Opinion: Sacramento must create water delivery system for unhoused
Just as one of the worst heat waves in recorded history was beginning, Sacramento County decided to stop delivering water to homeless encampments. A source of federal funds had run dry. Keeping the homeless alive simply wasn’t a county priority. That is an unfair hand to deal to the unhoused Sacramentans who had been relying on this water supply to survive. Water for any human being is not an option. It is a requirement to exist. This is a black eye to county supervisors who say they do a good job managing homelessness and don’t get credit for it. And now that the county has failed to meet this most basic of needs, the city should be prepared to step in and do the county’s job for them. Neither thirst nor the sun are going away. It’s quite ironic that the county stopped delivering water just about when the U.S. Supreme Court gave the county and local jurisdictions throughout the West more power to criminalize homelessness. At least in jail, the county provides water.