LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday agreed to settle a pivotal and contentious case on the property rights of homeless people _ a decision that is likely to limit the seizure and destruction of encampments on skid row.
The 10-2 vote to authorize the city attorney to cut a deal came at the behest of anti-poverty advocates and over opposition from downtown business groups, which had argued that settling would leave skid row and the people who live on its sidewalks mired in squalor, and deter downtown redevelopment.
The city has wrestled with the property rights issue for years, and in 2016 adopted an ordinance limiting homeless people's belongings to what would fit in a 60-gallon bag. The law also requires the city to give 24-hour notice of cleanups and to store confiscated items where they can be reclaimed on skid row.
But after a lawsuit was filed in 2016, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles barred the city from seizing and destroying homeless people's belongings on skid row unless officials could show the property is abandoned, threatens public health or safety, or consists of contraband or evidence of a crime.
Skid row is home to 4,200 homeless people, half of whom live in tents and shantytowns along the sidewalks and alleys of the 50-block district.
For months, developers and business representatives have lobbied the council _ in public and private _ to fight the judge's injunction, which they say has hobbled police enforcement on skid row and fostered disorder and disease, including a typhus outbreak. Business groups are particularly concerned that a settlement between plaintiffs and the city will stop or slow downtown redevelopment projects.
Advocates contend the city violated homeless people's constitutional rights by removing tents, blankets, clothing, medication and other possessions essential to their survival.
