A federal court has struck down an order by Judge Dolly Gee to provide housing to all the homeless in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. The ruling is a blow to advocates who have been pushing for more humane treatment of the homeless, and it could also affect similar cases across the country.
The judge carter homeless order is a federal court ruling that states that the judge’s order to provide housing for all Skid Row homeless people was unconstitutional.
(CBSLA) – LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A federal appeals court in Los Angeles on Thursday overturned a judge’s decision requiring the city and county of Los Angeles to provide homes to all homeless individuals living on Skid Row by next month.
On April 21, 2021, homeless encampments on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. (Getty Images/Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times) )
In April, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ordered a mandatory injunction requiring the city and county to provide shelter to all homeless individuals in downtown L.A.’s Skid Row within six months, in response to an ongoing litigation over the homeless problem.
The case was heard by a panel of the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in July, and the ruling was issued on Thursday, finding that the lower court had “abused its discretion” by issuing an injunction based on claims not pled in the complaint filed last year by a coalition of downtown business owners and residents of the Skid Row area against the county and citadel.
By Oct. 18, all homeless residents of Skid Row, starting with single women and unaccompanied children, were to be given some kind of shelter, according to Carter’s order.
Both the city and the county promptly challenged the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In March 2020, the L.A. Alliance, a collection of downtown business owners and homeless people, filed a lawsuit against the city and county, claiming that local authorities failed to protect the homeless from COVID-19. The case has gotten mired down in bureaucratic snarls between the city and county during more than a dozen federal court hearings, leading Carter to explore how he could use the federal court’s authority to speed up efforts to clean public streets and put homeless individuals into homes.
“The fact that it isn’t going to happen is obviously frustrating, and it’s a speed bump, and it may slow things back, but it’s certainly not a roadblock,” said Elizabeth Mitchell of the Los Angeles Alliance.
While authorities differ with the L.A. Alliance on the solution, they agree that the rising number of homeless individuals on city streets is a serious issue.
“We achieved a significant win today, but the reality is that Los Angeles remains mired in a homelessness crisis,” LA City Attorney Mike Feuer told CBSLA on Thursday.
“We shouldn’t be moved by the lawsuit,” Feuer said. “The situation on our streets should do it, and it’s about time.”
The L.A. Alliance, according to Mitchell, will continue to press the city to offer emergency housing, mental health and addiction treatment, and safer public places. Advocates, she maintained, still have a path ahead.
“The order cleared the door for us to continue going forward with this, to keep battling, and to hold the city and county accountable,” Mitchell said. “In that respect, we’re ecstatic,” says the author.
Mitchell expressed confidence that the L.A. Alliance would be able to revise its lawsuit and return to court in a few weeks to present its case.
(CBS Broadcasting Inc., Copyright 2021, All Rights Reserved.) This article was written with the help of City News Service.)
A federal court has struck down a judge’s order to provide housing to all Skid Row homeless. The ruling means that the city of Los Angeles can continue to allow homeless people to sleep on the streets. Reference: homelessness in los angeles statistics.
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