Sacramento's newest homeless camp is acutely visible from Interstate 5, just south of the airport and near the Highway 99 connector. The American flag blowing between blue tarps and shaky tents offers a jarring first impression for city visitors.

The homeless campers were friendly enough, keeping to themselves amid a light mist and bracing wind on Tuesday. Visible in the distance, behind an iron gate, were curving roads of stately North Natomas homes. The haves and have-nots in plain sight; poverty at the gateway of California's capital.

It seems like this should be a symbol of something – of community neglect – but that's too easy a liberal button to push.

Maybe it simply means that some homeless people don't want to be helped. They don't want shelters with strings attached. And, even more vexing in our PC/PR-dominated times, maybe some homeless people are just too unsympathetic to rally behind.

"If these were garter snakes or Swainson hawks, you'd have people trying to protect them," said Leonard Padilla, the fabled Sacramento bounty hunter on whose land the new homeless camp has sprung.

In a sense, Padilla is right. Endangered animals are a magnet for public sympathy. But how about homeless people with mental illness and substance abuse issues? Or registered sex offenders with rap sheets? Or people such as James Donaldson, a 49-year-old camping on Padilla's land?

"I'm crazy," said Donaldson, tall and thin with a shock of matted hair. Donaldson said he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and had more than a few unkind words about homeless services in the area. He sneered at church groups who have brought him food, doesn't want to deal with the "political (expletive)" of city and county programs.

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