Claims Filed for Homeless Confiscations

Claims against Santa Ana have been filed on behalf of 17 homeless people who are seeking at least $25,000 each because city workers confiscated their bedrolls, food and other belongings.

The claims challenge a cleanup policy begun in the spring, under which city workers have removed unattended belongings from city parks and the Civic Center grounds downtown.

This policy has caused the homeless “great emotional distress and mental pain and suffering,” according to the claims, which refer to seizures of property from June 5 to Sept. 27.

Attorney Christopher Byron Mears, who filed the claims earlier this week, Thursday called Santa Ana’s treatment of the homeless “unconscionable.”

Each of the claims asks for “an amount exceeding $25,000” in damages. Mears said his clients are seeking “not only compensation for theft of their property but also the emotional distress involved. Some people lost photographs of loved ones, discharge papers from military service, any and all changes of clothing,” he said.

Claims such as those filed by Mears are required by law before lawsuits seeking damages can be brought against a city. The city has 45 days to accept or reject the claimants’ demands.

Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Aid Society of Orange County filed suit on behalf of the homeless, questioning the constitutionality of the city’s policy of confiscating belongings. But the claims filed this week are the first seeking money from the city.

In September, Legal Aid and the ACLU won a temporary restraining order against the city, requiring city workers to store belongings worth more than $10 instead of throwing them away.

But on Sept. 20, a Superior Court judge refused to order the city to stop storing the property in a container at Centennial Park, away from the downtown area where most homeless people congregate.