Homeless win $2.3 million settlement
The homeless and their advocates celebrate in front of the courthouse. They are holding a photo of Pamela Kincaid, the lead plaintiff who died in August 2007.Photo by Mike Rhodes
The City of Fresno has agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed after the city raided homeless encampments, destroying personal property.
The California Department of Transportation will chip in another $85,000, bringing the total to more than $2.3 million.
The settlement came after a federal judge ruled that Fresno violated the constitutional rights of homeless residents. The ruling was based on a series of 14 city raids on homeless encampments between February 2004 and August 2006 in which personal belongings were destroyed.
But the ruling left other issues undecided, and a jury trial was scheduled to begin next week.
Read the Fresno Bee report here. There are lots of previous posts on this, so search for "Fresno" in this blog to get the background.
posted by Jacqueline Dowd @ 10:08 AM
1 Comments:
This is a fantastic result. I only wish it could set a precedent before legal action is required-- warn off some of the municipalities who operate in the manner. Unfortunately, each battle will have to be fought one by one until maybe they get it.
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