Group of Homeless Take LA City Government, Police Department to Court

A group of homeless people have filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles and the LA Police Department for “criminalizing” their homelessness and violating their civil rights by destroying their possessions.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. district Court in Los Angeles on Monday, accuses the city and the police department of wrongfully arresting homeless people and sending them out into cold after their detention, with nowhere to go.

“Over the past 25 years, the city’s primary response has been to invest in approaches that address the visible presence of homeless people without actually reducing the number of residents on streets each night,” the lawsuit charged.

RELATED: US Homeless Charity Praises New Safeguards in Indianapolis

The plaintiffs’ attorney Shayla Meyers said a court case has been filed as the issue is recurring and unabating.  

“We brought this suit to prevent the city from engaging in a practice of unlawfully seizing and destroying homeless people’s property. It is an ongoing issue that is only increasing in frequency, which is why we brought the case,” Meyers told Courthouse News.

There are four confirmed plaintiffs in the suit along with the Los Angeles Catholic Workers and Los Angeles Community Action Network.

Federal courts and the Ninth Circuit have ruled in the past that seizing and destroying homeless people’s property is unconstitutional as homeless people still have private property even though they do not have homes.

Carl Mitchell, a 62-year-old homeless man whpo is one of the plaintiffs, told the Los Angeles Times that he was arrested earlier this year charged with possession of a stolen shopping cart that he said he had not taken.

He alleges that an LAPD officer refused to give him his backpack containing medications and medical appointment papers. He was jailed for 18 hours and released in the middle of the night when the temperature was a shuddering to 40 degrees.

I miss being able to park anywhere, any time, in downtown Los Angeles. Regarding important issues, homeless situation remains devastating.

— Raymond Rehayem (@libraryeye) 6 March 2016

Homelessness is an epidemic in Los Angeles with an estimated 25,000 living rough in the city and up to 44,000 in the greater county. The Los Angeles Home Services Authority said that homelessnees increased by 12 percent over the last two years.

Los Angeles lawmakers have been struggling to find solutions to the problem with the proposed construction of a low-income housing units to try and help families and veterans get housing abandoned due to a lack of funds.  

Under a 2007 settlement in Jones v. City of Los Angeles, the city is obligated to building affordable housing for Skid Row residents, where over 3,000 homeless people reside, yet no significant developments have been noted. 

WATCH: Laura Flanders Show: Food, Housing and Time for a Sick-Out