CITY COUNCIL
Darrell Steinberg, Mayor
Angelique Ashby, Vice Mayor, District 1
Sean Loloee, District 2
Jeff Harris, District 3
Katie Valenzuela, District 4
Jay Schenirer, District 5
Eric Guerra, Mayor Pro Tem, District 6
Rick Jennings, II, District 7
Mai Vang, District 8
CHARTER OFFICERS
Mindy Cuppy, City Clerk
Susana Alcala Wood, City Attorney
Jorge Oseguera, City Auditor
Howard Chan, City Manager
John Colville, City Treasurer
City Council
Financing Authority
Housing Authority
Public Financing Authority
Redevelopment Agency
Successor Agency
City Hall-Council Chamber
915 I Street, 1st Floor
Published by the Office of the City Clerk
(916) 808-5163
CORRESPONDENCE
Description of Attached: Correspondence received after publishing the Agenda.
For the Meeting of: Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at 5:00 p.m.
Agenda Item: Public Comments – Matters Not on the Agenda
From: Muriel Strand <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2022 4:26 PM
To: clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: jan 25 5pm council - item not on agenda
dear clerk,
here is my second comment to council for tomorrow.
thanks for your help,
m
Muriel Strand, P.E.
Advertising is a private tax.
- Andre Schiffrin
www.nisenan.org/
www.bio-paradigm.blogspot.com/
www.work4sustenance.blogspot.com
January 24, 2022 To: Sacramento City Council From: Muriel Strand Re: Comments on our homeless conundrum A few days ago I replayed your December 15 meeting, which I had not originally attended. It was very educational. While there are some data available to city stakeholders, there are big gaps. Noting that the point-in-time count is coming right up, that looks to me like an opportunity to gather selected data beyond what may be currently expected. More coordination with the county government is I think a very high priority. While individual businesses in particular locations are expressing a lot of understandable angst, telling the city council to just ‘fix it!’ is irresponsible. While local businesses express rational individual small business perspectives, the business community as a whole must take a major share of the responsibility for market failures like the gaping hole in the supply of affordable housing. Although the homeless conundrum involves external factors that are controlled by state and/or federal institutions, local chambers of commerce would be well advised to coordinate affordable housing and other local needs with external organizations as well as local ones. The homeless do pay taxes, if not a lot. Sales taxes, also payroll deductions for a few. If the economy made room for them, they would in turn buy more goods and services, and pay more taxes. Listening between the lines of the comments and conversation, there’s a widespread and unconscious assumption that homeless people are more likely to commit crimes than sheltered people. While this may be the case, I predict there are no data showing that this is true, certainly not once the crimes of living, sitting, walking, eating, panhandling, sleeping, drinking, and pooping like a homeless person are subtracted from the dataset. Comments from the community expressed both fear of and friendship for the homeless. Typically, the former viewed the homeless as a blob and the latter, as individuals. On the part of the fearful and of businesses, I perceived an attitude about ‘breaking the law’ as though ‘the law’ is sacred rather than just rules that we the people made up and we the people can change. Remember, the most dangerous people are those with nothing left to lose. Laws can’t protect us when they’re unjust and unrealistic. The fact that homeless temporary tent villages tend to look like they are auditioning for an episode of Hoarders is in part the responsibility of our ultra-convenience, single-serving, over-packaged business sector. What if half the energy and materials used for packaging was redirected towards affordable housing? Taking the example of the pallets of bottled water that the county had been providing – is there a way to provide water without all that plastic? Should we have the right to housing? Does assuming that right lead to thriftier and more useful policies? I am certain that the problem is political not economic. I already know how to house the homeless, but the political will for my simple and very effective solution is MIA.