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A screening for the first half of “The Right to Exist,” a documentary covering the story of Sacramento’s Camp Resolution, was held in late September at the Guild Theater.
The first-of-its-kind self-governed encampment was officially established in 2023 after residents and Sacramento city officials signed a lease allowing them to remain on the city-owned property as a self-governing community.
But in late August, the city shut down the camp and removed its residents, saying that they violated the terms of the lease by camping directly on the contaminated soil.
The documentary highlighted systemic issues, such as the lack of affordable housing and shelter space, that led roughly 50 people to live at Camp Resolution. Director Nick Anderson said the 48-minute cut was a follow-up to his short film, “The Invisible Homeless,” and was meant to address common misconceptions about homelessness.
“We just hear people saying things that weren’t true or that the data suggests otherwise, so I wanted to make a film that answers all those questions,” Anderson said.
However, Anderson said the scope of the film changed a month after he started following the encampment when they got their first eviction notice in April.
“Suddenly their existence was under threat, and that was when the film changed,” he explained. “It was a fight for this camp’s right to exist so the camp became much more the focal point of the film.”
Anderson said the goal for the first half of the film was to showcase the camp’s success and camaraderie between its residents.
“I think that in the long run, at the end of the film, I want people to take away the fact that it’s when communities come together and support each other that we see success,” Anderson said referring to the rest of the film. “That means cities, counties, nonprofits and people experiencing homelessness coming together and working together to make the actual change we all need.”
Homelessness in Sacramento
(From left) Panelists Arturo Baiocchi, Renée C. Byer, Pattie Shaw and Nick Anderson Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the Guild Theater in Sacramento.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
A panel discussion held after the screening featured Anderson, Sacramento State Professor Arturo Baiocchi, Sacramento Bee photojournalist Renée C. Byer and Sacramento ACT volunteer leader Sacramento ACT volunteer leader Pattie Shaw. The audience was allowed to ask questions anonymously, which Anderson said would inform the rest of the movie.
One question that raised concern among the panelists was why unhoused people can’t just share an apartment, similar to college students in dorms.
“Some of these people have pets and these are their lifeline,” Byer said in response. “Sometimes these apartments don’t allow them, so where are they to go?”
She also argued that some homeless people have mental illnesses and don’t do well in community living spaces.
“We hear stories over and over again on how that does not work,” she stressed. “This is not a college dorm situation. That is not a solution.”
Genelle Smith, executive director of Sacramento’s Wellspring Women’s Center, added to this after the event noting that renter discrimination also plays a large role in answering this question.
“Landlords want to rent to college students,” she said. “They don’t want to rent to individuals who have the problems and challenges of the individuals that have been suffering with extreme homelessness.”
Smith noted that often unhoused individuals have bad credit and prior evictions that can make it even more difficult to get a rental contract.
“The rental market itself is brutal in that there’s not as much vacancies as we need,” she added. “There’s so many challenges about that question. I understand the perception, but it’s so flawed.”
Sacramento does not have enough beds in its shelters to house all of the region’s homeless population. According to this year’s Point in Time count, Sacramento had 3,053 unsheltered people on Jan. 24. A preliminary report on Sacramento’s homeless response from February found that the city only had 1,250 beds as of December 2023 — less than half the number of beds needed to address its homelessness issue.
Camp Resolution: A failure, or a model?
Guests take their seats prior to the start of the film Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the Guild Theater in Sacramento.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
Susan Roll, a social work faculty member at Chico State University, is a research partner with Sac State professor and panelist Baiocchi. She met with several camp residents while they were gathering testimony and strategizing to keep the camp intact.
“We have a very different situation going on in Chico and we had an idea that we were going to study the difference between what’s going on in Chico and what’s going on here at Camp Resolution,” she said. “The idea that residents could manage their own camp as an encampment resolution strategy was really exciting and was much better than what was going on in Chico.”
In 2021, a group of unhoused people in Chico filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing that its policy of clearing encampments on public property didn’t keep up with available shelter beds. In response, the city signed a settlement agreement that allowed unhoused people to camp at a sanctioned campground on public property.
However, Roll argued that Chico’s encampment is not “a very workable model” to address homelessness because it’s not well planned and has strict rules.
“We were disappointed that things at this point haven’t worked out,” she said, referring to Camp Resolution. “Our camp is still going on, and yet it has its problems. I’m just keenly interested in how cities are doing this work right now. Everybody’s in the middle of it and we’re trying to look for best models to replicate around the country.”
Yet Roll argued that Camp Resolution was not a failure because people had a place to live for two and a half years.
“For a while, it was a safe place for people to stay, and then lots of factors made that fall apart,” she said. “But I think there’s a lot to be learned in the premises.”
What’s next?
Sharon Jones, co-founder of Camp Resolution, said she hopes the rest of the film addresses myths — like the notion “that [homeless people] are all drug addicts and [don’t] have jobs” — and provides solutions to the homelessness crisis.
“A good percentage of that camp had a job,” she stressed.
Jones, her wife and their dogs have been living with Shaw, one of the panelists, since the closure of the encampment. However, they said they feel responsible for the closure.
“The sweep was traumatic,” Jones said. “And we feel responsible because we brought all of these people together, and now they’re out in the wind. We want to still try and help and we’re just trying to come up with solutions to be able to help. That’s been hard.”
Producer D’Adonis Moquette said there is no official release date. For more information about the film, visit its official website.
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