City officials in quandary after ruling in homeless lawsuit
An influential federal appeals court’s decision that upholds the rights of homeless people has left elected officials facing some new problems.
Q. Different parts of our city have a growing number of homeless people who are sleeping in public parks or even on the sidewalks. Some have even set up small tents and do things that shouldn’t be done in public. The cops won’t arrest them, and our city council and board of supervisors won’t do anything about it. What can we do?
A. Not much, except keep banging on your drums for local government leaders to adequately address the problem.
Municipalities across the U.S. are still trying to figure out how to handle their homeless issues after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that two homeless men in Boise, Idaho, could seek an injunction against enforcement of that city’s “anti-camping” and disorderly-conduct ordinances.
Noting the fact that Boise didn’t have enough shelters and beds to accommodate its homeless population, Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon said that sitting, lying and sleeping on the streets was an “unavoidable consequence” of homelessness.
She said that locking up the homeless because there aren’t enough beds violates the Eighth Amendment, which bans “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Though the 9th Circuit’s ruling currently affects only the eight Western states and Alaska, the ruling can now be cited in court cases across the U.S. that may be filed by supporters of the homeless to overturn similar laws in other cities and to push for the construction of more shelters.
The case, Martin v. City of Boise, will almost certainly be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Elected leaders and law-enforcement agencies throughout the nation are struggling to decide how to react in the wake of the ruling. Some are still enforcing local laws that ban sleeping on sidewalks or camping in public parks, while others are not.
Still others have essentially suspended debate on what to do with their homeless population unless the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision, a ruling that may take two or three years to arrive.
REAL ESTATE TRIVIA
New York City’s estimated 78,676 homeless was the highest in the nation last year, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Los Angeles County (49,995) was second, followed by Seattle and the rest of King County, Washington (12,112).
Q. What does it mean when a house that’s for sale has a “boon”?
A. A boon is an area that’s covered by thick brush, usually unattended by the owner. There aren’t many boons left, with the exception of sparsely developed parts of the South, Southwest and Alaska.
Some of the high-priced homes in the oceanside community of Malibu, California, as well as some of its surrounding areas, are sold with a boon. That’s because they are surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains, where lots of brush and other vegetation grow without the property owner’s help.
It’s interesting to note that the term “boon” stems from the Latin word “bonus.” A thousand or so years later, it was adopted by the French, who pronounced it “bon,” as in “bon appetit” (“enjoy your meal”). Then it morphed into the Middle English term “bone,” an alternative word for “good.”
That’s why, if you reach into the pocket of an old coat and find a long-forgotten $10 bill, it’s quite a boon.
Q. I signed an offer to buy a home and followed your advice to make the offer contingent on first obtaining a satisfactory report from a professional home inspector. The inspector discovered some serious structural problems that the seller would not agree to fix, so I was able to cancel the sale and get my deposit back. Can I also demand that the seller reimburse me for the $350 I paid for the inspection itself?
A. Most purchase offers today require the buyer, not the seller, to pay for the cost of a home inspection, so you don’t have the right to be reimbursed unless the offer you signed stated otherwise.
Though you probably can’t get the $350 back, it was money well spent because the inspection helped you to avoid purchasing a property with lots of hidden problems that would be costly to repair.
ABOUT LIVING TRUSTS David Myers’ booklet “Straight Talk About Living Trusts” explains how even low- and middle-income homeowners can now reap the same benefits that creating an inexpensive trust once provided only to the wealthiest families. For a copy, send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to D. Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-4405. Net proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross. Send questions to David Myers, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-2960, and we’ll try to respond in a future column.