Status: 09/28/2022 12:15 p.m
Rents in and around San Francisco have been rising rapidly for years – and with them the number of homeless people. Many of them are repeatedly searched and expelled. Lawyers and activists are now suing the city’s policies.
A group of lawyers and activists has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco for violating the constitutional rights of its homeless population. Civil rights group Coalition on Homelessness, along with attorneys from the ACLU of Northern California and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, prepared the lawsuit on behalf of seven homeless people.
“We have accumulated a tremendous amount of evidence over three years that the city violates the rights of the homeless,” said Jennifer Freidenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness. “We hope to make a dramatic shift from a city that responds to homelessness with searches, property confiscation and criminalization of poor people to a city that instead addresses the problem by providing housing.”
“Brutal and counterproductive”
The 105-page lawsuit argues that the city is breaking both federal and local laws. The northern Californian metropolis conveys “the image of the caring community” that has a plan against homelessness. But decades of inaction on housing policy have forced tens of thousands of people to seek shelter in tents and vehicles.
San Francisco’s past attempts to accommodate the homeless have long been controversial, ineffective and expensive. Although investments are already being made in affordable housing, many people continue to be homeless every night.
“Time and time again, the city has not even followed its own guidelines,” said Zal Shroff, co-author of the lawsuit and one of the lead attorneys in the case. The guidelines look good on paper, but in practice they have turned out to be “brutal and counterproductive”.
debate about the causes
The city also uses harsh methods to evict the homeless, the lawsuit says. They were threatened with arrest and some were taken into custody. When camps are evicted early in the morning, they are not offered accommodation, even though the law requires it. These illegal practices must be stopped, Shroff said. There must be a debate about the causes of homelessness.
According to an annual survey, 7,754 people currently live on the streets of San Francisco. Ever increasing rents in the region have led to tens of thousands of people losing their homes in recent years. The lawyers calculate that 6,700 new affordable housing units would have to be built to accommodate each currently homeless person. They estimate the costs at 4.8 billion US dollars – around five billion euros.
3000 apartments since 2020
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and District Attorney David Chiu have declined to comment on the lawsuit. However, their offices pointed out that the city was already expanding the temporary accommodation. In addition, more permanent accommodation options would be created – since 2020 almost 3000 apartments including a care offer for the homeless.
Deputy director of the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing Emily Cohen said San Francisco has “a service-oriented approach to addressing vulnerable homelessness” and is focused on “expanding temporary housing and permanent housing to serve people living on the streets to provide a viable alternative space that is safe, dignified and welcoming”.
Though the lawsuit itself could take years, attorneys are hoping an emergency hearing will be held in the next five to six weeks. The hearing could result in parts of the searches and evictions being halted for the duration of the litigation.