Bunk
TUG Member
The Hastings College of Law, business owners and local residents, are suing the city of San Francisco to force it to clean up the Tenderloin neighborhood — alleging an almost 300 percent spike in homeless shanty towns, drug dealing and feces-covered sidewalks have made conditions “insufferable.”
The Law School called on the Mayor and the city’s police department to “clear the streets” where cops have been directed not to remove the tents despite the health risk they pose to residents, the lawsuit claims.
Here is what plaintiffs' seek: "We need the tents to be removed and we need the drug dealers to be stopped,” “Leaving them on the streets is no solution.”
While acknowledging that the Tenderloin has seen a significant increase of homelessness since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mayor released a plan to improve conditions there — including providing “safe sleeping alternatives” for those with tents, increased police presence and improved access to hygiene. But those moves won’t fix the problem, the Law School said, calling the Mayor's plan an “entirely inadequate” response to the situation. “It essentially institutionalizes the status quo,” “It simply leaves everybody in place. It is a Band-Aid when a bandage is needed and is simply inadequate.”
Attached is a copy of the complaint, together with newspaper articles discussing the complaint and the rejection of the City's response.
One important issue to me is whether a governmental authority can pass civil or criminal laws, including health code regulations, that require a standard of behavior and then fail to enforce that law. A second issue is whether a governmental authority is entitled to enforce a law against one class of people while refusing to enforce it against another class of people. In other words, does one's status of homelessness or mental illness mean that the government can refuse to enforce even health code laws against those people.
https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SFTenderloinBlight-COMPLAINT.pdf
https://www.courthousenews.com/san-francisco-sued-over-rampant-homelessness-crime-in-tenderloin/
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2...r-blasts-san-francisco-covid-tenderloin-plan/
The Law School called on the Mayor and the city’s police department to “clear the streets” where cops have been directed not to remove the tents despite the health risk they pose to residents, the lawsuit claims.
Here is what plaintiffs' seek: "We need the tents to be removed and we need the drug dealers to be stopped,” “Leaving them on the streets is no solution.”
While acknowledging that the Tenderloin has seen a significant increase of homelessness since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mayor released a plan to improve conditions there — including providing “safe sleeping alternatives” for those with tents, increased police presence and improved access to hygiene. But those moves won’t fix the problem, the Law School said, calling the Mayor's plan an “entirely inadequate” response to the situation. “It essentially institutionalizes the status quo,” “It simply leaves everybody in place. It is a Band-Aid when a bandage is needed and is simply inadequate.”
Attached is a copy of the complaint, together with newspaper articles discussing the complaint and the rejection of the City's response.
One important issue to me is whether a governmental authority can pass civil or criminal laws, including health code regulations, that require a standard of behavior and then fail to enforce that law. A second issue is whether a governmental authority is entitled to enforce a law against one class of people while refusing to enforce it against another class of people. In other words, does one's status of homelessness or mental illness mean that the government can refuse to enforce even health code laws against those people.
https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SFTenderloinBlight-COMPLAINT.pdf
https://www.courthousenews.com/san-francisco-sued-over-rampant-homelessness-crime-in-tenderloin/
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2...r-blasts-san-francisco-covid-tenderloin-plan/
