Since I took office in Dec 2022, I continue to do informal polls. Most of the people I talk to throughout the city love Folsom, yet they have strong concerns. First and foremost, about the increase in Folsom’s homeless population.
Whether it’s our business owners throughout the city who are asking for help to move them off their doorsteps or the residents in the city who continue to see the same people on the same corners and at the same parks while their kids are playing, there is a growing need to address the problem. We pride ourselves on our beautiful trails and infrastructure, yet many have shared their unwillingness to walk alone because they no longer feel safe doing so. Not all neighborhoods are the same.
First, let’s be clear that this is our problem, not someone else’s, to solve. No one else is coming to alleviate our concerns or fix Folsom’s growing population of homeless and transients. You, me, and our community as a whole are responsible. I continue to hear concerns from people because they witnessed what happened in the areas they moved from. They chose Folsom to raise their families away from the scenes that plagued those areas.
I hear the fear in their voice that they don’t want the things they witnessed in their past to happen here. Folsom was and is a destination of choice for most everyone. When you think about being unhoused or seeking refuge, and you don’t want to go into a shelter or abide by societal norms, wouldn’t you rather be in Folsom than a more dangerous place as well? For this reason and more, as the cities around us enact camp cleanouts, we will continue to witness our transient population rise unless we take a more proactive approach.
We all want the problem to be solved and go away. We don’t want to see the mentally ill acting out in front of us uncontrolled; we don’t want to see people defecate on Sutter Street and around town. We don’t want to walk by a camp with filth and openly used needles. We don’t want that for people experiencing homelessness, nor do we want nor need to tolerate seeing this in our daily lives.
While our Police Department is doing everything they can with their resources, they are consistently being asked to do more with less. I share the same sentiment as many others throughout our city; we don’t think our city is doing enough to support our Police Department in fighting this undesirable trend. Our Community Crime Suppression Unit, tasked with working with our homeless, only has one officer and one supervisor working four days a week to alleviate this growing population.
At any one time this past six months, 15- 20 camps could be set up in locations you drive by throughout the city. Once the PD gets them cleared out…. within days, they can pop right back up. You can drive throughout the city at different times during the day and witness upwards of 50-100 transients daily especially if you know where to look. Some want to compare this with other cities. Indeed, we do not have the problem other cities in the region have. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem, and why would we ever want to compare ourselves to the worst? I want to keep Folsom the best. Now, more than ever, we need to match our resources with the reality of our situation so we don’t continue to slide backward.
Let me state this clearly and strongly = Our Police Officers are superior. Still, as our population has grown significantly, we have not kept pace and essentially have understaffed our Police Department, and this is not the way to keep Folsom’s safety a top priority. Based on the last eleven years of actual numbers, our revenue continues to grow steadily, and we have enough resources to prioritize this issue. We must be willing to allocate our increased revenue to fit these priorities.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s time to act before it gets worse.
What can you do?
If you see a crime, don’t hesitate and immediately report it by calling 911. If you see an unthreatening homeless person, be kind but don’t load them up with stuff. Instead, reach out to these numbers and leave the location and time they were there. The more informed all of those working to find a solution, the more impact it will have on the issues at hand. Jeanne 279-321-3199, FPD 916-461-6400. Let the right people know someone needs help or shouldn’t be there. These numbers and more can be found on the city website as well.
I suggest taking it one step further. Assuming you are already reporting the negative behavior, I suggest you call or email the council themselves. The 5 of us are the decision-makers when allocating resources to fit your priorities; it just takes a majority to do so. If you want your name or business anonymous, call me. (916) 879-5657; otherwise, please email me at annar@folsom.ca.us.
I suggest you go to the city page and gather all Councilmember’s emails to share your opinion. We all need to be on the same page.
Anna Rohrbough represents Folsom’s District 5 on City Council. She can be reached at AnnaR@folsom.ca.us.
