Sacramento City Leaders' 21-Point Homeless Plan Avoids Tent Cities

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento city leaders are pushing a 21-point plan to solve the city's overwhelming homeless problem that doesn't involve tent cities.

Homeless activists are continuing to call for an end to Sacramento's anti-camping ordinance and demanding a safe place to sleep.

City leaders say there are more than 5,000 homeless people in Sacramento and $4 million is spent each year on the problem. Now they're setting new priorities, with expanding existing shelter space at the top of the list with a crisis triage center to help homeless people in need.

But they stopped short of endorsing the most controversial idea—allowing tent cities similar to those in Seattle.

"What I was in Seattle was was basically the city leaders thought they had solved the problem because they created tent cities," said Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen. "It was sort of a cheap form of false hope and I just think that would be a bad direction."

"I don't like the tent model," said Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby. "It's disturbing; every time I see the pictures I find that disturbing. I would rather see us try for tiny houses."

And that may end up being the compromise—a series of tiny-home communities that would give people a safe place to sleep.

"We actually have some organizations in town that could produce tiny houses quickly," said Sacramento City Councilman Jeff Harris.

They're also hoping to find a way to make housing more affordable.

"I think we lose if we take our eye off of the No. 1 goal here which is the lack of inventory of affordable housing," Ashby said.