By Blake Nelson / San Diego Union-Tribune / June 16, 2024
Early one morning in 2022, Christy Gillette was woken by sheriff’s deputies.
The officers told her to move or face arrest. Gillette, who’s now 51, had been sleeping outside near the Santee Drive-In and responded that she couldn’t leave without her walker. The deputies instead threw the walker away, along with the cremated ashes of her husband and son.
That story is part of a new class-action lawsuit alleging that officers and government workers from around the region are repeatedly, and illegally, throwing out homeless residents’ personal property in East County.
More than a dozen people joined the suit to say they’ve lost items that were sentimental (like a great-grandfather’s pocket knife or a daughter’s first tooth), potentially valuable (a horoscope book from 1888) and life-saving (insulin), as well as hard-to-replace government documents like birth certificates. But their attorneys also argue that a lack of shelter beds countywide combined with new ordinances boosting penalties for sleeping outside are effectively criminalizing poverty.
“Defendants’ actions are making the homelessness crisis worse,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in San Diego federal court. Their “constant and relentless threats of criminal punishment upon Citizens for being poor and unhoused are a cruel and ineffective approach that betrays a deep, willful misunderstanding of the problem.”
Representatives for many agencies accused of mistreatment did not want to speak on the matter.
Santee Mayor John Minto said he wasn’t yet familiar enough with the accusations to weigh in while spokespeople for the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Transportation, the County of San Diego and San Diego’s City Attorney declined comment. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a question about the suit.
Homeless residents have long objected to losing the few things they own to clean-up crews, and one attorney on the case, Scott Dreher, has previously fought and won similar battles in other parts of the region.
But East County has generally received less attention and Hope for the Homeless, a Lakeside-based nonprofit that’s part of the lawsuit, is one of just a few groups advocating specifically for people in that area.
Shelter is also scarce. El Cajon’s East County Transitional Living Center is essentially the only all-purpose facility for multiple cities and efforts to create more beds in Lakeside, Santee and Spring Valley failed after neighbors complained.
Monday’s filing blasted the status quo.
Caltrans staffers once allegedly arrived for an encampment sweep several days earlier than announced, the lawsuit said. Officials justified the rush by citing the threat of wildfires, but the crew appeared to only get rid of personal property while leaving piles of freshly cut shrubbery in the sun.
Residents of encampments often get paper notices ahead of a sweep, and those signs sometimes include a line where a number can be written for people to call in order to claim their property. Yet that line is often left blank, according to the suit.
Having a number to call may not improve much. Last year, a lawyer dialed a number written on a cleanup notice only to be directed to a different office. The attorney left a voicemail at the new number. Nobody called back. They reached out again. Still nothing.
The suit also suggested some items may have been stolen by those doing the sweeps.
One man said he watched “Caltrans, SDPD officers, and Sheriff’s deputies sort through and place … valuable items from the site into their vehicles,” the lawsuit said. “When he went to reclaim his belongings pursuant to the posted ‘Notice,’ nothing was provided.”
All of this is illegal under the U.S. and California constitutions, the group said. The suit asked for a jury trial, the return of people’s property and an unspecified amount of compensation, among other demands.
The case’s fate could be affected by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to decide later this year how much leeway cities should have when clearing encampments.
Hello it’s not only east county this is happening it’s also happening in Chula Vista I not to lo.g ago live on Industrial Blvd in my Tent in Chula Vista now they have cleaned it up put a fence up but before that I lived there almost a year every week they would come out and we would have to have are personal belongs packed up so they could come through and clean up trash which was great cool but if u weren’t gone or where walking on the sidewalk trying to get your stuff out of sight they would stop u anything u had pushing whatever it was they didn’t care they stop u and there gos your stuff in the trash and yes they through my id away birth certificate things that I did pay for myself when I did have a income like my 500 Dollar mattress that i would Everytime walk down to my storage the day before i done it at least 100 times prior to that but that morning my dad who lived in the trailer park who needed my help cause hes chair bond i was running late i was literally pushing away on the other side of street and nope i was told stop and first i was told what u have ac mattress for u live in tent like I was not aloud to have that and u know what miss oconnor we are throwing it away i asked or said on the notice it says u storage property nope bullshit and this is just one of the many times they did this they also impounded my motor home cause they give me these ridiculous tickets like no oversized vehicle park on street there where so many of them no wonder i couldn’t pay the registration cause i couldn’t even try to catch up i had a thousand dollars in tickets and the b**** cop sorry for saying that she didn’t want to listen to anything i had to say besides nope were impounding it three days after impounded my motorhome my senior dog couldn’t live on the street in a tent went for the worst and we had to put her down and she probably would have been with us a little longer. They would say o we are compassionate we care only around who it matter cause when no important was around they where mean and very not caring. I would go to the city meetings and watch them straight lie but to afraid to say anything why cause I had to still live in there city they would make my life hell . I also at one point had asked what’s the process of getting my property where is it stored I called the number to never get a response. Also when cleaning up camps they have people in recovery McAllister come and help clean camps I seen one of my good street friends he was clean and doing good well eventually I seen him a again and he had left the program and he had answered what I knew was happening that police and clean crew would help themselves to what they wanted to our personally belongs and nothing was ever stored there was no where they store it. It went straight to trash. I went as far as as putting my names on all my belongings because I went in bed the California code for cleaning up homeless encampments and everything is pretty much trash unless it has your name on it I did that plan as day huge lettering in the trash it went again I asked about my stuff being stored got told call the number on notice I did left several messages nothing. I have a whole list of people who’s stuff they just throw away. They look at as as scum not that we don’t already fell that way but they really make it worse. My boyfriend who living on the street in a tent had a job and kept it and u k iw what they said when they tried to invite us to go do tiny homes was not hey good job but nope u don’t make enough so u should just quit your job come do our program and hopefully we can help u get a job making more he was making 21 a hour they lie when they say the care anyway i think a class action lawsuit needs to be bigger not just east county all cities in san Diego south bay because they dont do as thry say