OAKLAND, Calif. — A war of words is brewing between the two top political leaders in Sacramento, California, over the city’s escalating homelessness crisis and approach to enforcing the rules.

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and Mayor Darrell Steinberg are at odds on how to solve the issue as Ho sent Steinberg a letter on Monday threatening to take legal action and file criminal charges against the city’s handling of its unsheltered population.

“Our community is caught between compassion and chaos as we reach a breaking point that requiresaction,” Ho said in his letter that said Sacramento’s homeless population has increased by 250% in the last six years and become “an unprecedented public safety crisis.”

Ho, who took office in January, said he’s considering criminal charges using state public nuisance laws if it doesn’t make several homeless-related changes within 30 days. The dispute between Ho and Steinberg in California’s capital city comes nearly five months after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $1 billion plan to provide 1,200 small homes in cities including Sacramento, San Jose, and Los Angeles as well as San Diego County. 

Sacramento County has 9,278 individuals experiencing homelessness, according to a 2022 census count by Sacramento Steps Forward, a private nonprofit organization. The figure is a 67% increase from a similar census conducted in 2019 which tallied 5,570 unhoused people in the county.

According to a study released in June, nearly a third of all people who are unhoused in the United States live in California. The study, conducted by The University of California, San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, also revealed that almost 90% reported that the cost of housing was the main reason they could not escape homelessness.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:Nearly one-third of nation’s homeless population lives in California, new research shows