Mayoral candidate Dr. Flojaune Cofer and community leaders challenge District Attorney Thien Ho’s threats to criminalize homelessness

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sacramento mayoral candidate Dr. Flojaune Cofer, civil rights attorney Mark Merin and community leaders challenged Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho’s recent threats to criminalize homelessness today, saying that residents will not sit by as he tries to shutter ‘safe ground’ sites that many rely on for safety and community.

Rather than work with the city and county to create pathways to homes for the unhoused, Ho has threatened to take actions that could result in the dismantling of the safe ground site known as Camp Resolution, and has run press campaigns to criminalize people experiencing homelessness without providing any solutions as to where they can go or how they might acquire housing.

“Threatening the people who are fighting – and succeeding – to create solutions is a special type of cruelty,” said Dr. Cofer. “How many times are we going to try to criminalize poverty before we realize it is a bad idea?

Dr. Cofer’s mayoral platform involves a three-pronged solution to the homelessness crisis: triage the current unhoused situation and establish places where they can go today without fear of harassment or sweeps; develop protections for residents who are housing insecure to stop the flow of people entering homelessness; and drastically increase production and availability of affordable housing. The district attorney’s attack on the first prong could have real human consequences.

“Before opening Camp Resolution, life was a constant battle with stressors,” said Joyce, a resident of the city-sanctioned ‘safe ground’ site. “We feared for our safety at night, and lived every day under threat of sweeps by the city that could leave us without important belongings and unsure of where to go next. Today we live in a safe community where six of our neighbors have been able to find permanent housing.”

With temperatures dropping near freezing this week, the community is dedicated to defending unhoused residents from sweeps, which studies have shown can result in deaths. Threatening to make their living situations even more precarious does not get them closer to housing.

“The District Attorney is going outside of his wheelhouse with these threats against our homeless neighbors, and ignoring the real work that he was elected to do, which is prosecuting criminals,” said civil rights attorney Mark Merin. 

To learn more about Dr. Cofer’s plan to address the homelessness and housing crisis, go to floformayor.com.

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Contact: Dave Kempa: (916) 245-0355, info@FloforMayor.com