LA can’t destroy bulky homeless possessions, circuit affirms

The city of Los Angeles can't immediately seize and destroy homeless people's belongings based solely on their sizes, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer of the Central District of California halting the city of Los Angeles from seizing large items and destroying them without prior notice. Garcia et al. v. City of Los Angeles et al., 2021 DJDAR 9188 (Sept 2, 2021).

"From our perspective, this is a big win for unhoused residents of Los Angeles," said Ben Herbert, partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP who represented the plaintiffs pro bono. "[I]t reaffirms the property rights of unhoused residents in the city."

"We are reviewing the decision and are considering all our options," said Rob Wilcox, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles city attorney.

Thursday's opinion was penned by Circuit Judge Michelle T. Friedland, who was joined by U.S. Judge David A. Ezra of the District of Hawaii, sitting by designation. Circuit Judge Mark J. Bennett dissented. While homeless individuals have rights to keep their belongings without unreasonable government interference, the city can also enact and enforce laws necessary to protect public health and safety, Bennett's dissent reads.

The litigation stems from a challenge to Los Angeles' municipal code that was enforced in order to mitigate homelessness in the region. That ordinance limited the storage of personal items in public areas. A subsection of the ordinance banned bulky items, which were considered anything that won't fit into a 60 gallon container, unless it was being used as shelter. The ordinance gave officials power to immediately take and discard items.

The city argued that Fischer's injunction should be limited to the destruction clause. But the 9th Circuit disagreed, noting that destruction is part of the city's purpose of mitigating homelessness; nor does the ordinance say anything about what happens to items that are seized but not destroyed.

"The city keeps writing ordinances that don't take into account the rights of unhoused people, and the 9th Circuit keeps striking them down," said Shayla Meyers, attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles who argued the appeal. "Unhoused people have constitutional rights that have to be protected."

The plaintiffs' team is joined by Mallory B. Andrews and Andrew Flores of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles; Catherine Sweetser of Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes LLP; and Michael Onufer of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

The city is represented by Jonathan H. Eisenman from the City Attorney's office.