Appeals court vacates order to house L.A. skid row homeless

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Appeals court vacates order to house L.A. skid row homeless - Los
Angeles Times
Benjamin Oreskes, Maura Dolan, David Zahniser

A federal appeals court on Thursday unanimously overturned a judge's
decision that would have required Los Angeles to offer some form of
shelter or housing to the entire homeless population of skid row by
October.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
that U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who issued the homelessness
order in the spring, failed to follow basic legal requirements. It was
a sharp rebuke of Carter, who has focused intently on homelessness,
regularly venturing into encampments at all hours of the day, engaging
with a wide array of officials responding to the crisis and issuing
rulings on the subject in both Los Angeles and in Orange County, where
he lives.

The ruling Thursday applied to only one slice of the sprawling lawsuit
-- the order to clear skid row of tents -- but it called into question
its broader underpinnings.

The panel said most of those who sued the city and county of L.A. had
no legal right, or standing, to bring the case. Carter deployed
"novel" legal theories that no one had argued, and ruled on claims
that no one had alleged and on evidence that was not before him, the
9th Circuit said.

"The district court relied on hundreds of facts contained in various
publications for their truth, and a significant number of facts
directly [underpinning the order] are subject to reasonable dispute,"
wrote Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen, who was appointed by President
Obama.

Carter's order, which sent shock waves through local government,
stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a coalition of downtown business
owners, residents and some formerly homeless people. The city and
county of Los Angeles appealed.

The 9th Circuit noted that Carter, appointed by President Clinton,
based his decision on racial discrimination, though the lawsuit by the
L.A. Alliance for Human Rights did not allege racism was a factor.

"Because plaintiffs brought no race-based claims, they did not allege
or present any evidence that any individual plaintiff or LA Alliance
member is Black -- much less Black and unhoused, a parent, or at risk
of losing their children," Nguyen wrote.

Moreover, the 9th Circuit said, there was no evidence that any
plaintiff was Black, risked family disruption or was confined to skid
row.

"The district court undoubtedly has broad equitable power to remedy
legal violations that have contributed to the complex problem of
homelessness in Los Angeles," wrote Nguyen, who was joined by two
other Obama appointees. "But that power must be exercised consistent"
with the law.

The panel did find that two plaintiffs who alleged disability
discrimination had standing but said Carter had not collected enough
evidence to rule in their favor.

Matthew Umhofer, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said his
team is already working on an amended complaint to correct what he
called procedural issues raised in the decision. He said there likely
will be new plaintiffs and evidence added to the case to make their
points.

He also said the plaintiffs would incorporate some of Carter's
arguments, which served as the basis for his order but had not been
made by the L.A. Alliance.

"The 9th Circuit said if there's this much distance between the
original complaint and the judicial order, that gap has to be closed.
We now have the opportunity to close that gap," Umhofer said. "I think
we'll be able to do that and I think we'll be able to lay a very
strong evidentiary foundation.... So this is totally fixable from my
perspective and we're already working on the solution."

The case began in March 2020 just as the seriousness of the pandemic
came into full focus, and there was a scramble to protect homeless
people from COVID-19.

Carter's unconventional nature, desire for quick solutions to help
people in need and willingness to venture down to skid row made him
popular. Mayor Eric Garcetti regularly mentioned that he was a member
of the "Judge Carter Fan Club, Los Angeles chapter," and litigation in
the case was suspended as all the parties strove to hash out a
settlement.

The judge's court hearings became a clearinghouse for information
about the city and county's response to homeless people during the
pandemic. They also veered off into areas that surprised local
officials. For example, Carter became fixated on the plight of people
who were living under or near freeways.

In May 2020, he ordered the city and county to find shelter for the
thousands of people living near freeway overpasses, underpasses and
ramps. That decision was eventually vacated when the city and county
agreed to construct new forms of shelter for 6,000 people within 18
months, and fund homeless services for the people who ended up staying
in these locations after they were built. (The City reported
constructing just over 6,000 new beds as of late August.)

The case continued to drag through last fall and into this year as the
city negotiated with the plaintiffs in an effort to reach a settlement
in which enough shelter over the next five years would be created for
60% of the homeless people in each city council district. Those talks
haven't yet led to an agreement.

