SN&R Supports Tent Encampment

	Cover of the 02.05.09 issue of the Sacramento News & Review.

The Sacramento News and Review joined the chorus, adding words of support for a sanctioned tent encampment for the homeless in Sacramento.

In an "SN&R Editorial" [Written by an editorial board? by the paper's owner? We don't know.], "A legal tent town," published in today's issue, hope is expressed that the city [of Sacramento] and county [of Sacramento] "give the legal tent town concept their blessing." Hooray, that. And, maybe a designated place to be, funds, an outline of what they expect, and directives restraining police exuberance.

The piece first mentions the mounting homeless population in the region and that we are at the frontline of economic decline, here, as well.

Says the editorial,

[C]ity and county officials are studying whether or not to create a legal “tent town,” where people without a roof over their heads can camp out without fear of being harassed or regularly rousted by cops for illegal camping.

To become legally sanctioned, a Sacramento tent town would come with some rules attached. But a few rules (such as no drinking and no violence) hasn’t stopped tent towns from succeeding in other cities, with Portland [and its Dignity Village] first among them.

It wouldn’t solve the intractable problems faced by homeless individuals. But it would, at least, provide them an immediate solution to their most pressing problem.