Above: A Jan. 17 report from FOX 5’s Sarah Alegre on data showing the number of people entering homelessness in San Diego outpacing efforts to get people out.
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Council voted on Tuesday to approve a nearly $3.2 million settlement in a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s enforcement of an ordinance prohibiting people from living in their vehicles.
The settlement in the case, Michael Bloom, et al. v. City of San Diego, also set new rules for how the city is allowed to enforce its Vehicle Habitation Ordinance and Oversized Vehicle Ordinance against unhoused people who sleep in their vehicle or RV during a three-year period.
Bloom marks the latest legal victory for homeless San Diegans and their advocates in lawsuits over the city’s treatment of unhoused people over the last two decades, several of which have resulted in settlements establishing rules for how the city can clear homeless encampments .
“This is a win/win for the City and our class members who are doing the best they can to survive in their vehicles, when better options have been closed off to them,” Ann Menasche, an attorney for Disability Rights California who helped bring the federal suit , said in a statement Tuesday.