The Legal War Against Unhoused People
The plight of people who are unhoused has reached horrific proportions in California, but instead of embarking on a resurgence of affordable housing, communities have instead instituted policies and regulations that target unhoused people by harassing, citing, segregating, banishing, and even imprisoning them.
A new, comprehensive report, “Outside the Law: The Legal War Against Unhoused People,” by the ACLU Foundations of Northern California, Southern California, and San Diego & Imperial Counties spotlights the discriminatory tactics that cities and counties throughout California have instituted to target unhoused people, ignoring the bedrock principle of equal treatment under the law. It calls upon communities to amend anti-discrimination laws to include unhoused people and acknowledge their fundamental human rights.
Read the full report
The report finds that:
- Discrimination against unhoused people is spreading and becoming more commonplace, especially due to local governments exploiting legal loopholes and sharing their tactics with one another.
- Municipalities are increasingly imposing fines and fees — even for sitting in a public park for only a few minutes — far beyond an unhoused person’s ability to pay.
- Cities are targeting not just unhoused people, but also the humanitarian organizations that provide critical aid such as food, water, clothing, and blankets.
- Unhoused people are being forcibly banished to remote areas, including harsh desert landscapes, outside city borders, and far from lifesaving resources such as water, food, and health care.
The ordinances and regulations adopted by cities are often purposely vague as to allow for harassment. An example cited in the report is from the city of Novato where camping was banned in city parks, open spaces, within 50 feet of “critical infrastructure,” etc. When asked where unhoused people could exist, the city manager answered, “Anywhere it’s not illegal would be legal.”
Other California cities whose policies and practices against unhoused people are cited in the report include: Chico, Laguna Beach, Lancaster, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Ana, and Santa Cruz.
Read the full report
Date
Tuesday, October 26, 2021 - 6:15am
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A Legal How-To Guide
Our "2021 Redistricting For Community Empowerment: A Legal How-To Guide" is geared towards community-based organizations interested in engaging in the local redistricting process, but everyone can benefit from reading this guide.
The guide provides fundamental information, including:
- The rules of redistricting: The guide explains traditional redistricting principles (e.g. contiguity, communities of interest, compactness, etc.), the constitutional mandate that districts must be equal in population and the federal mandate that districts must comply with Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act. It provides an overview of techniques that are used to dilute the political power of racial, ethnic and language minorities, and also goes over the types of districts that can be drawn to empower historically disenfranchised communities.
- The redistricting process: The guide helpfully breaks down the different processes cities, counties, county boards of education, school districts, community college districts and special districts must or should follow as they engage in redistricting. The guide provides information about map adoption deadlines; new requirements for cities and counties, including public engagement and public hearing requirements; and mapping requirements.
- Case study on what a court may or may not accept as “compact.”
- Glossary explaining all those tricky redistricting and census terms.
Throughout the guide, we provide tips about how community organizations can best engage with the decision-making bodies and advocate on behalf of their communities. It's a legal how-to guide so it cites key cases and statutes and explains how different choices may be viewed by courts.
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Date
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - 3:45pm
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Read the 2021 ACLU SoCal Annual Report
Dear Friends,
Thank you! Your continued support of and investment in the ACLU has allowed us to rise to the various challenges of the past year, defending and advancing civil rights and civil liberties through one of the most tumultuous periods in recent memory.
2020 was marked by a global pandemic, a national election in which the president attempted to overturn the result of the vote, and the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other Black people at the hands of police. 2021 dawned with a mob of President Trump’s supporters storming the U.S. Capitol, a stark warning about the fragility of our democracy and the threat posed by white supremacy.
Throughout this difficult year, your partnership enabled the ACLU to work fiercely and strategically to defend democracy, protect vulnerable communities, and seize opportunities to make lasting change. I hope this report makes you proud of all that you helped accomplish here in our region and statewide.
This report highlights just a few examples of the work your generosity made possible this year. You also helped us secure a number of other wins, including:
- Advocating successfully to make California the first state in the country to adopt universal mail-in voting in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Securing a court order requiring Orange County to reduce its jail population by 50 percent—the most expansive legal victory in the country on jail conditions during COVID-19.
- Co-sponsoring two critical police accountability state bills that have made it to the Governor’s desk: one to decertify bad cops so they can’t be rehired by other jurisdictions, and another to fund a pilot program to create alternatives to police response for certain 911 calls.
- Winning an important Ninth Circuit ruling that ICE violated the First Amendment when it arrested an undocumented college student who read a protest poem about immigration at a Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting and held him on an exorbitant $50,000 bond in retaliation.
- Training and empowering hundreds of parents, students, and educators to ensure that their schools comply with the California Healthy Youth Act, which requires public schools to provide comprehensive, LGBTQ-inclusive sex education.
- Winning an administrative complaint against San Bernardino County education officials for misspending millions in state funding intended for high-needs students, including by routing millions of dollars to law enforcement instead of mental health and other support services.
- Preparing our Supreme Court oral arguments for Fazaga v. FBI in a long-running, landmark case defending religious freedoms and challenging the FBI for illegally spying on the Muslim community in Orange County.
Nationwide, the ACLU won 28 voting rights victories in 21 states, blocked more than 20 abortion bans and restrictions, fought to reunite separated families, secured the release of more than 48,000 vulnerable people from prisons and jails during the pandemic, and won landmark Supreme Court rulings protecting student free speech and establishing that employers can’t fire people for being gay or transgender.
Now is the time to redouble our efforts. We must not only fight to defend fundamental rights whenever they are attacked, but also to advance our own ambitious agenda for necessary systemic change. With your support, we will seize the opportunities ahead to create a freer and more just nation.
Thank you in advance for your continued partnership.
With gratitude,
Hector O. Villagra
Executive Director
Read the 2021 ACLU SoCal Annual Report
Date
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - 2:00pm
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