampment in Rio Linda. 'We are being shoved out again, they don't have a place for us to go, so where am I supposed to go? They gave us 48 hours to move. I work and the thing is I can't do all this in 48 hours, they have to give us at least 30 days, I've been here for ten years now' said Vang.
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California Homeless Union attorney ANTHONY PRINCE, right, explains to BRIAN PEDRO, Director of Department of Community Response-City of Sacramento, left, that he received an email from Safe Ground Sacramento attorney Mark Merin, calling off the inspection of Camp Resolution. Price explained they could not go through with the inspection without a warrant. Price said the agreement with the city was that the encampment remain until all the unhoused were housed in permanent housing.
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After getting a notification from the City of Sacramento to vacate the Morrison Creek Levee last week KRISTIN FLOREZ, 43, and her dog, Little Girl, moved with a homeless encampment to 63rd street thinking they would be safe. She said they got no official notice. 'Its hard to get everything moved, we got beds that we sleep on because we don't want to sleep on the hard ground, Its just to much, it's very stressful, said Florez. The Grants Pass Supreme Court ruling means cities can go back to clearing homeless camps on public property without offering shelter.
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Camp Resolution resident BETTY EDWARDS sobs alongside her two dogs from the stress of uncertainty on whether she will be evicted from the homeless encampment. She is on dialysis and said it took a long time to get picked up and dropped off for her treatments. She worries where she will go and how she would get to her appointments if the encampment looses its lease. 'That's my life, my survival. I don't know where I would go. I'm so thankful to be here,' she cried. Most city shelters only allow one pet and she said she could not give up one of her emotional support dogs.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
Camp Resolution resident SHONN ADAMS, 55, fastens her oxygen as a friend STEVEN GOBLE, 64, helps her. She suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and depends on a generator to keep her oxygen running. 'Sacramento is going to throw us all out on the street again what am I going to do? I don't know' said Adams.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
Residents of Camp Resolution homeless encampment wait by the gate for Fire Marshall Jason Lee of the Sacramento Fire Department to revisit the self governing encampment. They said they had been working all night to clean the encampment so it would pass the safety inspection. The encampment had a lease with the city through a non-profit that was going to expire leaving its fate up to the city of Sacramento. The agreement according to the encampment's lawyer Anthony Prince was for it to remain until every resident was given permanent housing.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
Camp Resolution residents TWANA JAMES, 55, left, and JULIE MAESTAS, 48, right, hug as Sacramento Fire Marshall Jason Lee revisits the tight-knit self governing homeless encampment in Sacramento. They had been up all night readying the encampment so it would pass a safety inspection after Lee's visit two weeks ago. The encampment of mostly senior women with disabilities and pets were hoping if they passed the inspection the two year old encampment could remain.
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SAMUEL LE, left, a resident of Camp Resolution, speaks through a locked security gate to Sacramento Fire Marshal Jason Lee, right, who was there to re-inspect the encampment. Lee said he was there to help and offer more time if necessary to the campers if they needed it. Although they passed the inspection the city of Sacramento still shut the encampment down.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
First Step Communities Campus for the homeless is guarded with barbed wire and security on Roseville Road in Sacramento. Residents of Camp Resolution, a self-governing homeless encampment, are worried about ADA compliance, lack of electricity in the individual pallet homes, and bringing all their beloved pets to the shelter if they are evicted by the city of Sacramento when their lease expires.
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JEANNE GILLIS walks through Camp Resolution distraught. She said she has lupus and it affects her kidneys, lungs and brain and she suffers seizures. The Department of Community Services took her information and said they would get back to her but they didn't offer her anywhere to go before the city sweep of the encampment. 'They said you are choosing to leave your trailer, I said no I'm being forced out of it into a tent and if my illness doesn't kill me the streets will, because I can't lock a tent.' She said she can't go to the Roseville Road shelter because, without electricity to cool her space, her seizures will get worse. ''I will die,'' she said.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
A sign with a small American Flag is posted on the fence of Camp Resolution, a self-governing homeless encampment, as Outreach and Assistance Program workers help residents prepare their pets for a scheduled sweep by the city of Sacramento. They were working in partnership with the Front Street Animal Shelter. They explained if residents got arrested they could keep their dogs for five days for free.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
DANYALL MAYBERRY carries two of her six cats to place in a crate to prepare for Monday's sweep of Camp Resolution by the city of Sacramento. Mayberry did not know where she and her pets including two dogs would go. She has been living at the homeless encampment that has a security gate for two years where she said she felt safe.
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SHONN ADAMS, 55, who wears an oxygen tube connected from a generator inside her trailer hugs her dog alongside her friend STEVEN GOBLE at Camp Resolution. She suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and after meeting with a member of the Department of Community Services said they still hadn't found her a place to live. Sacramento City put up notices they will sweep the encampment. The city has offered shelter beds to all 48 residents at city shelters located on Roseville Road and Auburn Boulevard.
