LAPD Says Streets Are No Place Like Home

Here is a look at some of the legal issues surrounding camping by the homeless on the streets and sidewalks of skid row.

Question: Why is the issue so controversial?

Answer: The city of Los Angeles has an ordinance that prohibits people from camping on streets and sidewalks. Such camps are a particular problem on skid row, which has the city's largest concentration of homeless people. In 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit challenging the ordinance.

The suit was brought on behalf of six homeless people, including Robert Lee Purrie, who has lived in the skid row area for four decades and said he slept on the streets because he could not afford a hotel and there were not enough shelter beds. Purrie was cited for sleeping on the street twice before police arrested him in 2003. He spent a night in jail, was given a 12-month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $195 in restitution and attorney's fees. When he was released, all of his possessions -- including his tent, blankets, cooking utensils and personal effects -- were gone, according to the suit.

Q: What happened to the lawsuit?

A: In April, a federal appeals court invalidated the city's sleeping ordinance, saying the Los Angeles Police Department cannot arrest people for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks on skid row. Because there are not enough shelter beds for the city's homeless, Judge Kim M. Wardlaw wrote in the majority opinion, prohibiting homeless people from sleeping on the streets was a violation of the 8th Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment.

"The city

Q: What was the city's response to the ruling?

A: At first, some city officials said they wanted to appeal the ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. But eventually, the mayor, Police Chief William J. Bratton and other leaders signed off on a proposed settlement of the lawsuit. The compromise would allow police to arrest people camping, sleeping or lying on sidewalks between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on skid row but allow the homeless to have the camps at night. The settlement would also prohibit encampments at any time within 10 feet of a business or residential entrance.

Q: What happened?

A: The City Council rejected the settlement, saying it would set a bad precedent. Council members said they worried that the deal would allow the ACLU to make the same argument in other parts of the city, possibly resulting in people sleeping on sidewalks in Hollywood, Venice and elsewhere. Some also thought the city might prevail if it took the case to the Supreme Court.