L.A.'s voided law against sleeping in cars costs it $1.1 million in legal fees

Source: LA times

Attorney Carol Sobel said the fee payout is one of a half-dozen agreements the city has reached with lawyers who brought civil rights challenges to police crackdowns on homeless people.



"They never learn," said Sobel, who will share the newly awarded fees with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and two other lawyers. "Instead of having money to spend on addressing the real problem of homelessness they are constantly feeding money into the bottomless pit of police suppression."

A spokesman for City Atty. Mike Feuer said he declined comment.

The vehicle-dwelling case was filed on behalf of a group of homeless people, including several disabled individuals, over a 2010 police crackdown on 250 people who began sleeping in their cars and motor homes on Venice streets at the height of the recession, Sobel said.
They never learn. Instead of having money to spend on addressing the real problem of homelessness they are constantly feeding money into the bottomless pit of police suppression. - Attorney Carol Sobel, who will share the newly awarded fees with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and two other lawyers

A federal appeals court last year struck down the ban, ruling it was unconstitutionally vague and an invitation to discriminate against the poor. The court said the ordinance could have been enforced against people for napping or keeping food in their car, including road trippers or tourists.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-homeless-legal-fees-20150819-story.html