LA Alliance for Human Rights v. County of Los Angeles, No. 21-55395 (9th Cir. 2021)
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Alliance alleged that County and City policies and inaction have created a dangerous environment in the Skid Row area, claiming that the County violated its mandatory duty to provide medically necessary care and that the municipalities have facilitated public nuisance violations by failing to clear encampments, violated disability access laws by failing to clear sidewalks of encampments, and violated constitutional rights by providing disparate services to those within the Skid Row area and by enacting policies resulting in a state-created danger to area residents and businesses. The district court issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the escrow of $1 billion to address homelessness, offers of shelter to all unhoused individuals in Skid Row within 180 days, and numerous reports. The court found that structural racism was behind Los Angeles’s homelessness crisis and its disproportionate impact on the Black community.
The Ninth Circuit vacated. The plaintiffs lacked standing on all but their ADA claim; no claims were based on racial discrimination. The district court impermissibly resorted to independent research and extra-record evidence. There was no allegation that any individual plaintiff was Black nor that there was a special relationship between the City and unhoused residents nor that any individual plaintiff was deprived of medically necessary care or general assistance. Two plaintiffs who use wheelchairs and cannot traverse Skid Row sidewalks because of homeless encampments had standing to bring ADA claims but had not shown a likelihood of success on the merits.
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel vacated the district court’s preliminary injunction order and remanded for further proceedings in an action brought by LA Alliance for Human Rights and eight individual Plaintiffs against the County and City of Los Angeles for harms stemming from the proliferation of encampments in the Skid Row area. LA Alliance is a coalition of Los Angeles residents whose members include business and property owners, landlords, housed residents of the Skid Row area, formerly homeless residents of a Skid Row-area mission, and a real estate professional with an interest in the downtown area. Plaintiffs’ complaint generally alleged that County and City policies and inaction have created a dangerous environment in the Skid Row area and that the situation is deteriorating. After extensive negotiations failed to produce a settlement, Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction seeking a court order requiring the County and City to offer shelter to all unhoused individuals in Skid Row, LA ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS V. COUNTY OF LA 5 clear all Skid Row encampments, prohibit camping there, and more. The Motion was grounded in the legal theories alleged in the complaint, including: a claim that the County violated its mandatory duty to provide medically necessary care under California Welfare and Institutions Code section 17000 by failing to provide shelter to unhoused individuals; a claim that the County and City have facilitated public nuisance violations by failing to clear encampments; several claims that the City violated state and federal disability access laws by failing to clear sidewalks of encampments; and claims that the County and City violated Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights by providing disparate services to those living and working within the Skid Row area and by enacting policies regarding Skid Row that have resulted in a state- created danger to Skid Row-area residents and businesses. The district court issued a sweeping preliminary injunction against the County and City of Los Angeles and ordered, among other relief: the escrow of $1 billion to address the homelessness crisis, offers of shelter or housing to all unhoused individuals in Skid Row within 180 days, and numerous audits and reports. The district court’s order was premised on its finding that structural racism—in the form of discriminatory lending, real estate covenants, redlining, freeway construction, eminent domain, exclusionary zoning, and unequal access to shelter and affordable housing—was the driving force behind Los Angeles’s homelessness crisis and its disproportionate impact on the Black community. The district court found that Plaintiffs had shown a likelihood of success on the merits of six claims: violations of due process rights under the state-created danger and special relationship doctrines; violation of equal protection on the basis of race; violation of the substantive due process rights of Black families to family integrity; violation of California Welfare and 6 LA ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS V. COUNTY OF LA Institutions Code section 17000; and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The panel held that, as the claims were articulated by the district court, Plaintiffs lacked standing on all but their ADA claim. The panel stated that none of Plaintiffs’ claims were based on racial discrimination and the district court’s order was largely based on unpled claims and theories. The district court therefore abused its discretion because it only had equitable power to grant relief on the merits of the case or controversy before it and did not have the authority to issue an injunction based on claims not pled in the complaint. Moreover, because plaintiffs did not bring most of the claims upon which relief was granted, they failed to put forth evidence to establish standing. To fill the gap, the district court impermissibly resorted to independent research and extra-record evidence. The panel noted that the district court had cited material not subject to judicial notice and relied on facts contained in various publications that were subject to reasonable dispute. To the extent the district court premised the injunctive relief on improperly noticed facts necessary to confer standing, the district court abused its discretion. Turning to the six claims upon which relief was granted, the panel noted that Plaintiffs brought no race-based claims, and they did not allege or present any evidence that any individual Plaintiff or LA Alliance member was Black— much less Black and unhoused, a parent, or at risk of losing their children. Nor had plaintiffs alleged or argued that there was a special relationship between the City and unhoused residents of Skid Row or that they experienced restraints of personal liberty sufficient to create an affirmative duty for the City to protect their rights. The panel concluded that Plaintiffs had not made a clear showing that any individual LA ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS V. COUNTY OF LA 7 Plaintiff had standing for the race-based claims, including the substantive due process, equal protection, and state- created danger claims. With respect to the section 17000 claim, plaintiffs lacked standing because they failed to allege that an individual Plaintiff was deprived of medically necessary care or general assistance. The panel held that the two individual Plaintiffs who require wheelchairs for daily activities and cannot traverse sidewalks within Skid Row because of homeless encampments had standing to bring ADA claims against the City. Their claim failed, however, because they had not shown a likelihood of success at this stage; Plaintiffs did not offer sufficient evidence that they were denied the benefits of the City’s sidewalks or were otherwise discriminated against by the City and that such denial of benefits or discrimination was by reason of their disabilities. Moreover, the district court abused its discretion by relying on extra- record evidence to find success on the merits and by ordering overly broad relief. The panel rejected the argument that LA Alliance had associational standing to seek relief under all the claims upon which the injunction was based. The panel held that, like the individual Plaintiffs, no other member of LA Alliance had alleged injuries sufficient for standing to bring the substantive due process, state-created danger, special relationship, equal protection, or section 17000 claims upon which relief was granted. 8 LA ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS V. COUNTY OF LA
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