AUDIO – IT’S COMPLICATED –
July 12, 2023 – Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper on Wednesday announced the results of a recent homeless outreach effort and called for robust funding to address serious problems that prevent unhoused people from receiving or accepting help. Over five days in May, sheriff’s deputies went to areas throughout the county including homeless encampments to speak to people experiencing homelessness. The deputies spoke with 198 homeless people. They said only one person accepted their offer of services to help them get off the streets. “My job is public safety, number one,” Cooper said during a news conference Wednesday. “It doesn’t matter if you’re housed, unhoused. We want to make sure that you’re safe and you’re not a victim.” But he said there are rarely discussed issues that prevent homeless people from accepting help: sexual assaults, mental illness and drug addiction. He said these are underlying issues that need to be addressed; a complicated problem that won’t be solved by solely focusing on building housing. “We’re not anti-homeless. We want to help the homeless,” Cooper said. “It’s not just one answer. It’s many answers to help solve this problem and alleviate it.”