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JENNA TOPPER, a coordinator with Homeless Outreach and Assistance Program hugs JOYCE WILLIAMS, a co-founder of Camp Resolution. She was there to bring crates for residents to house their pets to avoid them being traumatized she said. She works in partnership with the Front Street Animal Shelter. 'I'm really sorry for what you are going through,' she said to Williams. Williams has three dogs, a rooster and several baby chicks. She had no idea where she would go with her pets after the sweep.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
CRYSTAL SANCHEZ, president of the Sacramento Homeless Union, described in tears how some of the women who suffer disabilities have no place to go if the city of Sacramento continues their threat to sweep the self-governing homeless encampment. She has been a supporter of the encampment and hoped it could have been used as a model for the city.
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A dog belonging to a Camp Resolution resident rests next to a memorial to the deaths of Sacramento's homeless population. Camp resident Twana James said it was made to remind city officials of the consequences of removing homeless encampments. Later that morning city crews destroyed the sign with a bulldozer and removed everyone and thing inside the encampment.
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In the early morning hours TWANA JAMES, 55, left, gets help from another Camp Resolution resident as she pushes a cart of her belongings to place in storage before police arrived to sweep the encampment. She said she had been up all night. Later during the sweep she was taken by ambulance outside the encampment.
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As the sun rose at Camp Resolution, its longtime residents scrambled to gather their belongings before city of Sacramento crews arrive to remove the encampment. For many, it was an emotional end to a place they had called home for up to two years. The city offered shelter but they could not take all their beloved pets and some with disabilities needed electricity or a generator which the shelter did not offer.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
Camp Resolution residents placed barbed wire on the gate of the homeless encampment, with hope of warding off city of Sacramento crews charged with removing camp residents. Unlike other shelters, which cost several million dollars a year to run, the site did not cost the city anything. Due to vapor contamination, a state agency allowed people to live at the site in trailers, but not in tents on the ground. The type of contamination that's present is not harmful to people in vehicles because they're raised off the ground.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
Pastor DESHON BROWN of 'IM Ministries' hugs a Camp Resolution resident outside the encampment as Sacramento police, firefighters and members of other city departments descended on Camp Resolution to remove the longtime homeless encampment.
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JEANNE GILLIS, 53, who suffered a seizure yesterday from the stress of the city of Sacramento sweeping a homeless encampment she has been living for the past two years, tries to explain to a Police officer where her trailer is located inside the encampment in hopes of saving her home as she packed her belongings outside Camp Resolution into a U-hall. The Sacramento Homeless Union helped provide storage from the evicted seniors with disabilities. They also put up some of them temporarily in hotels because they could not give up their pets to go into a shelter and they needed temperature controlled rooms.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
Camp Resolution Attorney ANTHONY PRINCE listens to SATEARAH MURPHY, center, as she talks about trying to save Shonn Adams trailer inside Camp Resolution while Prince was trying to save her from being swept out during a clearing of the encampment. Adams is hooked up to oxygen and can't live in a place that doesn't have electricity or where she can't bring her generator. The city shelter offered did not have electricity. She was crying because she didn't want to leave her dog, two cats or her home for the past two years. 'I want my dog, that was my siste's dog, who died' Adams cried.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
Police arrive to sweep Camp Resolution, a self-governing homeless encampment, as a resident who said he had been living there the past two years was shouting at city officials from on top of the gate in protest. 'You are not here to help u, where were you the past two years ?' he shouted.
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CHASTITY MAY, 50, walks with one of her three dogs Pico with Sacramento city police as they arrive to dismantle Camp Resolution. 'The police came in and said they override code enforcement and they are going to destroy my vehicle right now' said May.
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BETTY EDWARDS, 60, center, who goes to dialysis three times a week, breaks down in tears watching the city of Sacramento remove Camp Resolution where she has been living the past two years. 'I want my home back, don't take my home, ' she cried hysterically. 'I have nothing now, they are taking everything from me.' Sacramento Homeless Union President CRYSTAL SANCHEZ, right, said it was heartbreaking watching people lose their homes.
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RAELYN BRAZIL, holding a notice the Sacramento park rangers had left on her tent, warns Chastity May, right, that they need to vacate their campsite near the former Camp Resolution. Both women were residents of the longtime homeless encampment that was dismantled on Monday. Brazil and May's vehicles were four of the 47 the city towed from inside the encampment.
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A homeless resident from Camp Resolution pulls his belongings on a cart around 5:30 am before city crews arrived to dismantle the self-governing homeless encampment on Colfax Street. Monday's closure marked the end of a long saga. The city calls Camp Resolution a failed experiment while activists and one councilwoman say the low-cost model could be replicated across the city.
© Renee C. Byer/ZUMA Press Wire
