Mayor Kevin Johnson on Tuesday pledged his commitment for creating a sanctioned “safe ground” for as many as 100 homeless campers in Sacramento, calling it a final piece of the area’s mosaic of programs to shelter needy people.

“I believe we have waited too long” to create a place where homeless people can legally sleep outside with basic services and access to programs that can help them become more stable, he said at his weekly news conference. “We’ve studied this for three years. This is not that complicated.”

Currently, about 100 campers have pitched tents on the south side of the American River near 10th Street, and the City Council was scheduled to take up the controversial matter for the first time Tuesday night.

Johnson urged some of the campers to join the “nomadic shelter” program, in which homeless men and women sleep in rotating houses of worship on cold winter nights.

Wells Fargo salvaged that program this week by contributing $75,000 to keep it running through March.

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