South Sacramento declares: We don't want to take brunt of solving homelessness
Homelessness remains the number one issue the Sacramento community wants its leaders to address, but how the city addresses it can leave a lasting impact in one neighborhood.
A 102-acre plot of city land in South Sacramento symbolizes the tension between what the community wants and the desires of the Sacramento Council to find more land to shelter homeless people.
Opinion
That tension was on full display at the March 11 city council meeting where Mai Vang, who represents south Sacramento's council District 8, voiced what her community wants.
'For far too long the development of South Sacramento has happened to us, when vital and significant decisions were made without our input. This project is an opportunity to interrupt that cycle and to do things with transparency and integrity,' South Sacramento resident Danny Williams said at public comment on Tuesday.
Purchased by the city in 2022 for $12.3 million, the 102 acres has been coveted for different purposes. Vang wanted the land for a potential sports complex and affordable housing.
'I saw that property as an opportunity to really transform south Sacramento, given the conversation that council was having at the time about inclusive economic development.'
Later, former Mayor Darrell Steinberg included it in their Comprehensive Siting Plan to Address Homelessness.
Since then, Vang hasn't given up on ensuring the land will be used to uplift her district. This reflects her experience of growing up in poverty in her district as the daughter of Hmong refugees from Laos. District 8, whose most prominent neighborhood is Meadowview, lacks the investment of other city council districts. Vang has focused her time on the council on such issues as violence prevention, guaranteed income and improving community gathering places, libraries and community centers.
The development of the 102-acre site on Meadowview Road is an extension of Vang's priorities for her district.
But as discussions about what to do with the land heighten, other priorities come into play.
The Sacramento Bee's opinion team is hard at work sifting through the chaos so you don't have to. Get our weekly Bee Opinionated newsletter straight to your inbox and we'll help you cut through the drone of the news cycle.
For Vang, she sees the land best used for affordable housing and a sports complex. The goal in mind is to uplift communities in places like Detroit Boulevard and Meadowview by giving more housing options to them and making the area a more desirable place to live.
Mayor Kevin McCarty says he wants what's best for Sacramento as a whole. For a city that faced a budget deficit and is currently broke, the priority is money. To get funds to update the existing homeless shelter system, he wants to sell the land.
'We have multiple (homeless) sites in the city right now that are occupied with tiny homes and we're looking to expand but we need resources.'
McCarty finds keeping the land and building housing for the homeless insufficient given how much money it would cost to create and upkeep another site.
'We just need more money to open up more tiny homes on the sites,' McCarty said.
How the mayor's idea squares with Councilwoman Vang's desire for community benefits to come from this land remains to be seen.
The 102-acre site is landlocked, without a road to enter it. Ten acres of it is wetlands. Needless to say, it would be a huge undertaking for the city to take on by itself.
Selling the land puts money in the pockets of the city for other needs now, as the 102-acre land will take years before anything can break ground.
Moreover, choosing to have a big homeless presence on this site would further hurt South Sac.
'If the council so choose that path, it would be devastating. That policy idea is literally redlining homelessness and concentrating poverty,' Vang said.
Everyone has to play their part in solving homelessness, as equally as possible. The debate over this 102 acres of Sacramento land may be on its way to a positive ending.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jim Ridderbush replaces Chris Wery following tight Green Bay City Council vote
Jim Ridderbush is the newest Green Bay City Council member, replacing former District 8 council member Chris Wery after a 6-5 vote on June 10 by the 11 other council members. "Thank you for all your support, and I really look forward to working with this council and making it one of the best councils ever, as far as I can say," Ridderbush said in his first remarks as District 8 council member before moving from the public gallery to sitting between council members Ben Delie and Alyssa Proffitt ― where Wery had sat before resigning in May to take care of family health issues. Ridderbush's appointment to serve until April 2026 ― effective immediately ― marked the end of a long road for him to get on the City Council. He had campaigned against Wery in 2024 to represent District 8, and prior to that run, he had campaigned in 2018 to represent District 9, ultimately losing to council member Brian Johnson. Ridderbush is no stranger to politics or leadership, much like the opponents he was vying against ― Megan Borchardt, a Brown County Board member; and Mark Anderson, a former president of the Lombardi Neighborhood Association. He serves as the president of the Marquette Park neighborhood association and vice president of the United Food and Commercial Works Local 1473 labor union. He introduced former Vice President Kamala Harris at the Resch Expo during her first campaign visit to northeastern Wisconsin. When asked to present himself in front of the City Council, he leaned on those years of leadership experience and brought a PowerPoint presentation to make his case as a community-oriented collaborator and consensus builder. "I can talk to anybody," Ridderbush said. "I don't care what political spectrum you're on. I respect your opinion, and I hope you respect mine, and I like working to solve the problems for the city of Green Bay." For his district, he wanted to tackle long-standing speeding concerns along Ninth and Gross avenues, Ridderbush said, as well as traffic and safety concerns that would come with the new Kwik Trip development on Mason Street. In regard to the city as a whole, Ridderbush believed bureaucratic red tape could be removed to build more affordable housing options. He wanted to support city workers and "Keep young people, include minority communities, attract new residents and businesses," in order to "Expand our city's identity," according to his presentation. When asked by the City Council what his top three priorities would be in the city's upcoming budget cycle, Ridderbush shrugged and said, "Well, roads