Some Feel Burned as Media Spotlight Falls on Capital’s Homeless Camp
An Australian television news crew interviews Renee Hadley, 38, left, Tuesday at the tent city for homeless people near the American River in Sacramento.
March 14, 2009
Sacramento’s humble “tent city” has gone international.
Across the country and around the world, newspaper readers and television viewers are being introduced to the sprawling campground where 100 to 200 homeless men and women sleep each night.
The tent city is on YouTube. Television crews from Germany, London and Switzerland have visited. The New York Times published a story about it. “Inside Edition” spent an entire day at the camp of tattered dome tents in the shadow of the Blue Diamond almond processing plant.
But not all publicity is good publicity, government leaders are finding out.
The huge wave of media attention that followed a recent Oprah Winfrey program featuring the tent city has spurred donations, ideas and volunteers. But it also has complicated things for officials who suddenly have found themselves in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
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