San Francisco pushing back in latest development over encampment sweeps injunction
SAN FRANCISCO — The City Attorney of San Francisco is pushing back in the case of a federal injunction that restricts the city from clearing homeless encampments, claiming the Coalition on Homelessness reneged on a significant compromise to allow sweeps of those who refuse shelter options.
In a new notice filed Tuesday with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, City Attorney David Chiu says the Coalition on Homelessness — which is arguing for the injunction to remain in effect — walked back concessions made during an Aug. 23 hearing that resulted in both sides agreeing to allow the injunction to not apply to people who refuse shelter or have an alternative housing solution.
"It is unfortunate and telling that Plaintiffs are unwilling to confirm in writing what they told the Court," said Chiu. "It does not make sense that a person who rejects a shelter offer or has a shelter bed but chooses to maintain a tent on the street should be considered 'involuntarily homeless.' Plaintiffs conceded that much last week, but have now walked those statements and other statements back."
The city claims that during the Aug. 23 hearing, lawyers for the Coalition on Homelessness agreed with a 3-judge panel that "the city can still enforce the enjoined laws against individuals who refuse an offer of actual available shelter" and that "the actual scope of the injunction only relates to involuntary homelessness without any connection to the formula."
At the time, the concessions were seen as a significant compromise in the battle over the federal injunction that the city maintains is restricting their ability to solve the homelessness crisis.
But attorneys representing the Coalition on Homelessness said the city doesn't have enough shelter and therefor can't reasonably offer unhoused people a place to stay — making them involuntarily homeless.
"The City Attorney's latest filing is yet another attempt at political theatre. As Plaintiffs made clear at the hearing, there has never been any confusion with the Ninth Circuit's clear holdings — unhoused individuals who have realistic access to shelter are not involuntarily homeless," Zal Shroff, an attorney representing the Coalition on Homelessness, told CBS News Bay Area.
"[The City] insists on a charade that the City makes valid shelter "offers" to unhoused individuals when the entire shelter system is at capacity, 400 individuals are waiting patiently on a waitlist to shelter to no avail, and the City itself doesn't know if any shelter will become available on a given day when it continues to threaten the enforcement of laws enjoined by the district court's injunction," Shroff continued. "We should expect better from our political leaders. San Francisco deserves better."
In email correspondence reviewed by CBS News Bay Area, both parties attempted to come to an agreement over the definition of "involuntarily homeless," but failed.
The city has asked a judge to rule on the issue of defining "involuntarily homeless." In the meantime, the city is not allowed to conduct any sweeps of homeless encampments.
A trial date to determine the future of the injunction is set for April 2024.
Governor Gavin Newsom weighed in on the issue as well. On Tuesday, he called the court order preventing San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments "inhumane" and "preposterous," siding with city officials in their attempts to get the injunction overturned.
"The San Francisco order, it's preposterous and it's inhumane," Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's incredibly frustrating."
"People are moving out of the cities. Businesses are shutting down. People are dying of overdoses because of this," Newsom added. "Ultimately, everyone's going to blame me for everything. … But damn it, they need to be accountable as well. These judges are wrong on these overriding sweeping orders."
