Lenka John was sleeping in her home (a tent in a public park) last May when she was rudely woken by sanitation workers who told her to leave the park early that morning. The workers ordered her to leave Meadowbrook Park and told her that if she did not remove her belongings immediately, they would be thrown into the back of a garbage truck.
Lenka could not throw away everything in her life in a garbage truck, so she started packing. This proved difficult because she uses a wheelchair and has mobility issues. She asked the staff for help and explained her disability, but they ignored her. After packing as much as she could, she started to leave the park with her service dog and some bags. Due to her mobility issues, she was unable to take all her possessions and had to leave a lot behind. As she was leaving the park, she saw the staff dumping the possessions that she had to leave behind in the dumpster. These included her walker, blood pressure monitor, and a folder full of medical records that she needed to apply for disability benefits. She desperately begged the staff to let her return to retrieve at least her documents, but they told her it was too late, as they were already in the dumpster.
“Because I didn’t have my medical records, I had to go through the lengthy application process for disability benefits all over again,” Lenka said.
This is not the first time the city of San Bernardino has attacked its homeless residents. A months-long investigation by the ACLU SoCal found that the city seizes and destroys homeless people’s property with little to no warning or compensation, and regularly violates their rights. The situation is even worse for people with disabilities, whose requests for assistance and accommodations are ignored.
Instead of providing safe, affordable housing for homeless people, the city has embarked on a plan to make them invisible.
As the mayor said at a May 3 City Council meeting, “Our goal is to present you with a proposed plan that will allow us to go after the encampments that people are complaining about.” Since then, the city has evicted homeless people from at least four parks. In each of these removals, the city destroyed people’s property and forced them to leave. Crews ignored the needs of people with disabilities, who make up about 20 percent of San Bernardino’s homeless population. These efforts are expected to expand as the city seeks to double the number of personnel who seize and destroy homeless people’s property.
For San Bernardino residents with no access to housing and few possessions, losing property during the eviction order has been devastating. Despite temperatures regularly topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the city has destroyed tents, tarps and other protection from the elements, which are often the only shade available to unhoused people.
The consequences can be especially brutal for people with disabilities, most of whom cannot safely comply with travel orders. Forced relocations push wheelchair-dependent people into dangerous ravines or roadside encampments, further restricting their mobility. Forced relocations scatter people, making it difficult for case managers to locate their clients and hindering the mobilization of communities like Lenca.
San Bernardino’s authorization is not only breathtakingly cruel, it is also illegal. It is a well-known fact that seizing and summarily destroying property violates the Fourth Amendment right against unjust seizures.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) clearly states that government agencies, like city crews evicting unhoused residents in San Bernardino, are required to provide reasonable accommodations when requested by people with disabilities. By refusing to engage in the accommodation process, the city is discriminating against people with disabilities. The ACLU SoCal is challenging these unlawful practices to ensure that people’s rights are respected regardless of disability or housing situation.
Thanks to the support of unhoused people and ACLU SoCal, in January 2024, the U.S. District Court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction. The court’s order will prohibit all removal/relocation of unhoused encampments throughout the City of San Bernardino. The court found that the city’s destruction of people’s private property violates the Fourth Amendment and due process. Importantly, the court found that the city’s removal of the encampment and failure to accommodate people’s disabilities violates the ADA.
Lenka hopes her lawsuit will stop others from having to go through what she has had to go through at the hands of the city. “It’s wrong for the city of San Bernardino to violate our rights like this,” Lenka said. “Living outside is hard, and it’s even harder when you have a disability. The city should be helping us, not hurting us.”
Learn more about Tyson v. City of San Bernardino.