Sacramento lawsuit targets city homeless policy

From the 8/2/07 Sacramento Bee
By Denny Walsh - Bee Staff
The way the city of Sacramento and Sacramento County treat homeless people is unconstitutional, according to a lawsuit to be filed today in federal court.
Attorney Mark Merin is seeking to have his lawsuit certified as a class action on behalf of people living "without fixed nighttime shelter" -- as well as homeless people who have had personal property confiscated and destroyed.
Merin said the city and county have historically recognized that there aren't enough beds for the homeless, yet have failed to produce long-term remedies.
Merin said Wednesday he would like local government to follow the city of San Diego's example by imposing a moratorium on the arrest of homeless people, allowing them to sleep in public places between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Those arrangements were negotiated to settle a number of lawsuits, he said.
According to Merin's lawsuit, local ordinances prohibiting homeless people from sleeping outside violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because they punish people for being homeless.
It also claims the practice of taking and destroying personal property, "including necessary survival gear, as well as irreplaceable prescription medication, paperwork, memorabilia, valuables and tools," violates their rights.
The suit seeks an injunction barring the city and county from continuing policies and practices alleged to be unconstitutional. It also seeks damages of no less than $4,000 for each time a homeless person who qualifies as a class member was cited for sleeping outdoors or had personal property seized and destroyed.
Sacramento City Attorney Eileen Teichert said the city is "looking into these allegations."
"I'm surprised and shocked at them," Teichert said. "During my year and a half in this job, I've been very impressed by the humane outreach efforts to the homeless by the city. It is one of the few cities in the state that has an element in its housing plan for low and very low income people.
"This city is exemplary in its treatment of the homeless."
Sacramento County Counsel Bob Ryan, Sheriff John McGinness and Police Department spokesman Sgt. Matt Young declined to comment Wednesday.
Last year, a sweep of homeless camps in northern Sacramento County was preceded by posting of information about where the homeless could receive help if they were interested in getting off the streets.
Sheriff's officials said they were trying to do more than just move the homeless from one part of the community to the other.
During the winter, the county provides 140 beds at Cal Expo, as overflow from the 20-bed Volunteers of America Shelter on North A Street and the 32-bed Salvation Army women's shelter on North B Street.
Plaintiff Anthony Lehr, 49, said Wednesday that everything he owned was confiscated during a cold spell last winter when he was homeless.
Lehr said he was camping on the Sacramento River bank when authorities took his tent, flannel shirts, sleeping bag and food. "It was the basic things you needed to live," Lehr said.
Wednesday afternoon, Lehr brought Merin out on the levee to show him the spot where he often took refuge -- and where he lost his belongings.
The suit's plaintiffs are 11 individuals, who are representative of the homeless; Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit organization that provides services to the homeless; Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, an unincorporated association of homeless and formerly homeless people; and Francis House, a nonprofit organization that provides counseling to the poor.
Besides the city and county, defendants include Sacramento Police Chief Albert Nájera and McGinness.
"The solution to homelessness is housing," Merin said in an interview. "It is not harassing homeless people until they go away. On any given night, there are about 1,000 people out on the street because the shelters are full. Many of them camp on the riverbanks, but they are regularly rousted by law enforcement."
"They are cited for camping illegally or possessing a shopping cart," Merin said. "They don't show up in court and a warrant is issued for failure to appear. They are arrested, processed through the jail and prosecuted. Then the cycle starts all over again."
"If the city and county spent a fraction of what this is costing to deal with the homeless in a humane and just manner," he said, "it would go a long way toward eliminating the problem."
In the early hours of Jan. 30, according to the suit, an official count of homeless people in the city and county totaled 2,452. Of this total, 709 were in emergency shelters, 738 in transitional shelters, and 1,005 -- including four children and 17 seniors -- were "sleeping in the streets." The number of unsheltered had increased nearly 10 percent since 2005, the suit says.
The county estimates that 11,000 people in the area will be homeless sometime during a calendar year, according to Merin.
Merin has had extraordinary success pursuing legal actions on behalf of jail inmates and juvenile wards subjected to strip searches in Sacramento County.
"Through this lawsuit, we hope we can develop a more enlightened policy rather than just sweep them under the rug," Merin said.
Basics such as secure storage for their belongings, strategically located portable toilets and Dumpsters where they can dispose of their trash would be a start, Merin said.
After he lost his belongings, Lehr sought help from Loaves & Fishes in rebuilding his inventory. He now is taking advantage of a federal housing program and works at Loaves & Fishes checking belongings into daily storage for homeless. They are allowed to leave their things for the day while they run errands, go to job interviews or go to court.
Lehr, who regularly stores clothing and court documents, understands the value of a safe harbor for their possessions.
"It's all they have," he said.
Merin said San Diego is not the only place where litigation has forced a change in the treatment of homeless persons. A federal judge in Fresno issued an injunction in December prohibiting that city from citing homeless for sleeping outdoors and seizing personal property without prior notice and storage of the property until the owner can recover it.
In a challenge to a Los Angeles ordinance, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled that, as long as there are a greater number of homeless than beds for them, a city cannot keep the unsheltered from "sitting, lying or sleeping" on skid row sidewalks.