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Homeless people and their advocates sued the city of San Francisco on Tuesday, demanding that it stop harassing and destroying the belongings of people living on the streets with nowhere to go, and with the goal of forcing the city to spend billions of dollars on affordable housing. which will keep residents housed.
The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and others filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the Coalition for the Homeless and seven people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. -be homeless The defendants include the city, various city departments and Mayor London Breed.
The complaint says San Francisco “presents the image of a caring municipality” with a plan to address homelessness, but decades of inaction on affordable housing has left thousands forced to use tents and vehicles as a refuge An annual homelessness survey found 7,754 homeless people in 2022, with nearly 60% living without a home.
Not only has the city failed to build affordable housing, the complaint says, the city uses heavy-handed tactics to get homeless people to move out, threatening to arrest or detain people and taking people’s belongings from trash cans. early morning camps where they take refuge. not offered, as required by law.
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FILE – People sleep near used clothes and used needles on a street in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, July 25, 2019. Homeless advocates sued the city of San Francisco, Tuesday, September 27 of 2022, demanding that it be stopped. harass and destroy the belongings of people living on the streets and commit to spending $4 billion on affordable housing. (AP Photo/Janie Har, file)
(AP Photo/Janie Har)
In addition to stopping illegal practices, “we need to change the conversation about what’s causing homelessness here and come up with proven solutions,” said Zal K. Shroff, senior attorney for the lawyers’ committee.
San Francisco is one of many West Coast cities where homeless people have increasingly come under fire from politicians and housing residents. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and former mayor of San Francisco, has agreed to clean up the tent camps, saying it is neither compassionate nor safe to allow people to live outdoors.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in 2018 that it is unconstitutional to cite or arrest people for sleeping in public when no shelter is available.
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FILE – A man stands near tents on a sidewalk in San Francisco, Nov. 21, 2020. Homeless advocates sued the city of San Francisco, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, demanding that it stop d ‘harass and destroy the belongings of living people. street and pledge to spend $4 billion on affordable housing. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Both the mayor’s office and the city attorney’s office declined to comment, but said San Francisco is focused on expanding temporary shelters and providing more permanent housing options. Breed’s office said the city has added nearly 3,000 units of permanent supportive housing since 2020.
“Once we are served with the lawsuit, we will review the complaint and respond to the court,” said Jen Kwart, a spokeswoman for City Attorney David Chiu’s office.
Shroff acknowledged that the court cannot order San Francisco to build affordable housing, but the group hopes the lawsuit will push city leaders in that direction.
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – FEBRUARY 24: Homeless people use illegal drugs at an encampment along Willow St. in the downtown Tenderloin district on Thursday, February 24, 2022 in San Francisco, CA. London Breed, Mayor of San Francisco, is the 45th Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. She served as District 5 Supervisor and was Chair of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The lawsuit asks the court to order the city to stop punishing homeless people for sleeping and living on public property until it has enough housing to provide. It also asks the court to stop the city from seizing property and to appoint a monitor to make sure the city follows through.
Among the seven named plaintiffs is David Martinez, a Latino man who sleeps in a cardboard box because city workers continue to confiscate his tent and other belongings, according to the complaint.
Two of the plaintiffs are black men who cannot afford housing in the city where they were born and raised. Another is a double amputee whose prosthetic limbs were taken away by city workers in June.
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A homeless person sleeps on the sidewalk in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California, USA, on Thursday, April 14, 2022. San Francisco was home to more than 9,800 homeless people according to the last count released in 2019, month. up from 30% two years earlier, according to a city estimate that is likely an undercount.
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Toro Castaño said in a legal filing that in August 2020, she packed her belongings as ordered, but city workers threw all of her things into a garbage truck, including her wedding kimono from his mother and a MacBook Pro laptop. He was offered a bed in a homeless shelter, which he refused for fear of catching the coronavirus.
“I don’t think it was fair to force me to make this difficult healthcare choice under the threat of a subpoena,” Castaño, who is also Latino, said in his statement.
According to the complaint, the city fails to give 72 hours notice to clear an area or bag and tag the property for the homeless to pick up later, in violation of its own policies. Homeless workers don’t know until hours after people have been forced out what type of shelter, if any, is available that day.
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“Nobody’s saying the city shouldn’t dispose of trash, but when we see MacBook Pros, that’s just going directly to homeless people,” Shroff said.
San Francisco has about 3,500 shelter beds, the mayor’s office said.
The lawsuit estimates San Francisco would need to build nearly 6,700 new affordable units, estimated to cost $4.8 billion, to house all the people not currently in San Francisco.
