Coalition on Homelessness v. City and County of San Francisco (Homeless Rights)
Status: ACTIVE
Description
On September 27, 2022, the Coalition on Homelessness and seven individual plaintiffs filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco and Mayor London Breed for their efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of brutal policing practices that violate the constitutional rights of unhoused San Franciscans. Plaintiffs have won a preliminary injunction to stop these practices on an emergency basis. Plaintiffs are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, as well as the global law firm Latham & Watkins LLP.
For years, San Francisco has claimed that it is taking steps to address the City’s homelessness crisis. But in fact, the City is forcing unhoused people out of sight—destroying their survival belongings and citing and arresting them for sleeping in public when they have no shelter to go to. San Francisco has more laws penalizing homelessness than any other place in California, and possibly America. These regressive mass incarceration era policies only perpetuate San Francisco’s homelessness crisis and scapegoat unhoused people for the City’s egregious failure to support affordable housing for San Francisco residents.
Timeline
- 9/27/2022: Lawsuit filed
- 12/01/2022: Plaintiffs submit their reply to the City’s opposition to the preliminary injunction motion
- 12/23/2022: Victory! Judge grants the preliminary injunction in plaintiff’s favor, barring San Francisco from brutal practice of criminalizing homelessness
- 01/06/2023: Plaintiffs submit an administrative motion regarding the City’s noncompliance of the injunction order
- 01/12/2023: Judge denies the City’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit
In The News
- Reuters: San Francisco sued by homeless demanding affordable housing
- SF Chronicle Op-Ed: San Francisco’s homeless sweeps are unlawful — and the city will pay for it
- Associated Press: Homelessness in San Francisco: talk of frustration, survival
- 48 Hills: San Francisco continues homeless sweeps, during storm, defying a federal court order
- Washington Post: As storm neared, San Francisco cleared out homeless camps, group alleges
- SF Standard: Advocates Say San Francisco Violated Homeless Sweeps Ban
- Courthouse News: San Francisco can’t dodge lawsuit over homeless encampment sweeps
Important Documents
- Press Release
- Complaint
- Preliminary Injunction Motion
- Reply to City’s Opposition to the Preliminary Injunction Motion
- Preliminary Injunction Order Granted in Our Favor
- Administrative Motion for City’s Noncompliance of Injunction Order
Myths & Misconceptions
