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California’s state capital of Sacramento has outpaced the notorious San Francisco in homeless population, as the local district attorney recently backed out of a run to be the state’s attorney general.
An estimated 9,278 individuals experienced homelessness throughout Sacramento County on a single night in February 2022, according to the most recent July 2022 homelessness report released by the non-profit organization Sacramento Steps Forward. The number represents a 67% increase in nightly homelessness since the last count in 2019, when 5,570 individuals were estimated homeless.
The number is also the highest estimate of homelessness on record for Sacramento, according to the nonprofit. Per capita, 59 out of 10,000 residents in the county experience homelessness on any given night.
The San Francisco Chronicle noted that San Francisco is a city and a county, which complicates comparing figures between with the city of Sacramento, located inland about 88 miles away on the opposite side of the Bay Area. However, elsewhere in the Bay Area, Alameda County also saw a 22% increase in its homeless population over the past three years, with the latest counts showing 9,747 people.
The most recent count for San Francisco in February of this year showed 7,754 people were experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. Of those people, 3,357 were staying in shelter.
Homeless encampments of tents hidden underneath Route I-80 along Roseville Road in Sacramento, California Wednesday, March 30, 2022.
(Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
That represents a 3.5% decrease compared to the previous count in 2019. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires all communities receiving federal funding for homelessness services conduct a count of people experiencing homelessness on a single night once every two years.
When asked about the homeless surge in California’s capital, Democratic Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, in lockstep with homeless activists, told CAP Radio earlier this month that the increase in cost of living, specifically the high cost of housing in the region was largely to blame for the homelessness crisis.
Homeless people consume illegal drugs in an encampment along Willow St. in the Tenderloin district on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022 in San Francisco, California.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who had been running as an independent candidate for the position as the state’s lead prosecutor, has openly criticized Democratic leadership for failing to address the drug epidemic, as well as for a lack of policing and mental health care. The area has also witnessed an influx of the more dangerous fentanyl, impacting many in the homeless population.
In one of the largest drug busts for California to date, approximately one million fake pills containing fentanyl – valued at approximately $20 million – were seized from a Los Angeles area home earlier this month as part of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation into drug trafficking linked to Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel.
The DEA noted that the home in Inglewood, about a six-hour drive to the Bay Area, sat by a major transshipment hub, allowing for easy distribution to local dealers, elsewhere in the state, and out of state.
A homeless encampment of tents neatly sit underneath the I-5 freeway in Sacramento, California Sunday, April 3, 2022.
(Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Schubert’s campaign told Fox News Digital Tuesday that she lost the June primary and, therefore, is not moving forward in the attorney general’s race.
In a separate email responding to a request for comment from Fox News Digital, Sacramento’s district attorney’s office said Schubert was unavailable Tuesday to answer questions regarding plans to address crimes linked to the homeless crisis – like open-air drug use, robberies and sexual assaults – impacting the quality of life in California’s capital, which has a significantly smaller population compared to nearby San Francisco.
City of Sacramento crime statistics show robberies are up by more than 42% compared to last year. Murders are up by more than 8%, and aggravated assaults spiked by nearly 32%.
STABBING AT SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT 4 DAYS AFTER BOMB THREAT
A person experiencing homelessness sleeps on the sidewalk in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California, on Thursday, April, 14, 2022.
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Rape surged by a whopping 92% compared to the same time last year.
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In San Francisco, the new district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, sworn in following the ouster of controversial progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin, recently fired 15 employees and named new hires as part of her mission to hold repeat violent offenders accountable in the city which has notoriously been experiencing surging murders, rapes and smash-and-grab robberies.
