A U.S. district court judge ruled Wednesday the city of Los Angeles will have to stop seizing the property of homeless people on Skid Row and surrounding areas without notice — a temporary injunction that clashes with the latest attempts to clear downtown L.A.’s sidewalks.
The ruling comes as part of a federal lawsuit filed against the city earlier this year by four homeless individuals and two advocacy groups. And it comes as the city is trying to implement a new law to limit the amount of property a homeless person can have on the street to 60 gallons worth.
The lawsuit, Mitchell v. City of Los Angeles, was filed in March. The four homeless plaintiffs, the Los Angeles Community Action Network, and the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, allege that homeless people on Skid Row have repeatedly had tents and other personal property, including medication and legal documents, seized or destroyed by police or city sanitation workers.