The Rights of Homeless
Homeless people do have rights. It is only now that they are now forming a united front and are fighting back with the same law that is used by the rich and housed. All over Turtle Island they are organizing and winning the rights to be treated as equals. In Victoria a group of Homeless people were forced to wait over 2.5 years to have their court case heard in supreme court over the rights to have a tent city. Now they have gone through the court system and for the time being they have won. This was won because the city of Victoria , the provincial government and the federal government did not want to have this case brought to trial and be heard in a open public court room. Six times the city of Victoria postponed the hearing; the homeless postponed-zero. It was also won because the city has failed to provide affordable housing. All the homeless were asking for was a right to sleep without being interrupted, a chance to protect themselves from the elements, while having limited choices as to where they will rest their weary bodies while they are experiencing homelessness.
Homeless Win Lawsuit Against City of FresnoACLU
Press Release FRESNO; United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger gave preliminary approval today to a $2.35 million class-action settlement between a class of hundreds of homeless Fresno residents and the City of Fresno and the California Department of Transportation.
The court had already determined that Fresno's practice of immediately seizing and destroying the personal possessions of homeless residents violates the constitutional right of every person to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The homeless plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Kincaid v. Fresno, were represented by a team of attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC), the Lawyers; Committee for Civil
Rights (LCCR) and the law firm of Heller Ehrman LLP.The Courts ruling and the settlement should send a strong message to other cities throughout our country that if they violate the rights of their most
vulnerable residents, they will be held accountable, said ACLU-NC staff attorney Michael Risher.
Plaintiff Al Williams suffered the effects of the raids on three occasions. In addition to losing clothes and food, his wife's wheelchair was destroyed and her medicines confiscated by Fresno police officers.
"I felt like everything was taken away from me, but this settlement gives me hope for the future for myself and all the other people who suffered,"said Williams, who now hosts a local radio show in Fresno.
Many homeless people lost everything they owned to the City trash
compactors and bulldozers. With this settlement, they can access what has always been the solution to homelessness: a safe, clean place to live, said Elisa Della-Piana, an attorney with the Lawyers Committee.
Read more.Homelessness: Historic Perspective By Richard Troxell
