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After years of failure, LA’s homelessness spending could go under receivership

June 5, 2025

Old joke: How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one. But the light bulb has to be willing to change.

No joke: The city of Los Angeles may soon have a court-appointed receiver in control of homelessness spending.

The city government has been hauled into federal court over its alleged noncompliance with the terms of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of downtown residents and business owners. Fed up with the proliferation of sidewalk tent encampments despite new taxes and more spending, the L.A. Alliance sued the city and county in 2020 to try to force the governments to provide shelter or housing for the people living on the streets.

The case was overseen by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who aggressively questioned public officials and attempted to badger them into taking action. The lawsuit ended in settlements with the county and city in 2022. The Alliance says the city has failed to live up to the terms of the settlement, and that has landed the case back in court. An evidentiary hearing has been underway for two weeks to find out what the city has done, or not done, and what more it could do, or not do.

So far, we know that giant vaults of taxpayer dollars have been emptied, taxes have been raised again, and tens of thousands of unhoused individuals are still living in tent encampments on the sidewalks and other public spaces. In the latest development, the city has hired the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to defend itself against the L.A. Alliance and the wrath of Judge Carter. LAist reported that the city is paying $900,000 for a two-year contract.

If there’s anything we’ve learned in Los Angeles, it’s that lawsuits and settlements won’t solve the problem. Lawsuits and settlements caused the problem.

L.A. had an ordinance that made it illegal to sit, lie or sleep on a public sidewalk (unless waiting for a parade) when the ACLU filed a lawsuit, Jones v. Los Angeles, challenging it in 2003. This led to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment “prohibits the city from punishing involuntary sitting, lying or sleeping on the sidewalks” if people had no shelter. Instead of appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, the city settled the case in 2007 by agreeing to stop enforcing the ban on sleeping on the sidewalks everywhere in Los Angeles until 1,250 units of housing were constructed for the chronically homeless.

The housing was built, but the city never resumed enforcement. Meanwhile the Ninth Circuit, which had vacated its ruling in the Jones case as part of the settlement, essentially recreated the same ruling in another case, Martin v. Boise. That decision said cities could not enforce a ban on public camping unless there were enough shelter beds for everybody. The ruling was so vague on the details that cities located within the Ninth Circuit could get sued for virtually anything they did about public camping.

Then last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Martin v. Boise with its decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, establishing that cities do have the power under the Constitution to enforce an anti-camping ordinance.

But the light bulb is unwilling to change in L.A., where the city and county governments have refused to enforce a ban on public camping as a matter of principle. The official policy seems to be that the entire society must wait for the residents of a tent encampment to decide when they are ready to accept services. The hammer of government coercion is reserved exclusively for use on taxpayers. And all this time you thought it was a migraine.

Judge Carter is considering whether to appoint a receiver to take control of L.A.’s spending on homelessness. We already have the county’s Executive Committee and Leadership Table, along with a new county homelessness agency and the partially defunded Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, in the ranks of administrators paid by taxpayers to oversee homelessness spending.

At least the lawyers will never be homeless.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley

Orange County Register

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After years of failure, LA’s homelessness spending could go under receivership

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