At the tail end of the biennial Point-in-Time Count on Jan. 23, a homeless union served San Luis Obispo County a lawsuit.
Formed out of the troubled Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site, the union slapped a lengthy list of county officials and nonprofit leaders with a civil rights complaint. Over a dozen union members rallied in front of the Katcho Achadjian Government Center in SLO during the Board of Supervisors meeting so they could personally serve the lawsuit to county counsel.
“What we have noticed from the last couple of years is a lot of promises were not fulfilled nor were they kept,” former safe parking site resident Mallory Mejia announced at the rally. “A lot of threats were made by CAPSLO [Community Action Partnership of SLO County], and a lot of people’s personal things were taken out there. … They have made people feel very low and as if they don’t matter.”
The Oklahoma Avenue safe parking site’s success was hampered by difficulties like overcrowding, lacking resources and care, and relative isolation since its inception in 2021. Disagreements between its residents and the county and CAPSLO—which alleged that program participants overstayed their 90-day welcome—came to a boiling point when officials admitted last February that the program failed to meet its goal of being a temporary solution for the homeless. The county decided to stop allowing new participants into the program altogether.
“Rather than intensify efforts to find housing for those to whom it was promised, now faced with the imminent closure of the safe parking site, the county has instead decided to close the site, eject some two dozen mostly elderly persons with disabilities, and confiscate their mostly nonworking vehicles,” the lawsuit reads.
The union along with individual members who currently and once lived in their vehicles at the safe parking site—David Richford, Dan Richford, Tim McElroy, Leon Shahoian, De Durlesser, Naomi De Leon, Michael Maez, Naomie DeGraw, and Treva Kathaway—included CAPSLO, its CEO Elizabeth Steinberg, and Director of Homeless Services Jack Lahey in the suit. SLO County, its Department of Social Services, the Homeless Services Division, Director of Social Services Devin Drake, Director of Homeless Services Morgan Terrell, and the county’s program manager Jeff Al-Mashat are also listed as defendants.
Homeless union attorney Anthony Prince told New Times at the rally that while discontent has been building over the years, a Dec. 7 letter from Director of Social Services Drake triggered the lawsuit. He served that letter to eight homeless participants, Prince said, most of whom are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“That letter falsely accused eight people here of not cooperating and not being diligent in pursuing the so-called pathways to housing,” Prince said. “For example, one person was ordered to leave. They were told they had to leave by Dec. 15.”
The lawsuit detailed that since the union’s attorney intervened, the county extended that deadline to Feb. 2. It alleged that none of them have working vehicles and officials haven’t provided them with a secondary safe place to go to.
“[One] of the allegations was that they were telling people to get housing from Hope’s Village,” Prince said. “Hope’s Village doesn’t exist. It’s nothing but a fundraising effort to get some homes built. … They were also trying to shove people into 40 Prado. That’s not a safe place to go.”
The lawsuit underscored negligence claims by highlighting last summer’s SLO County civil grand jury investigation into the safe parking site. According to the complaint, the grand jury said it requested copies of quarterly data provided by CAPSLO to the Department of Social Services. But reportedly, neither the county nor CAPSLO gave the jury those reports.
“We have no record of any mailed or emailed requests to our homeless director, CEO (signer of contract), process server, or on our CAPSLO hotline by the grand jury or any other entity or individual,” CAPSLO spokesperson Loren Leidinger told New Times via email.
Leidinger added that CAPSLO’s privacy policies only allow it to disclose specific details about individual clients in response to court orders or in cooperation with law enforcement and government agencies. In a public statement, CAPSLO said that it continues to provide outreach and housing navigation services to the region, including the safe parking site.
Officials have 30 days to respond to the homeless union’s lawsuit. Homeless Services Division spokesperson Suzie Freeman told New Times that the parking site will be permanently closed but didn’t specify a date. She said that existing residents have had more than a year to find alternative housing opportunities through case management.
“To assist these efforts, in October 2023, the county established a Relocation Assistance Program, which focused staff time and financial resources to identify additional opportunities that met the unique needs of those currently at the site,” she said. “Trained case managers and street outreach staff have also been continuously working with Oklahoma parking site participants to guide them on a pathway to permanent housing.”
Freeman added that the county responded to the grand jury’s questions and report as requested.
“Acknowledging that the site was not appropriate for long-term operation, the county decided close down the program, as is consistent with the grand jury recommendations,” she said.
In a Jan. 23 statement, the county said that the homeless union attorney created a “false narrative.”
“The attorney has instructed his clients to stop communicating with county and CAPSLO staff and has refused to allow his clients to apply for basic programs, which could help get them out of homelessness,” the release said. “Despite this, the county will continue to be compassionate with the planned closure of the Oklahoma parking site.”
Update: On Jan. 24, SLO County issued a press release retracting the statements it made about homeless union attorney Anthony Prince, which were originally mentioned in the Jan. 23 release. Δ
Correction: This story was updated to reflect the correct spelling of homeless union attorney Anthony Prince’s name. An earlier version of this story misspelled it. New Times regrets the error.
This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 4, 2024.
Price got it right about Hope’s Village. What a grift operation. Becky Jorgensen has been collecting donations for years but all she’s ever produced are promises, crummy Big 5 sleeping bags, and a failure of a lawsuit that further exploited local homeless people. According to their website they have over $100k in community donations, but STILL no plans for a “village” and I predict they will quietly fade away along with that $100k you sll gave them because you trusted Becky Jorgensen.
When you see this it just makes people not want to have their cities help the homeless. It just opens you up to liabilities, lawsuits and being vulnerable to lawyers who are looking for an easy way to make a buck. People in government seem to not understand the optics of what they do. Newsom had one set of quarantine rules for him, one for us. Taxpayers foot the bill for homeless programx and then end up getting sued. If they truly wanted to help the homeless they would nit do it in a way that discourages it.
Good. They need to be sued for negligence and malfeasance. Its longn overdue. They have neglected and frustrated their homeless citizens. It would be fair if a settlement awarded the homeless with enough to buy a house.
As someone who lived here with my mother when i was 17 years old, there was a lot promised and zero effort made and knowing that my tax paying dollars are going out to a place that not only exploits and takes advantage or homeless people, but hires people who take advantage of them as well. Their security they hired on their free time would have sex with the other residents and sell them drugs as well, they set us up for failure and thats just the tip of the iceberg.