Yesterday a group of people - 26 of them, actually - sued the City of Sacramento for failing to enforce Measure O. That's the 2022 ballot measure that stipulates the City of Sacramento cannot establish and maintain a homeless shelter within 1,000 feet of certain specific facilities, including schools, child care facilities, playgrounds, streams and some other key places. The suit states that the city's Homeless Respite Center at 3615 Auburn Blvd. clearly violates the Measure. The Auburn Blvd. facility is within the city limits of the City of Sacramento. It is next door to the Children's Receiving Home (which operates a preschool), within 500 feet of Arcade Creek and less than 1,000 feet from a park playground. The complaint asserts that, while Measure O provides limitations and restrictions that effectively prohibit operation of the Auburn Blvd. shelter, the City of Sacramento has opted to ignore those provisions. Measure O has no "Grandfather" provisions that would otherwise enable the shelter to operate.

The lawsuit's plaintiffs - residents of the nearby unincorporated neighborhoods that surround the facility - are people whose daily lives and personal safety have been adversely impacted by the city's operation of the Auburn Blvd. facility. They say they have tried to work with the City of Sacramento to get the problems addressed, but to no avail. They point out that, as residents of unincoirporated Sacramento County, they are routinely ignored by the City of Sacramento. Their suit seeks to force the City of Sacramento to comply with its own ordinance and to terminate (or not renew) the contract with the private organization that has been running the Auburn Blvd. facility. The complaint has been posted at our partner website, Save Our Suburb. It was also reported on MY58 News this evening. The City of Sacramento has 30 days to respond to the lawsuit.