Aug. 12--Civil rights lawyers have warned Los Angeles lawmakers that their new homeless sweeps laws are unconstitutional and could subject the city to "legal liability."
Lawyers from the Munger Tolles Olson and Public Counsel law firms submitted the letter as the City Council's homelessness committee takes up amendments aimed at softening the two measures, which would make it easier to seize and destroy homeless encampments that have exploded across the city in the last year.
The ordinances, one for parks and one for streets and sidewalks, took effect July 18, but Mayor Eric Garcetti asked to delay enforcement while the amendments are considered.
The proposed amendments, which the committee is debating Wednesday afternoon, would drop medication and documents from the list of property to be seized, eliminate a misdemeanor penalty and add a provision allowing violators to comply before being cited.
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The letter called the amendments "purely cosmetic" and said the law "criminalizes homelessness" by allowing confiscation of property including tents, bedding and bicycles whose destruction "threatens the survival of homeless individuals."
The skid row facility where the council proposes to store seized property is inaccessible to 80% of the city's homeless people, and only a small fraction of the belongings are ever claimed, the letter said.
Since the law bars homeless people from moving their things to another public space, the only way to comply is "to dump their own necessities in the trash," the letter said.
"We urge you to withdraw the ordinance and avoid subjecting the city to ongoing legal liability," said the lawyers, who are representing Los Angeles Community Action Network, a skid row advocacy group, pro bono.
Residents and neighborhood groups submitted letters urging the homelessness committee to let the law stand without amendments.
"The Palisades community is alarmed by impacts on its quality of life from the unfortunate reality and growing presence of the population that is homeless within our geography," the Pacific Palisades Community Council wrote.
"We have people living on the sidewalk who will not take or get help that is offered," Gail Carlson, Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council member, said in her letter.
MORE ON L.A. HOMELESSNESS:
L.A. city, county will expand homeless outreach on skid row
Tiny homes on wheels are a threat to public safety, L.A. councilman says
Justice Department asks judge to block enforcement of homeless camping ban
