Sacramento, California's Mayor Will Help Residents of a Tent City

I watched the Oprah Show recently when she had on American journalist Lisa Ling. Ling who is from Sacramento, California, did a story about the homeless situation is California where the unemployment rate is horrific. I was astonished at the stories of every day people who are now homeless. At the end of the segment Lisa said that the city might provide support services to what are called tent cities.

I had never seen a tent city but they exist in other areas of California, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Columbus, Ohio. I am sure there are other homeless encampments but usually what I see are box houses not organized tent set ups.

Yesterday the Mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, said that there were plans to move about 150 people from one of the tent cities (homeless encampment) which was shown on the Oprah show. They will go to shelters and transitional housing.

A winter shelter exists on the grounds of the state's fair. This was expected to close at the end of March but now will not close until the end of June so that the tent city residents could stay. There are also plans to put in more beds in the shelter and give the residents more privacy.

The show featured one mom with her children who were staying at night in a homeless shelter that is not designated for families. They had no door to their room.

Other community groups will also take in residents and one charity has agreed to lease 40 permanent housing units. The city is planning on spending about one million dollars. "We wanted to be very clear to the people living along the river that we were not just going to go out and sweep them out of there. That would not be the humane thing to do," Johnson said in a news conference at City Hall. "(They) are already living in inhumane conditions - there's no running water, no sanitation. It's a public safety issue." AP

Lisa Ling made it clear that not all residents of tent city were homeless due to loss of jobs. Many have lived there for years because it is close to a food bank According to figures from 2008, about estimated 2,700 people are homeless in Sacramento which is home to about 476,000 people.

Once again, thank you Oprah, for shedding light on this problem and acting as a catalyst for social change.

Sources

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_re_us/sacramento_tent_city

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE52J0FK20090320