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A Victory For the Homeless

By TChris, Section Court Decisions
Posted on Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 12:34:39 PM EST
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by TChris

If you're homeless in Los Angeles, the city doesn't want you on its sidewalks -- at least, not unless you're walking. The city passed an ordinance (unenforced for many years) that criminalizes sitting, laying, or sleeping on public sidewalks. That law narrows the options when homeless shelters are full -- a frequent occurrence in a city that is home to more than 80,000 people who lack homes on any given night. LA's Skid Row contains the largest concentration of the homeless in the country, but Skid Row parks are closed to the public at night. Where are the homeless who can't find shelter to sleep, if not on sidewalks?

As a result of the expansive reach of section 41.18(d), the extreme lack of available shelter in Los Angeles, and the large homeless population, thousands of people violate the Los Angeles ordinance every day and night, and many are arrested, losing what few possessions they may have.

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit told Los Angeles that it may not criminalize the status of being homeless, or "acts that are an integral aspect of that status." Most people do not choose to be homeless, and the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the government from punishing individuals for sleeping on sidewalks when they have no other choice. As the linked article suggests, this "could be a far-reaching victory for homeless advocates."

ACLU attorney Mark Rosenbaum, who argued the case before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, called it the most significant decision ever reached involving the homeless.

"What this says is that the city can no longer consider homelessness a crime," Rosenbaum said. "It can have reasonable restrictions on its city streets, but it can't have a 24-7 ban.

"The city and the county need to provide shelter for the homeless. My hope is that the city will now treat homelessness as a social problem affecting all of us, not a crime."

The decision is here (pdf).

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    A Victory For the Homeless | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 01:18:07 PM EST
    Wonder if Tom Cruise Mapother can strike up a cure for the homeless. Im sure somewhere in his magic book of tricks he can find something worthy of dumping the problem on someone else and if succesful make and take all claims and subject the less fortunate to forms of verbal and mental harrasement. The Same Way the Current Administration handles everything,Don't help those who can't help themselves instead give more to others who already have enough. The Public Ordinance Law was made to help those in need a priority only the minority was the developers and not the homeless. Sick Rationalization.

    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#2)
    by glanton on Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 01:26:37 PM EST
    The homeless epidemic is the most underreported crisis in modern American history. We don't look at it because w are afraid of what it says about us all. The only time big shots address it is when someone like Reagan declares theu get what they deserve. I'm glad for this ruling. We'll take what we can get, here in the concrete jungle.

    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 01:34:38 PM EST
    Mark Rosenbaum:
    My hope is that the city will now treat homelessness as a social problem affecting all of us, not a crime.
    Wouldn't that be a nice change. Next can we get a court to force the administration adopt this attitude towards immigrant workers?

    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#4)
    by Dadler on Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 01:36:03 PM EST
    My father was shooting a movie in the heart of skidrow LA back in 1978, and I hung out with him down there a few times during filming. Never forget it. Saw two dead bodies in the gutter, had a convo with a pimp, saw the first Hard Rock Cafe I ever remember -- a deadman's bar that seemed entirely made of dirty concrete and strewn garbage, open entirely to the street. I remember a former professor talking to one of the PA's, explaining how he had it all, until the bottle took him all the way to the gutter he lived in now. I remember the wino extras hired for fifty bucks, who almost rioted when their prop bottles of wine contained only grape juice. I remember children younger than me, and thinking how on earth could they be a child in this place? That the population of that hopeless environ has grown immensely since then is simply tragic. And anyone who hasn't been to skidrow in LA (the capital of homeless America) should trust my opinion -- it is otherworldly, hell on earth, at night like a literal nightmare. And a disgrace to the Judeo-Christian ethic that supposedly founded our nation.

    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#5)
    by jondee on Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 02:39:35 PM EST
    Let somebody die in the gutter; just dont burn a flag.

    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#6)
    by Sailor on Sat Apr 15, 2006 at 05:59:41 PM EST
    Good ruling. The LAPD tactic was just another case of rethugs confusing 'Alger Hiss' with 'Horatio Alger' ... whoa, I think I having a Fred Dawes moment;-)

    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#7)
    by kdog on Sun Apr 16, 2006 at 08:26:29 AM EST
    i was sitting in Penn Station, waitin' for a train. Struck up a conversation with a homeless vietnam vet (or so he claimed, I believed him). Cop comes along and rousts the guy, kicks him out of the station. It was a cold winter's night. Cop turns to me to ask if I'm allright. I said never better, but what about the guy you just threw out in the cold? Just doing my job, he said. Keep 'em outta sight cause they make the tourists and business men uncomfortable, he said. Turned my stomach.

    Re: A Victory For the Homeless (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Sun Apr 16, 2006 at 08:56:42 AM EST
    Just doing my job, he said. Keep 'em outta sight cause they make the tourists and business men uncomfortable, he said. People aren't worth nearly as much as keeping the place nice and shiny and smelling pretty, huh?

    A Victory For the Homeless | 8 comments (8 topical)