Florida Civil Legal UPDATE

Southern Legal Counsel (SLC), Florida Institutional Legal Services (FILS), and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) filed a lawsuit in federal court today on behalf of a class of homeless plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of a number of ordinances and practices that target homeless individuals living in St. Petersburg.

Since early 2007, St. Petersburg has passed six ordinances that target homeless individuals, including four different ones that make it unlawful to sleep, lie down or recline outside at various locations throughout the city and prohibiting the use of temporary shelters. The other ordinances outlaw panhandling throughout most of downtown and prohibit the storage of personal belongings on public property.

“The City of St. Petersburg has essentially turned the issue of homelessness over to the criminal justice system. Subjecting homeless individuals to an endless cycle of arrest, incarceration and homelessness under these city ordinances and practices wastes valuable city and county resources and is ineffective in addressing the root causes of homelessness,” said Kirsten Clanton, a staff attorney at SLC.

According to the 2007 Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless’ Annual Homeless Count and Survey, there are 5,195 homeless individuals, 1,221 of which are unsheltered, living in Pinellas County. Approximately 40%, or 1,700, of those individuals reside primarily in the City of St. Petersburg. The 2009 Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless’ Annual Count and Survey documented a 20% increase in the total number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals living in Pinellas County. Without adequate shelter space or affordable housing, many homeless St. Petersburg residents are forced to live outside.

The named plaintiffs in the suit have been cited or arrested for a wide range of activities they must do to survive. In addition, police have banned plaintiffs from certain public parks, have unlawfully searched them, and have penalized some for having property in public spaces.

“The City of St. Petersburg’s use of the county jail to “solve” the issue of homelessness is counterproductive, inefficient and expensive. It actually makes the situation worse because criminal convictions create additional barriers for those who struggle to obtain stable and safe housing,” said Peter Sleasman, a staff attorney at FILS.

SLC, FILS, and NLCHP assert that the ordinances and practices used to target the plaintiffs violate a wide range of constitutional protections, from the Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, to the right to travel, to free speech rights. The groups also claim that certain of the challenged measures are void for vagueness, violate the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and violate equal protection rights.

“While we unfortunately see many communities across the country criminalizing homelessness, what has been happening in St. Petersburg over the past couple years is one of the worst examples nationally of widespread abuse of homeless persons’ civil and human rights,” said Tulin Ozdeger, NLCHP’s Civil Rights Director.

The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to stop enforcement of the ordinances and practices at issue and a declaration of the unconstitutionality of these practices.

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Southern Legal Counsel, Inc. (SLC) is a not-for-profit public interest law firm that is committed to the ideal of equal justice for all. SLC seeks to make this ideal a reality by providing legal representation to selected individuals and groups who otherwise would not have access to the justice system and whose cases may bring about systemic reform for the benefit of others similarly situated. SLC litigates on behalf of a diverse group of clients, including children and adults with disabilities, public housing tenants, residents of state institutions, historic communities, public school students, and others who have been denied access to the courts.

Florida Institutional Legal Services, Inc. (FILS) is a not-for-profit legal aid office providing legal assistance to individuals in jails, prisons and other state institutions. One of FILS’s missions is to reduce incarceration by combating counterproductive laws that criminalize homelessness. FILS believes that federal, state and local governments can reduce costly institutionalization by adopting policies that promote stable housing and employment for those at risk of incarceration.

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) was established in June 1989, two years after Congress passed the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the first comprehensive federal legislation addressing the problems of homelessness. NLCHP’s Executive Director, Maria Foscarinis, played a major role in the Act’s passage.

NLCHP’s mission is to prevent and end homelessness by serving as the legal arm of the nationwide movement to end homelessness. To achieve its mission, NLCHP pursues three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education.

Since 2003, member programs in the Florida State Support System have been meeting to develop and refine the network of support for local programs that exists within the statewide programs.  As part of that work, the State Support Network Group (SSNG) is making available to everyone the following resources.  In fact, recommendation 4 of the SSNG states:

The attached Substantive and Advocacy Skills/Litigation Support charts should be disseminated widely.  Field staff should use these documents as a starting point to determine which state support office they should contact first for technical assistance. Staff within state support will promptly respond to these requests or, if appropriate, direct the individual with the question to another staff member within the state support network who has more suitable expertise and  can better respond to the question.

The first two resources that are provided are charts that plot various substantive and advovcacy and litigation support topics along with the state support program that should be contacted for assistance in the given topic.  All documents are in PDF format.

Click here for the Substantive Expertise Chart.

Click here for the Advocacy & Litigation Support Chart.

The next four resources are documents each from Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Inistitutional Legal Services, the Florida Immiagrant Advocacy Center, and Florida Legal Services, which further direct those in need of assistance to the correct staff member in each office.

Click for:

SLC

FILS

FIAC

FLS

Huge atta-boys to the Florida Justice Institute, Florida Institutional Legal Services, and pro bono counsel at Holland + Knight today as they have secured a very favorable decision from the Middle District of Florida.  From the Daily Business Review (registration required):

Now a federal judge has ruled that the use of chemical agents against McKinney and another severely mentally ill inmate constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Advocates for mentally ill inmates hope the 75-page order by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan will open up a dialogue with the state Department of Corrections to prevent the gassing of prisoners who are too ill to respond to negative reinforcement.

This decision is very significant because it’s the first time a federal court in Florida has held that use of chemical agents, including pepper spray, on mentally ill inmates locked in their cells who are doing no harm to themselves or others violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the 8th and 14th amendments,” said Randy Berg, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute in Miami, who represented inmates in the case.

Leon Fresco, a Holland & Knight associate in Miami who worked on the case pro bono, said, “This is a decision that is going to have broad national impact. This is really ground-breaking.”

Also of note:

“We have been asking all along for intervention prior to the use of chemical agents,” Berg said. “See if the inmate understands what he is doing is wrong and if the application of chemical agents would serve any purpose.”

The Florida Justice Institute and the legal aid group Florida Institutional Legal Services in Gainesville spearheaded the lawsuit on behalf of 10 inmates. Four were dismissed from the litigation after being released, and the judge ruled against four others, finding prison officers did not have sufficient information about their mental illness before using chemical restraints.

There’s a lot more detail in the article.  I’m sure we’ll be linking to other media outlets as they report the decision.  If you’d like to dig into the ruling yourself, have at it.