U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson dropped four of five south Orange County cities from a lawsuit filed earlier this year on behalf of homeless people and three advocacy groups assisting them.
Anderson’s ruling, dated Monday, Aug. 12, also ordered lawyers for the homeless people to amend their complaint against San Clemente, which remains a defendant along with the county.
It’s unclear how — or if — the ruling will change the broader question of creating adequate homeless services in south county.
Lawyers for the homeless plaintiffs declined to say on Thursday what their legal strategy will be going forward, but attorney Brooke Weitzman said that it is not unusual for complaints to be amended.
In granting a motion to dismiss, Anderson dropped the cities of Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Irvine and San Juan Capistrano from the lawsuit originally filed in February. The judge ruled that those cities had been “misjoined” in a single legal action, but left the door open for individual lawsuits to be filed against each city.
In his ruling, the judge said that federal civil procedure does not permit the homeless advocates “to combine into one action claims against multiple municipalities” even as they acknowledge that each of the cities has “their own ordinances, different populations of unhoused individuals, (and) programs for addressing the situation.”
Read the complete text of Anderson’s ruling
The judge set a deadline of Sept. 16 for an amended filing to address an ordinance that San Clemente adopted in May to relocate homeless people from an encampment in North Beach to a city-owned lot.
San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott said the court decision didn’t come as a surprise, based on his belief that the homeless and their advocates lacked the jurisdiction to sue the city.
“We had tremendous confidence in our legal position,” Maryott said Thursday, adding that the dismissal won’t change much for San Juan Capistrano when it comes to how his city deals with homeless people.
“We continue to work with available resources to encourage (homeless people) to accept some services and help,” Maryott said.
But at the heart of the lawsuit is the contention that the south county cities have not done enough to provide services to homeless people on their streets and instead have violated constitutional rights by criminalizing homelessness. Such arguments are similar to those raised in a 2018 lawsuit involving north and central Orange County.
The 2018 “Catholic Worker” lawsuit — overseen by District Judge David O. Carter in Santa Ana — led to settlements that have resulted in the building of new homeless shelters since late last year and plans for others to open next year.
Carter continually pushed for a settlement of the litigation and was set to preside over the south county lawsuit until being recused from the case, at the request of the south county defendants, earlier this year. Anderson, whose courtroom is in Los Angeles, was chosen by random selection to hear the south county lawsuit.
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