A legal settlement restricting the city from clearing homeless encampments on skid row has survived a court challenge, but the judge said business owners could file a separate claim if they can show that the agreement has adversely affected their property.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles rejected a petition filed in July by downtown property owners and residents and the DTLA Alliance for Human Rights to block the settlement. Otero said the settlement, which the city reached in April, closed the case.
“The court concludes that it lacks jurisdiction over the litigation,” Otero wrote in the ruling Tuesday.
The decision stems from a lawsuit brought in 2016 by homeless individuals and advocates who accused the city of using camp cleanups to drive homeless people out of the squalid downtown district.
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