
Water Man Forms:
This is a news article, not legal advice!
The City of San Diego was sued for "taking away" (stealing? armed robbery?) the property of homeless people. Only property taken between July 15, 2008 and December 2, 2009 is eligible for compensation, and the lawsuit is called Isaiah Project, Inc., et al v. City of San Diego, et al, No. 090 CV 2699. If you got your belongings stolen or robbed (since the police were armed!) you can participate. There was no court trial, just an out-of-court settlement. The City agreed to change the way it deals with "trash collection on the streets" especially when that "trash" is the valued property of homeless people, such as their parents' burial urns, prescription medicine, book and song manuscripts, screenplays, identification cards, and so on. I argue that the amount of money offered, $200 per person (based upon estimates) is probably the correct amount of actual value, or even replacement value, but the pain and suffering involved in doing without that stuff is way horrific.
Stealing my blankets, which happened, caused me to nearly die from pneumonia, and be very sick for three weeks, for example. What is my life worth? Nothing to you, because it is not yours? I make the argument that taking my blankets, 20% of all I owned, is equivalent to taking that percentage from someone with more money than me. It is as extreme as somebody torching your garage, if you have a garage. Percentage of your net worth. I had no money to buy new blankets, and could not get them donated, either! Just like you doing without a car, lawnmower, barbecue grille, yardwork equipment, etc., burned in the fire. Traumatic. Equal.
I also argue that stealing things while armed (such as police) is essentially armed robbery. If we took those things from the City, rather than vice versa, we would go to jail, right? Why is no one from the City going to jail? Do we have a District Attorney that is in cahoots with the Nazis who run this place? Why were no criminal charges filed?
You have several options, including objecting to the money not being enough, settling and taking the cash, or hiring your own lawyer. If you need a lawyer to do that, click on Law Page (see icon). If you want to settle, pick up a form to fill out at the Water Man Check-In Center, 917 N. Ninth Ave., across from the current (old) Downtown Library. This is at 9th and E.
The form wants contact information, date and time of incident, where you were, where your property was, what happened to your property, what the people who took your property said and did, how you responded, and whether or not you were given advanced notice. And, any extenuating circumstances. You have to give your Social Security Number, and not be on the tax "bad guy" (backup withholding) list with the IRS.
Our two lawyers in this case, already representing us, are:
Robert Scott Dreher, 835 Fifth Ave., Suite 202, San Diego, CA 921001. And, David Blair-Loy, PO Box 87131, San Diego, CA 92138. The complete set of what to do and how to do it is available from the Water Man. These two lawyers are who gets the form that you fill out. End of news story.
San Diego Reader: (Letter to the Editor, week of Aug. 8 to 12, 2011.)
Congratulations on a fine article regarding the new Homeless Storage Program and its associated Civil Rights lawsuit. There are, however, things you did not cover. The program is based upon Los Angeles Skid Row, which seems to be the model being used for San Diego, despite that area being one of the nation's worst at handling the homeless problem. There are very good ideas and programs in Seattle and Portland, having greater success at a far lower cost. San Diego did approve one of those programs, the Portland Loos toilets.
Problems for this storage program are that it is demeaning to have to keep your belongings in a trash dumpster. And, since there is not 24 hour access, homeless must still have their posessions with them, in case needed, and still use shopping carts. I suggested using Trolley bike lockers. Space is limited, too, my belongings taking up 8-by-8 feet. I rent a storage locker. The other minus is that the settlement gives each of the 100(?) victims $1,500, with $400 going for legal fees, $900 going for the new storage facilities, and $200 for loss of all their posessions, including parents' burial urns, family photos, and pain-and-suffering having no blankets in winter. It should also be noted that present funding will run out soon, and the present facilities serve only 1 in 5 requesting service.
All the rest is plusses, getting a lot of unsightly stuff off the streets, which obviously benefits tourism, commerce, and city pride. It established a headquarters for things like distributing backpacks, posting bulletins, and getting haircuts. It allowed the City to handle this lawsuit inexpensively, and use the money towards City benefit at the same time. And, it needs to be pointed out that without intervention by Water Man David Ross, and his partner marriage counselor Gerry Limpic, the homeless would have gotten nothing at all.
I propose that there be several different competing storage plans, because there are different individual needs, and we can test them all for cost-effectiveness and user support, a managed care concept.
John Kitchin, Chairman, NZ9F.com (the Homeless Website)