The class-action suit also suggested some property may have been stolen by clean-up crews.
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.