San Diego reaches $3.2M settlement in lawsuit over ban of vehicle dwellers

Above: A Jan. 17 report from FOX 5’s Sarah Alegre on data showing the number of people entering homelessness in San Diego outpacing efforts to get people out.

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Council voted on Tuesday to approve a nearly $3.2 million settlement in a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s enforcement of an ordinance prohibiting people from living in their vehicles.

The settlement in the case, Michael Bloom, et al. v. City of San Diego, also set new rules for how the city is allowed to enforce its Vehicle Habitation Ordinance and Oversized Vehicle Ordinance against unhoused people who sleep in their vehicle or RV during a three-year period.

Bloom marks the latest legal victory for homeless San Diegans and their advocates in lawsuits over the city’s treatment of unhoused people over the last two decades, several of which have resulted in settlements establishing rules for how the city can clear homeless encampments.

“This is a win/win for the City and our class members who are doing the best they can to survive in their vehicles, when better options have been closed off to them,” Ann Menasche, an attorney for Disability Rights California who helped bring the federal suit, said in a statement Tuesday.

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“This agreement will improve the lives of class members while refocusing our energies to addressing the affordable housing crisis that is impacting so many of the residents of San Diego,” she continued.

The federal lawsuit was filed in 2017 on behalf of a group of disabled unhoused people in San Diego living and sleeping in recreational vehicles.

According to the complaint, the city’s enforcement of ordinances prohibiting people from sleeping in their vehicles overnight through ticketing, impounding, arrest or other penalties violates unhoused residents’ rights, as there is not often an accessible alternative for them.

This includes emergency and temporary shelter beds, described in the complaint as having conditions that make them “functionally unavailable” to many disabled homeless individuals, as well as safe parking sites — an option that can be unworkable for a number of reasons from size or time restrictions to there simply not being enough spots available.

This was the experience of the lead plaintiff in the case, Michael Bloom. According to the complaint, the then-68-year-old unhoused San Diegan suffered multiple injuries in the course of his work as an electrician and carpenter that made him severely disabled, preventing him from finding meaningful work for years.

Congregate shelters, which make up the vast majority of the city’s shelter network, were inaccessible to him given his physical health. His only option for him was sleeping in his RV, but he was often unable to park in the city’s “safe lots” because they did not allow for large vehicles at the time.

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Over the years, he received dozens of tickets for parking his RV overnight on city streets and vehicle habitation, costing him the money he had to put towards food or gasoline.

In 2018, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the city’s law barring vehicle habitation on public property overnight, finding that the ordinance likely violated the Constitution because it is “both vague on its face and is being arbitrarily enforced.”

However, San Diego police began enforcing the vehicle habitation ordinance again last year at the direction of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria in the lead up to the passing of the city’s unsafe camping ordinance, Voice of San Diego reported.

Under the Bloom settlement agreement, the city will be directed to provide unhoused individuals living in their car or RV an opportunity to fix a parking violation before police issue them a ticket for three years, including giving them a “reasonable opportunity” to relocate.

People will also not be able to be criminalized for using their vehicles as transportation, such as to grocery shop, visit family or friends, go to work, or make a visit to a doctor’s office.

Outside enforcement actions, the settlement agreement directs San Diego officials to expand legal, off-street overnight parking options to more districts within the city, Currently, the city only has four safe parking lots in its shelter network.

Additionally, the agreement requires city officials to make “substantial health and safety improvements” to the 24-hour Mission Valley Oversized Vehicle parking lot like adding electric hook-ups, lighting, flush toilets, showers and shade.

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When an individual does not have a “reasonably available nighttime parking” option, the city will not be able to enforce its vehicle habitation ordinance or oversized vehicle ordinances within the three-year period it is in effect, according to the agreement.

A total of $3.16 million will be paid from San Diego’s Public Liability Fund to the unhoused plaintiffs in the class action in damages and other costs like attorney fees. All unpaid parking tickets for vehicle habitation or the Overside Vehicle Ordinance issued to the individuals between November 2017 and date of the settlement agreement will also be forgiven.

According to a staff report presented to the City Council on Tuesday, another $640,000 from San Diego’s General Fund will be put towards the improvements to the Mission Valley safe parking lot mentioned in the settlement agreement.

The settlement agreement will go into effect after it is approved by the federal district court overseeing the lawsuit.

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