A human rights group is suing the city and county of Los Angeles to provide beds and shelter for the tens of thousands of homeless people in the area.
The LA Alliance for Human Rights filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles on Tuesday, accusing the government of negligence in its attempts to solve its homelessness problem.
“We really are looking to catalyze change on a systemic level,” the group’s attorney Elizabeth Mitchell said, according to CNN. “We are not looking to get rich. We are not looking for money. We really are looking for change.”
Nearly 60,000 homeless people live in LA County, according to a 2019 study by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The lawsuit points out that roughly 75% of the homeless in Los Angeles County are unsheltered compared to just 5% in New York City, which enforces a right to shelter.
The number of homeless in Los Angeles is rising by about 20 people per day. About 130 people are moving off the streets into housing daily, but an average of 150 are losing their homes each day, according to the mayor’s office.
The LA Alliance for Human Rights is a coalition of “non-profits, service providers, small business owners, residents, and community leaders who despair over the suffering on our streets and are fed up with excuses about the status quo,” according to the group’s website.
The lawsuit lists a number of complaints such as blocked sidewalks, chronically unsanitary conditions, and untreated disease and mental illness. The suit suggests a number of measures that the city and county could take to speed up the process of getting the homeless off the streets and into shelter, such as 3D-printed homes.
“It is difficult for the housed, and it is deadly for the unhoused,” Mitchell said.
Retired UCLA law professor Gary Blasi cast doubt on the chances the lawsuit succeeds in court.
“A judge is not going to oversee the governments of the city and the county to deal with this problem, as complicated as it is,” Blasi said.
