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Critical infrastructure ordinance to remove homeless encampments near schools

The city has identified 67 schools that will be impacted by the ordinance and will work toward removing encampments.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The city of Sacramento is working to remove a homeless encampment near Garden Valley Elementary in South Natomas.

This is the first use of the new critical infrastructure ordinance that states encampments cannot be within 500 feet of a K-12 school. The city performed two cleanups Friday, but community members are out there every week.

Homeless encampments and trash in front of Garden Valley Elementary blocking the sidewalks to a school. The South Natomas community has been dealing with this issue for months.

Raul Huerta and other community members hold a cleanup every Friday.

“We’ve found needles, bullets. It’s not fair for the kids it’s not fair for the parents that have to walk their kids every day and you can see a lot of kids walk alone,” said Huerta.

Raul has been emailing photos to city council and the 311 services for a month.

The Community Outreach Team for the city of Sacramento has been helping clean up the vacant lot on Larchwood Drive for a month and the community is grateful.

“Up until recently, when the city council passed the resolutions to include schools in the critical infrastructure, nothing was being done,” said Huerta.

Hezekiah Allen for Outreach and Response with the city says they hope for voluntary compliance and they’ve been making progress.

“They are quite familiar with us at this point they understand that the camp is within the 500-foot buffer zone of the school and they were preparing to relocate,” said Allen.

But they told folks Friday these were the last conversations and the next step is notice of removal.

“Permanent safe housing is the end goal if that voluntary compliance is not achieved the case will be forwarded to the enforcement agency,” said Allen.

The city has identified 67 schools that will be impacted by the ordinance and will work toward removing encampments.

The city says two individuals accepted resources and shelter while a handful of others choose to relocate.

Watch more from ABC10: Newsom's pause of $1B in homeless funds comes at 'wrong time of year,' advocates say

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