Lawsuit filed on behalf of 16 individuals whose property was destroyed when police and city workers raided homeless encampment in downtown park; Some were given only minutes to salvage what they could, others lost everything
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 20, 2017
CONTACT: ACLU of Florida Media Office, media@aclufl.org, (786) 363-2737
Kirsten Anderson (SLC), kirsten.anderson@southernlegal.org, (352) 271-8890
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida and Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) have filed a lawsuit on behalf of 16 people whose personal property was destroyed when Fort Lauderdale police raided an encampment of homeless persons in a downtown park.
On May 19, with no warning to the roughly forty individuals residing there, city workers and police officers arrived at a homeless encampment near Stranahan Park in downtown Fort Lauderdale with front-end loaders, dumpsters, and blue bins. Homeless individuals who were present were given only a few minutes to put personal belongings into blue bins, to be claimed off-site at a later date. City workers then loaded all personal belongings that weren’t in the blue bins into dumpsters and destroyed them. The city threw away personal belongings of those homeless persons who were either not present at the time of the raid or those who were not able to load what they had into bins in the short time the city gave them.
The lawsuit, filed yesterday in federal court, states that the city ignored its own ordinances regarding outdoor storage on public property. The lawsuit further states that the raid on the homeless encampment violates the U.S. Constitution’s protections against unreasonable seizures of personal property, as well as the guarantee of due process.
“What the city did to our clients is not only unconscionable, it’s unconstitutional,” stated ACLU of Florida staff attorney Jacqueline Azis. “With practically no warning, these individuals had their personal belongings – in some cases everything they owned except literally the clothes on their backs – destroyed. Some of what our clients lost in the city’s raid include work clothes, identifications, bicycles, and medicines. These items were what little foothold they had to create a better life, and now they’re gone.”
The 16 plaintiffs represented in the lawsuit include individuals who had been at the encampment for as long as one year to as little as a few weeks. Those who were at the encampment when city workers arrived struggled to salvage what they could into the blue bins in the short time given; others were away at work, church, or nearby social service agencies, and lost everything. Some who returned to the park while the raid was underway could see their personal belongings in the pile to be thrown away and tried to retrieve them, but were threatened with arrest if they attempted to do so.
Among the items destroyed by the city during the raid were work boots, bedding, prescription medication, glasses, personal documents such as social security cards and birth certificates, a laptop, and family keepsakes such as photos and heirlooms.
“Being homeless is not a crime,” stated SLC Litigation Director Kirsten Anderson. “People do not lose the protection of the law simply because they are poor. There is no justification for destroying people’s property. If city officials want to address homelessness in Fort Lauderdale, they should work to address the root causes, not arbitrarily punish people because they cannot afford housing.”
The complaint seeks a jury trial, damages, and an injunction preventing the city from confiscating and destroying personal property without due process.
A copy of the complaint is available to download from this page.
Note to broadcasters: A video featuring interviews with many of the plaintiffs describing what they lost in the city’s raid is available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7qUtDGXZs
A video file with longer interview segments is available upon request.