A court case that was brought by several homeless individuals along with the ACLU and the Coalition on Homelessness led to a two-year legal battle over the city's practice of clearing encampments from public spaces. It has now ended in a financial settlement of $2.8 million.

The case was originally brought in September 2022, bringing to a head a multi-year battle of wills between homeless advocates and city officials, as public outcry grew over the presence of tents and sprawling encampments on streets, under overpasses, and on sidewalks. The Coalition on Homelessness, the ACLU, and a handful of unsheltered plaintiffs brought the suit against the City of San Francisco in federal court, arguing that encampment sweeps were unconstitutional.

The suit argued that the sweeps, which often included the seizure of individuals' belongings, violated the Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure, as well as Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, and the 14th Amendment right to due process.

At the time, the Supreme Court had yet to weigh in on the issue of public-camping enforcement, following a federal court ruling in 2018 that found that a Boise, Idaho law that punished the homeless for public camping was unconstitutional. This was on Eighth Amendment grounds, because no adequate shelter space existed to offer an alternative. A similar case out of Grants Pass, Oregon wound its way through federal courts between 2018 and 2024, with a ruling in 2020 finding that the city of Grants Pass also lacked adequate shelter for the homeless, and therefore could not levy fines for public camping.

The Supreme Court took up the case and ruled in June 2024 that cities could enforce anti-camping laws, basically as they saw fit, because homelessness was not a protected "status" in the way that addiction has been found to be, particularly when services are being offered to those living on the street. The court did not really address the issue of inadequate amounts of shelter compared to need, primarily ruling that individuals can't choose to occupy public spaces against local ordinances, full stop.

That ruling led to the Ninth Circuit saying last July that San Francisco could resume its sweeps of encampments. Then, in December, the judge who issued the original injunction in the Coalition on Homelessness case, Judge Donna Ryu, ruled that the case would be significantly narrowed and the city would still have to continue its bag-and-tag policy when it came to individuals' belongings, holding onto those belongings for a period of time and allowing them to be retrieved.

As the Chronicle reports today, the city reached a settlement with the Coalition on Homelessness, agreeing to pay $2.8 million to settle the case, including $22,000 that would go to individual plaintiffs, two formerly homeless individuals.

"We are happy to be putting this lawsuit behind us so that all sides can focus on providing services and addressing homelessness," said Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, calling the settlement "the best outcome for all parties."

Kwart added, "There are many people on our streets who are in crisis, and San Francisco genuinely wants to help them onto a better path."

Mayor Daniel Lurie also issued a statement, saying, "We are doing the work to deliver progress for San Francisco, and as we put this litigation behind us, we will continue doing that work every day."

The Coalition on Homelessness has not commented on the settlement.

The sweeps of encampments have continued, and the city recently marked the lowest number of tents and makeshift structures on the streets, 165, since it began counting them in 2019, as the Chronicle notes.

The longtime executive director of the organization, Jennifer Friedenbach, was touting a different victory today, after the city announced a change in its policy around the length of shelter stays for homeless families. As the Chronicle reports, families will now be allowed 90-day initial stays with a 90-day extension after that, up from a 30-day extension, and further extensions are subject to review by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

Friedenbach expressed thanks to Supervisor Jackie Fielder, and said in a statement, "We will keep working together to ensure all children and youth in San Francisco have a safe and decent place to call home."

Meanwhile, the SF Board of Supervisors is poised to pass a new ordinance banning RV parking on city streets, which is the latest controversy in the city's effort to push the homeless and RV-dwelling elsewhere.

Previously: Advocates for Homeless Population Sue San Francisco to End Encampment Sweeps

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