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 the brutal practice of criminalizing homelessness in the absence of shelter
- 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
- 05/25/2023: Plaintiffs file motion to enforce the preliminary injunction order
- 09/05/2023: 9th Circuit denies the City’s motion to modify the preliminary injunction order
- 01/11/2024: 9th Circuit affirms the District Court’s grant of a preliminary injunction in favor of Plaintiffs
- 01/18/2024: City files a motion to stay or pause the lawsuit
- 01/29/2024: Plaintiffs reply to the City’s motion to stay or pause 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
- Shelter-Skelter: San Francisco’S Best Strategy In Homelessness Litigation Might Be To Lose
Important Documents
- Press Release
- Complaint
- Our Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Supporting Declarations
- City’s Motion to Oppose Our Motion for Preliminary Injunction
- Our Reply In Support of Our Motion for Preliminary Injunction
- Preliminary Injunction Order Granted In Our Favor
- City’s Motion to Dismiss
- Our Reply to the City’s Motion to Dismiss
- City’s Reply in Support of its Motion to Dismiss
- City’s Motion to Dismiss Denied
- City’s Administrative Motion for Clarification of Preliminary Injunction Order
- Our Opposition to the City’s Administrative Motion for Clarification of Preliminary Injunction Order
- Our Administrative Motion on the City’s Noncompliance of the Order & Need for Monitoring
- City’s Opposition to our Administrative Motion on the City’s Noncompliance
- City’s Appeal of the Preliminary Injunction Order
- Our Amicus Brief In Response to the City’s Appeal of the Preliminary Injunction Order
- City’s Motion to Stay a Portion of the Preliminary Injunction Order
- Our Opposition to the City’s Motion to Stay a Portion of the Preliminary Injunction Order
- City’s Reply in Support of its Motion to Stay a Portion of the Preliminary Injunction Order
- City’s Motion to Stay a Portion of the Preliminary Injunction Order Denied
- Our First Amended Complaint
- City’s Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint
- Our Opposition to the City’s Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint
- City’s Reply in Support of its Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint
- Our Motion to Enforce the Preliminary Injunction Order and Supporting Declarations
- Order Regarding Assessment of the City’s Ongoing Violations of the Preliminary Injunction Order
- Our Second Amended Complaint
- The City’s Response to our Second Amended Complaint
- 9th Circuit: Order Denying City’s Motion to Modify the Preliminary Injunction Order
- 9th Circuit: Decision Affirming the District Court’s Granting of Preliminary Injunction in Our Favor
- Our Reply to the City’s Motion to Stay or Pause the Lawsuit
Myths & Misconceptions
Community Webinar on Homelessness (Video)