‘Groundbreaking’ homeless settlement approved in Orange County

SANTA ANA -- In an unprecedented agreement, 10 Orange County cities have agreed to give a federal judge power over their municipal services for the next four years by voluntarily entering a lawsuit only to settle it.

A settlement approved Friday includes a consent decree that grants U.S. District Judge David O. Carter jurisdiction over the cities through June 2023, a solution aimed at alleviating homelessness through services and minimal litigation.

"This is extraordinarily unique because thus far throughout the state only individual cities have settled. I hope you catch the governor's ear," Carter said at a settlement hearing Friday.

Plaintiffs' attorney Carol A. Sobel called the settlement "an incredible step forward."

"It's different than how this has been approached anywhere in the country," Sobel told the Daily Journal.

She said the settlement "expresses a sense of trust that we all have in Judge Carter and what he's been able to do in this case."

"This is an issue that communities all over the country are battling with. Look at L.A. Look at San Francisco. Look at San Diego," Sobel said. "Judge Carter took a different approach that, in a record amount of time, has gotten us considerably forward from where we started."

Sobel, a sole practitioner in Santa Monica, teamed with Brooke A. Weitzman, co-founder of the Elder Law and Disability Rights Center, in a lawsuit that sought to halt the closure of a 1,000-person homeless camp in Anaheim last year.

Carter granted a temporary restraining order, then lifted it and turned to marathon settlement negotiations that established a still-growing social services network in north Orange County. The city of Santa Ana, long the center of homelessness in the county, voluntarily entered the lawsuit to sue all Orange County cities in hopes of forcing them into the negotiations.

Only a few cities were formally served with the lawsuit, but many joined the discussions anyway. That includes 10 cities that settled Friday: Brea, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia, Stanton, Villa Park and Yorba Linda.

Two other cities that have been defendants since early 2018 also are part of the settlement: Orange and Anaheim. Orange County Catholic Worker et al. v. Orange County et al., (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 29, 2018).

Placentia Mayor Rhonda Shader said the agreement "is a groundbreaking, first of its kind regional collaboration to end homelessness."

The agreement states that certain requirements apply only until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Martin v. City of Boise, which bars enforcement of anti-homeless ordinances if no shelter beds exist, is no longer applicable law or until "the court finds that there are sufficient appropriate and immediately available placements for the unsheltered population" in the north county cities.

Not all cities in Orange County supported the negotiations. Cities in south Orange County, which generally are more suburban than in the north, didn't participate in the settlement discussions.

When Sobel and Weitzman served them with a separate lawsuit in May, Jones Day attorneys filed a motion to recuse Carter that said he'd become an advocate for homeless people through his work in the first lawsuit and couldn't neutrally adjudicate the new lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge James V. Selna granted the motion June 14, and the case was reassigned to U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson in Los Angeles. Housing is a Human Right Orange County v. County of Orange, 19-CV00388 (C.D. Cal., filed Feb. 27, 2019).

In the north county case, Carter approved an unopposed motion to amend the complaint and add the settling cities as defendants. He then approved the settlement.

Under the consent decree, Carter will work with the case special master, retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James L. Smith, to address disputes in the 12 cities related to homelessness and enforcement of anti-camping and anti-discrimination ordinances.

Anaheim has had a similar consent decree as it finalizes a settlement, and "we haven't had one piece of litigation in over six months," Carter said.

"We could almost build one or two shelters with the litigation expenses you already saved, so my hearty congratulations to you," Carter said.

He said he'll consider utilizing a U.S. magistrate judge to help with disputes in place of Smith after six months.