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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

LA County moves for dismissal from federal homelessness lawsuit filed by downtown businesses, residents

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Elizabeth Mitchell | law firm website

A coalition of downtown businesses and residents through litigation is trying to force Los Angeles city and county to address rising homelessness, but the county asked to be released from the lawsuit last month.

“You have more than a billion dollars going towards addressing the homelessness crisis that is not being addressed,” said attorney Elizabeth Mitchell, who represents L.A. Alliance for Human Rights. “That's a mismanagement of public funds.” 

The L.A. Alliance for Human Rights sued the city and county a year ago in the Central District of California federal court alleging that negligence, a violation of due process and equal rights has caused businesses to suffer and property values to drop, according to the complaint

“The County has the obligation to provide a social safety net and has been failing to do so on several levels,” Mitchell told the Southern California Record

“Mental Health Services, the Department of Public Health Services, the Department of Public Social Services are all county services. The county has not raised its general relief rate since the early 1990s. They originally had higher general relief rates, which were supposed to increase but county supervisors chose to end that policy 30 years ago.”

Currently, after applying and determining eligibility for general relief, an individual will receive $221 a month in financial assistance.

“We think the city and the county are legally obligated to provide beds and services for thousands of people as well as ensuring clean and safe communities,” Mitchell said. “We’ve seen that balanced approach work in Orange County,  Bellflower, and Whittier.”

The county, in its March 29 motion to dismiss, blames the city’s inability to enforce anti-vagrancy laws and claims that homelessness should be addressed with a legislative fix through the Board of Supervisors.

“Plaintiffs do not allege the County is responsible for the recent growth in homeless encampments,” wrote LA County Attorney Louis R. Miller. “Rather, Plaintiffs claim that the County is liable because it could help the City build enough homeless shelters so that the City’s enforcement of anti-vagrancy laws can resume. To support this, Plaintiffs allege the County has sufficient funds within its general fund and in sales tax revenue raised from Measure H to build enough homeless shelters to house all People Experiencing Homelessness (PEH) within Los Angeles County. There is simply no precedent under federal or state law to support such a remedy.”

Mitchell added that even if a ballot initiative were passed by voters, there is no guarantee that the city or county would act on it.

“They have shown themselves incapable of getting to this point without a federal court order and because the city and the county have not been able to produce shelter or alternate adequate places for people to go, then those laws can't be enforced at the moment,” she said.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported that a week after LA Alliance filed the lawsuit, litigation was suspended to mitigate a settlement however an agreement has not been forthcoming. 

“Businesses are closing or relocating and a number of national known-brand pharmacies have closed downtown because it's not worth being open due to theft, the danger of violence, and the crime that, unfortunately,  does come with encampment,” Mitchell said. “You have restaurants unable to attract customers. In terms of businesses, it’s almost a death sentence.” 

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, will hear LA County's motion to dismiss on May 10. Judge Carter granted the LA Alliance's request to file excess pages of a preliminary injunction.

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