I just got this article in my inbox and had to share. Wow. I guess all of the international media attention kicked the Sacramento city (and State) officials into shape. I had also been reading someblog posts about the environmental impacts the tent city was having on the river and open space. From my layperson perspective, I think this is all very good news. It is a shame that it takes an international airing out of our dirty laundry to make things happen.
It is also being unveiled that the tent city may not have been a bastion of “refugees of the recession” as had been depicted in the media. For me, it doesn’t change my mind that this area is still magnifying the economics of this crazy time and many families up there (not to take away from what families in the Bay Area are going through) are still in dire need of help. It is pretty incredible that St. John’s Shelter went from turning away an average of 20 women and children a night in 2007, to 240 people these days.