Class Action Challenges San Diego's Criminalization of Homelessness
Tristia Bauman, Senior Attorney - National Homelessness Law Center
The nation is in the grips of a severe affordable housing crisis that has left seniors, families, people with disabilities, and many others without access to traditional housing. Many have no choice but to shelter in their vehicles, often the only reliable and private shelter option available to people priced out of the housing market. Yet, an estimated half of all U.S. cities have enacted policies that criminalize people for living in their vehicles, including the City of San Diego. San Diego’s harmful and discriminatory policies are challenged in a federal class action lawsuit, Bloom v. City of San Diego.[1]
The lawsuit is brought on behalf of hundreds of people living in vehicles – many with disabilities - who are subject to arrest, expensive ticketing, and seizure of their vehicle shelters under two local ordinances that prohibit vehicle habitation and overnight parking of large vehicles. These laws are enforced against San Diego’s unhoused residents even when they have no other option for shelter beyond their vehicles, and even if the result of enforcement is to render people unsheltered and sleeping on the streets.
#HousingNotHandcuffs!
Michael Bloom, the late lead plaintiff in the case, explained that he filed the lawsuit to stop the “terror of having so many tickets hanging on me.” He explained how he followed the law without “even the slightest infraction or anything” and was doing fine in his vehicle until he started getting a “horrific” amount of citations. To pay those citations and avoid losing his vehicle and only shelter, Michael – a senior with disabilities – made painful sacrifices. “Michael was forced to skip meals or skimp on medicine to pay for tickets. He needed to be constantly hiding or dodging the police, which took a toll on himself,” said Ann Menasche, counsel for the plaintiffs. Michael Bloom passed away in his vehicle in 2021.
The Plaintiffs raise multiple claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the U.S. Constitution, including cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment, and seek a permanent injunction against enforcement of the City’s discriminatory and harmful policies that target its vehicle residents. In 2018, Plaintiffs successfully enjoined a prior version of the City’s vehicle habitation ban as unconstitutionally vague, but the City enacted a replacement ordinance within months of the order. The replacement ordinance is more draconian than the first, prohibiting individuals from using their vehicles as shelter in 90% of the City anytime of the day or night. The case is expected to go to trial in late 2022.
The new ordinance is even more draconian, prohibiting people using their vehicles for shelter in 90% of the City, anytime - day or night.
A lot is at stake in this case. Punitive approaches to sheltering in vehicles are reflective of the larger, nationwide policy shift toward criminalizing visible poverty in a harmful, expensive, and futile effort to police our way out of the growing homelessness crisis. When inherently innocent survival conduct, like sheltering, is treated as a punishable offense, the rights and freedoms of all human beings are threatened. It is critical to fight for protection of our freedoms in the courts, and we are grateful to the Impact Fund for supporting this case in our joint work towards justice. Just as important, we must let our elected officials know that we will not stand silent while our rights are trampled. We urge readers of this blog post to contact San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and urge him to end the criminalization of sheltering in vehicles and to stop punishing homelessness.
[1] Attorneys for the Plaintiffs represent the offices of the National Homelessness Law Center, Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Advocates, Fish & Richardson P.C., Dreher Law Firm, and Manfred APC.