Anti-homeless group stokes fear in Sacramento suburbs: ‘Guns are easy to use’ | Opinion

A neon pink flier circulated around Sacramento is the most egregious display yet of the city’s anti-homeless propaganda. The flier directs people to a website, SaveOurSuburb.org, which encourages people to buy a gun to be “used correctly” — and ostensibly, used to shoot at mentally-ill homeless people.

Billed as a “public service announcement for the families of Arden & Carmichael,” the flier directs readers to the website where one of the city’s few successful homeless shelters is blamed for crime and litter, and also simply for being too close to the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento, where kids in the region receive care for abuse, trauma and neglect.

Opinion

Arden and Carmichael are unincorporated communities in Sacramento County that have often felt the consequences of the county’s inaction on homelessness, particularly on the American River Parkway.

In that absence, some have turned their ire toward the city of Sacramento for placing the Outreach and Engagement Center in nearby Del Paso Regional Park. The OEC is one of the city’s few, successful shelters that has helped hundreds of individuals and families rise out of homelessness, including children who use the nearby Children’s Receiving Home for support services. According to the city’s website, between Nov. 2023 and March 2024, the OEC was opened for weather respite a total of 69 times, and provided a bed 2,599 times to unsheltered residents, with an average of 37 people per night.

Requests for comment to the webpage’s email went unanswered, but the website prominently displays quotes from celebrity doctor Dr. Drew Pinsky; disgraced former Sacramento City Council member, Sean Loloee; and former area congressman Doug Ose — the latter of whom has been a vocal opponent of the homeless population in the area, at least in part because he is a nearby homeowner.

Ose has repeatedly petitioned the city to turn over the park and the engagement center property that lies within it to the county, citing a lack of upkeep and slow police response. While he’s not wrong that the city has neglected the park in recent years, it’s laughable to think the county could or would do better.

In fact, according to the latest federally mandated count of homeless people in the county, unincorporated Sacramento County is second only to the city of Sacramento, with 14% of the county’s total homeless population, or more than 560 individuals. There is also a racial component to this situation. Black Sacramentans are three to four times more likely to experience homelessness, and Native Americans living in Sacramento are five to six times more likely.

“I think it’s natural to feel nervous or anxious around people you don’t know or who are doing things you don’t understand,” said Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, whose downtown district is home to significant concentrations of homeless people. “(But) asking people to arm themselves just seems like we’re setting ourselves up for a situation that could get really tragic.”

“I’m not saying … there aren’t people on the streets who might do violent things, but I am saying most people on the streets don’t do that,” she said. “This is tragic NIMBYism.”

Punishing the homeless

The “Save Our Suburb” website targets two popular local parks in the city limits. That “particularly strange border,” the website states, “allows the city to exploit the people of Arden (and) Carmichael with absolute impunity.”

In their so-called “Safety Guide,” they recommend buying a gun and give instructions on where to buy it: “The ultimate form of protection is a handgun. A good defensive gun, such as the Smith & Wesson SD series … will cost around $400,” the website states. “Handguns can be purchased at stores like the Gun Range on Watt Avenue (near the Wal-Mart). Don’t be intimidated. Guns are easy to use and are very safe (if used correctly).”

There is no situation where it would be “very safe” to use a gun against a homeless person.

This kind of anti-homeless propaganda fuels hatred toward homeless people. Frustration over homelessness in the unincorporated county should be directed at the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, who oversee a $7 billion budget yet cannot seem to gain control of the situation.

If you are made to feel uncomfortable by the sight of homeless people, then good. The failure of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and county government to house homeless people should make you feel uncomfortable.

But propaganda that dehumanizes homeless people while ignoring the failure of the county government to get more people off the streets is deeply wrong, and could have deadly consequences for Sacramentans.