are probably the priority. Roads are one of the top ones. Yeah, I don't really know how to answer the rest of it." He would look to state legislators to secure funding for roads and infrastructure, Ridderbush said. When considering his vision for the city in five to 10 years, Ridderbush recalled a meeting he attended at Beaumont Park, where residents gathered to share what they wanted for the neighborhood. The plan that neighbors came up with was something Ridderbush would want to work with the city to execute, he said. Several council members asked questions relating to how candidates would handle criticism and disagreements on issues presented to the council from constituents, other council members or city staff. Ridderbush said he was willing to listen and have his mind changed. "Number one, you've gotta have thick skin," he said. "You've gotta be able to deal with conflict, and you've gotta be able to be the middleman, and that's what I do on a daily basis at my job; I'm a middleman between the workers and management, and I try to find [resolutions] for whatever the issues may be." Six council members put Ridderbush as their first choice when it came time to vote for Wery's replacement, just enough to secure a majority in the first and only round of voting. They were Jim Hutchison, Bill Galvin, Joey Prestley, Alyssa Proffitt, Ben Delie and Kathy Hinkfuss. Five others had put Anderson as their first choice. They were Jennifer Grant, William Morgan, Craig Stevens, Brian Johnson and Melinda Eck. No council member put Borchardt as their first choice to replace Wery. Ridderbush's first business as council member: to motion to adjourn the City Council meeting just before 9 p.m., approved unanimously. Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@ This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Jim Ridderbush replaces Chris Wery on Green Bay City Council
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
State lawmaker's 'My family broke the law to come here' comment causes social media stir
The Brief Minnesota lawmaker Kaohly Vang Her, a St. Paul Democrat, caused a social media stir Monday after saying, "My family broke the law to come here." FOX 9 has confirmed Her is a documented immigrant in Minnesota legally. It would be illegal for an undocumented citizen to serve the Minnesota Legislature. ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A social media firestorm broke out Monday when some people missed the context of a Minnesota DFL Representative's comments on the MinnesotaCare cuts for undocumented adults. What they're saying Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, a Democrat from St. Paul, said, "My family broke the law to come here. I never knew that. I just learned that now. So when you're thinking about voting 'no' on this bill, you're voting 'no' against someone like me." Representative Her's comments led to some widely-shared misinformation with people claiming she's undocumented, and serving the Minnesota Legislature. Why you should care That's not legal, and FOX 9 confirmed Monday she's not undocumented. Her is a citizen who was a Hmong refugee with her family in the 1970s, and whose father found a way to skip a step and get them to the United States faster. Rep. Her had legal documentation, and she was naturalized in junior high school.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘I'm a citizen,' clarifies Minnesota Democrat after saying she came to the U.S. illegally
Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, DFL-St. Paul, speaks on the House floor in 2024. (Photo by Andrew VonBank/Minnesota House Info) Rep. Kaohly Her, DFL-St. Paul, revealed a stunning detail about herself during a debate on the Minnesota House floor Monday: She came to the United States illegally as a child. 'I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegal here in this country,' Her said on the floor. Her was trying to inspire empathy in her Republican colleagues, who were about to vote to take away state-funded health care for undocumented adults in Minnesota. 'I tell you this story because I want you to think about who it is that you are calling illegal,' Her told House Republicans on the floor. 'My family was just smarter in how we illegally came here. We had more privileges and more ability, which is why we came here in that way.' The fourth-term lawmaker's remarks quickly ignited a firestorm in right-wing media, who are questioning her legal status and her ability to cast a vote in U.S. elections. One of her Republican colleagues, Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, called for her to be investigated and she's already receiving threats and insults on social media. In an interview with the Reformer, Her clarified that she and her parents are U.S. citizens. Her is a refugee from Laos, and moved to the U.S. when she was three. Her's parents took their U.S. citizenship test, and Her became a citizen as a minor when she was in middle school, she said. Her said her father technically broke the law when he filled out paperwork for the family to come to the U.S. as refugees. He did so to expedite the process to come to the U.S., though they would have come to America anyway. Her came to America along with a wave of Hmong refugees, who were critical allies to the United States in the Vietnam War and the 'secret war' in Laos, assisting in intelligence operations, disrupting north Vietnamese supply routes and combating communism's spread through Southeast Asia. Her's grandfather was a colonel in the war, she said. Her's father worked at the U.S. consulate, and he processed their family's paperwork in a way to expedite their timeline to immigrate to the U.S. as refugees. People who were set to come to the U.S. as refugees could do so quicker if they had family connections to the military, CIA or USAID. Her said her family didn't qualify for those pipelines, but one of her family's friends worked for USAID. When Her's father processed the refugee paperwork, he claimed familial connection to the friend that worked for USAID, which wasn't true. 'Technically, you would say my father broke the law, right? But we would have come anyway,' Her said. Minnesota House Republicans, alongside DFL House caucus leader Melissa Hortman, voted Monday to strip MinnesotaCare from undocumented adults. The Senate later voted to do the same. Her said she wishes she would have been more clear about her citizenship status on the House floor, but she doesn't regret telling her story. 'The truth is until people see a face with somebody and a situation, it is really easy for us to other each other, and as somebody who's been marginalized because of who I am my whole life, I never want to do that to somebody else,' Her said.
