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March 29, 2024

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Lawsuit: Require L.A. to provide beds for homeless

Group says city, county are allowing ‘human tragedy’ to unfold

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER, Associated Press
Published: March 11, 2020, 5:00pm

LOS ANGELES — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to force Los Angeles officials to provide thousands of shelter beds in an effort to stem what it described as the unfolding “human tragedy” of people living in squalor on the streets.

While once largely confined to the notorious Skid Row neighborhood, encampments have spread countywide. Freeway overpasses are lined with tents, and it’s a common sight to see someone pushing a shopping cart filled with belongings through downtown and even suburban neighborhoods.

A 2019 count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported that there were close to 60,000 homeless people living in LA County, including 36,000 within the city limits.

The suit by the LA Alliance for Human Rights accuses officials in greater Los Angeles of failing to comprehensively address the homelessness crisis. One legal expert said it seems unlikely that a federal court would actually take the case.

The lawsuit asks a judge to set a “legally enforceable mandate” to establish homeless services and enough beds for anyone who needs one on any given night. It also seeks unspecified sanctions against officials for failing to meet the requirements within a strict timetable.

Residents are confronted daily with public health risks, blocked sidewalks, untreated mental illness and addiction, environmental hazards and increased crime, according to the filing.

“It is difficult for the housed and it is deadly for the unhoused,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, an attorney for the Alliance who previously served in the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

The alliance describes itself as a “grassroots group of community members” that includes downtown residents, small-business owners, nonprofits, service providers and community leaders.

Los Angeles officials haven’t seen the filing and couldn’t immediately comment, said Rob Wilcox, spokesman for the city attorney’s office. The county does not comment on pending litigation, spokesman Jesus A. Ruiz said.

It would be hard to imagine a federal court agreeing to take on this case, said Gary Blasi, professor emeritus of law at University of California, Los Angeles.

“A judge is not going to oversee the governments of the city and the county to deal with this problem, as complicated as it is,” he said.

Blasi said a sympathetic judge might decide to address just the issue of tents blocking passage on sidewalks under the ADA. But even if it makes it into the legal system, he doesn’t see any resolution in time to address the pressing crisis.

Norman Eagle owns an industrial property near downtown that he says is beset by sidewalk encampments that routinely block the entrances to his buildings. He said he supports the lawsuit because he’s increasingly frustrated by the city’s inability to clean up accumulating trash and human waste.

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