Then, in April, Carter unexpectedly ordered the city to offer some
form of shelter or housing to the entire homeless population of skid
row in 180 days. About 2,000 people were living on the streets of skid
row as of early 2020. Quickly, both the city and county appealed and
much of the goodwill between the parties and patience for Carter
dissipated.

Hilda Solis, chair of the County Board of Supervisors, declined to
comment about the 9th Circuit order. But Skip Miller, outside counsel
for Los Angeles County on the case, said that though the county
appreciated Carter's efforts to help unhoused people, it applauded
Thursday's decision.

"We are grateful the 9th Circuit has ruled in our favor by vacating
the district court's sweeping injunction based on an abuse of judicial
discretion," Miller said. "Nevertheless, the county will continue with
its massive efforts to address homelessness as it has all along."

Much of the city's and county's arguments against the skid row order
focused on how much work they already were doing to resolve the
homelessness crisis in the region. In recent months, local officials
had complained quietly to The Times that Carter's hearings, which
often stretched for hours with little conclusive resolution, were
ponderous and his remedies to the crisis were counterproductive.

Garcetti praised the 9th Circuit decision, saying in a prepared
statement that the city intends to spend more than $1 billion during
the current fiscal year on programs aimed at reducing homelessness.

"This decision is the right one, and I am pleased to see it," he said.
"Now we can continue moving forward with our strategic, comprehensive
plan to confront homelessness across Los Angeles and bring more people
indoors as quickly as possible."

Similarly, City Atty. Mike Feuer, who is running for mayor, called
Thursday's ruling "an important victory" but also argued that
government officials need to share Carter's "intense sense of
urgency,"

The order to clear out skid row, he said, was "an overreach by a judge
whose passion I have tremendous respect for."

"We do have a crisis and it should be treated like that," Feuer said
in an interview. "But an unelected judge shouldn't be making sweeping
public policy, taking control of a billion dollars of public funds."

Feuer said he remains open to the idea of settling with the
plaintiffs, if it results in "real solutions" to the city's
homelessness crisis.

A group of intervenors in the case, the Los Angeles Community Action
Network, a skid row nonprofit that works with unhoused people, said it
welcomed the rejection of Carter's order.

"This court case is worse than a waste of time. It has the potential
to undermine the long-fought-for rights of unhoused folks in skid row
and throughout the city," the group's attorney, Shayla Myers, said.
"The 9th Circuit's ruling makes it clear that that is not appropriate
and we are pleased with the results."

It's hard to know how exactly the pandemic has affected the homeless
population in Los Angeles. The 2021 point-in-time count was canceled
and the 2020 homeless census, which found 66,436 people without homes
in Los Angeles County, occurred before the true extent of the epidemic
was known. Still, over the last 18 months, the county and city have
gone to great lengths to shelter and house people in hotels, while
also constructing "tiny home" villages and safe sleep sites.

The ease with which the virus spreads and the need to stay indoors
meant volunteers, outreach workers and homeless services providers
were limited in their ability to deliver much-needed help to people
living on the streets, and the suspension of laws restricting where
people could sit, sleep and lie fueled the growth of large encampments
in parks, on beaches and in underpasses.

The crisis animates the city's politics and discourse perhaps now more
than ever. It will be the most important issue in next year's mayoral
campaign. For all the work of getting people off the street, many
still lack a safe and secure place to rest their heads.

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who heads the council committee on
homelessness, said the alliance lawsuit was too narrow and too
parochial to deal with the crisis.

"The homelessness crisis in the city of Los Angeles is not limited to
skid row," he said. "And to the extent that we want to be effective in
our efforts to address this crisis, we need to be in every corner of
the city where we find encampments, whether it's in Echo Park or on
Venice Beach, in Koreatown or Leimert Park."

City Councilman Kevin de Leon, whose downtown district includes skid
row and is running for mayor, said the ruling does not "change
anything for unhoused Angelenos struggling to survive on our streets."

"They're still victims of a litigation merry-go-round that does
nothing to put a roof over their heads," said De Leon.

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