By Lookout Staff

June 10, 2010 --The ACLU of Southern California says that it dropped its lawsuit against the City because Santa Monica officials have stopped their supposed policy of homeless harassment. But the City says the lawsuit accomplished nothing and was a waste of time and money, and praised itself for its homeless programs.

The City and the ACLU each issued press releases on Tuesday that had very different descriptions of how the suit filed last year came to a close.

“As a result of Santa Monica’s de facto policy of criminalizing the mentally ill homeless, we filed suit … an attempt to get the City to direct its efforts to eliminate homelessness, not the homeless,” said Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel for the ACLU of Southern California in the organization’s release. “Almost immediately after our filing against Santa Monica, we documented that the practice of using the City’s vague anti-camping ordinance to harass the homeless had ceased, and that therefore the objective of the litigation had been met.

The City was careful to note in its press release that the ACLU’s decision to drop the suit required “no monetary payment of any kind, no change in any City law, policy or practice and no admission of any fault whatsoever.”

The release further stated, “Santa Monica is known nationwide for its long history of responding to homelessness with compassion, innovation and funding. For these reasons, the ACLU’s lawsuit was a waste of their resources and a failure to understand Santa Monica’s extensive work.”

The City noted that its homeless population went down 19 percent from 2009 to this year, according to a one-night count completed in January. City officials have attributed the reduction to the council’s 2008 Action Plan to Address Homelessness, which serves a smaller number of people more intensely, as well as its programs and better coordination with advocacy groups.

Council member Richard Bloom released a statement of his own separate from the City. He said that Santa Monica was vindicated with the conclusion of the suit and that the case should never been filed due to what he called its allegations without merit.

“Regrettably, no effort was made on the part of the plaintiffs' representatives to inquire of the City if the allegations in the Complaint were valid (in fact, they were not) and to clarify how the City pursues its policies as they apply to the homeless,” Bloom wrote. “This is most unfortunate. As a former litigator myself I strongly believe that litigation should be a last, not first resort. This litigation unnecessarily drained precious City resources and distracted us from our multiple city priorities, including our ongoing commitment to compassionate and effective means to end homelessness.

The ACLU and the City have agreed on a “Joint Statement of Mutual Principles,” which the City says it follows anyhow. They refer to what “communities” should do regarding the homeless, and do not specify Santa Monica by name. Among the principles are that “a reasonable amount of shelter beds and services” should be provided, no one should be forced out of a community for being homeless and the communities must engage in outreach to their most vulnerable.

The suit was filed on behalf of six homeless plaintiffs and alleged that the City uses its police force to “harass and intimidate” the disabled homeless residents. U.S. District Judge George H. Wu recently dismissed the suit because the two parties had reached an agreement. The suit was dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning the ACLU cannot bring it back to the court.