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Homeless camp asking for donations of winter supplies

As rain and wind beat down on Northern California, one homeless encampment, Camp Resolution, is asking the public for winter supplies to protect themselves.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One Sacramento homeless camp is asking the public for winter supplies, as the rain and wind threaten their safety and health.

Camp Resolution is a community was founded about three months ago. Residents are pushing for Sacramento officials to allow them to keep camping there, where they say they feel safe. While the camp’s fate is up in the air, people living there say they’re in need of winter supplies.

“This is a 100-foot roll of 6 mm plastic. We use it to cover the trailers because they’re so long,” said Sharon Jones.

Jones was busy helping her 50-or-so neighbors at Camp Resolution fend off the rain and wind, using tarps and fasteners, Friday morning.

“These clamps right here, they are the strongest ones and they stand up to the wind,” she said, holding a large metal clamp in her hand. “That 40 mph gust is pretty vicious on the tents. We already got a couple tents that were down this morning, but we already got them back up.”

Satearah Murphy and her wife live in a tent here. She’s been camping in this part of North Sacramento over the past 5 years, spending winters outside.

“It’s dangerous. People die,” she said.

Local homeless advocates agree. They say eight people in Sacramento County’s unhoused community died in 2021 due to hypothermia. In November this year, a 74-year-old man named Morris Jobe died of hypothermia as well.

That’s why people living at Camp Resolution are asking for donations to get through.

“Right now, our winter needs are tarps or plastic – thick plastic – to cover the tops of the RVs and some of the tents. And clamps. Sandbags would be helpful. Blankets, gloves, batteries… and some rain gear of some sort,” said Jones. “I don’t want to get sick. Nobody wants to get sick.”

They’re also asking for dry firewood.

“We have a little bit, but we don’t have enough that’s going to last through the storm,” said Jones.

Jones and her wife founded Camp Resolution about three months ago, in the empty, gated lot at Colfax Street and Arden Way in Sacramento. The city had been developing the site as a safe camping ground for the unhoused community, but an environmental study and growing costs caused them to walk away from the project. People moved in anyway, forming what Jones and Murpy call the safest place they’ve ever camped.

“It’s predominantly women and they feel safe here,” said Jones.

Murphy echoes Jones' point, saying “some of us, like, really, really need this place. To be safe... a lot of bad things that go on outside these gates.”

Jones says the camp is still working with the city for permission to stay, but the future is uncertain.

“It’s kind of scary because you don’t know if they’re going to come the next day and sweep us, and that’s a big fear for most people,” said Jones.

“I love Camp Resolution because we are fighting for something different, you know what I mean. We’re fighting for people to see that we’re all still just human beings. We’re not just a bunch of drug addicts, like… There’s a couple ladies here who have jobs… They go to work every single day… and then have to come home to live in these type of conditions because of the lack of resources,” said Murphy.

Information on how to donate is on Camp Resolution’s Instagram account HERE. They’re also accepting donations of money via Venmo @CampResolution.

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