The ashes of deceased relatives, warm clothes in the dead of winter, personal documents and irreplaceable family photographs are just some of the items New Yorkers say were thrown away homeless encampment sweeps that often take place with little or no warning, according to a new federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The city’s own internal policies require at least 48 hours warning ahead of such sweeps, and for people to have most of their belongings stored for up to 90 days.
But in practice, the new lawsuit filed by six homeless New Yorkers and the Urban Justice Center Safety Net Project alleges that city officials regularly violate those procedures, sweeping encampments over and over again with little or no warning and simply throwing people’s possessions away.
The plaintiffs are seeking to have the suit certified as a class action, which would allow thousands of other homeless people impacted by these sweeps to join the case, which alleges that the city is violating the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.