Homelessness: A $4 Billion Win

In March 2020, we filed a federal lawsuit against the City and County of Los Angeles, calling out their failure to address the exponentially expanding crisis of homelessness.  At the time we filed the lawsuit, three or more people were dying on the streets of Los Angeles every day.

No case like it had ever been filed.  For decades, litigation over homelessness in Los Angeles had focused on what the government could not do.  But our case focused on what the government could and should do. 

We argued that the executive and legislative branches of local government were failing at a constitutional level, and that the City and County were obligated to do more—both for those experiencing homelessness and for those in communities affected by the homelessness crisis.  We believed the judiciary had a critical role to play in solving this crisis. 

Representing a coalition of unhoused individuals, community members, disabled persons unable to navigate their neighborhoods due to encampments, and business and property owners whose livelihoods were affected by the city and county’s failure to act, we sought court intervention to hold the local officials accountable for decades of dysfunction and despair on the streets of Los Angeles.  We saw the case as an opportunity for the city and county to overcome historic levels of distrust between them and benefit from judicial involvement in a tragedy that had lingered for far too long. 

The case was assigned to the Honorable David O. Carter of the United States District Court for the Central District of Los Angeles, and over the ensuing two years we fought and negotiated and wended our way through dozens of hearings, two preliminary injunctions, an interlocutory appeal, and novel legal questions. 

In April 2022, we had a breakthrough—the City of Los Angeles agreed to a $3 billion settlement featuring massive increases in the amount of shelter and housing for those experiencing homelessness, and—crucially—five years of federal court enforcement.  And finally in 2023 we settled the case with the County of Los Angeles for $1-2 billion worth of infrastructure and services including thousands of mental health and substance use disorder beds, and significant outreach and services to those on the streets and in shelters. 

We’re immensely proud of the work we’ve done on behalf of those experiencing homelessness and for the citizens of the City and County of Los Angeles.  And for the next five years, we’ll be holding the City and County accountable for their efforts to end the homelessness crisis. 

See below for coverage and links of our homelessness litigation: