More ADA Blackmail

[conarb]

The city of Albany had an old garbage dump, eventually it became part of the park district but the district won't take title until the city clears the homeless camped there. Finally ADA activist groups filed suit against the city for violating the rights of the mentally ill camped out and the city has agreed to pay each of them $3,000 to clear out.

ALBANY -- The city has settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of Albany Housing Advocates and 28 people who have been living on the Albany Bulb over the city's enforcement of its anti-camping ordinance.Under the agreement, the city has agreed to pay each person named in the lawsuit a $3,000 "relocation payment" in return for the promise by each camper to not return to the Bulb, the area known as the Albany Neck, city-owned property on Pierce Street or the Albany Hill area for 12 months, even during daytime hours. Those who accepted the payment must vacate the Bulb by Friday¿.

Albany Bulb resident Amber Whitson looks through some of the found items she has collected as she talks about the situation with the city on Sept. 3, 2013. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)

In the suit filed in November by law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton along with the East Bay Community Law Center and the Homeless Action Center, the plaintiffs accused Albany of "violation of federal and state disability laws and homeless Bulb residents' constitutional rights, including Fourth Amendment property protections."

The 28 people covered by the settlement include both those who were named in the lawsuit and others who requested accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city will work with Superior Court to dismiss any pending curfew or camping citations filed against those who agree to the settlement.¹

This is the same tactic the Sierra Club uses, every development proposed is sued, they settle for a few concessions and a large sum of money and move on to the next development, maybe they ought to start suing building departments for discrimination by failure to accommodate the mentally ill by employing them?

¹ http://www.contracostatimes.com/News/ci_25621909/Albany-reaches-settlement-in-suit-filed

 

[mark handler]

Old News... I think you posted this last year

 

[conarb]

Old News... I think you posted this last year

Can't be, the $3,000 blackmail settlement just occurred.

 

[mark handler]

Can't be, the $3,000 blackmail settlement just occurred.

Must have heard it from another source

The evictions were in november '13

And the payouts were not based in ADA. Disabled and nondisabled recieved money

NOT More ADA Blackmail

 

[conarb]

Must have heard it from another sourceThe evictions were in november '13

And the payouts were not based in ADA. Disabled and nondisabled recieved money

NOT More ADA Blackmail

They kept evicting them and they kept coming back.

Advocates and 28 homeless Albany residents who currently live on a closed landfill known as the Albany Bulb. Plaintiffs sued Albany for of violation federal and state disability laws and

homeless Bulb residents’ constitutional rights, including 4th Amendment property protections. ¹

I can't find the lawsuit but my understanding is that they were all claiming some kind of mental disability, not hard to prove with people living out in the cold and rain by choice. The 4th Amendment allegations have to do with their belongings confiscated by the city, the pleadings may have included other constitutional violations but most would not stand up in court, the ADA violations are almost impossible for the city to defend against. BTW, the EBCLC is staffed by Boalt Hall law students, they work for free.

¹ http://www.ebclc.org/documents/Albany_Settlement_Press_Release.4.23.14.pdf

 

[mark handler]

"The 28 people covered by the settlement include both those who were named in the lawsuit and others who requested accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city will work with Superior Court to dismiss any pending curfew or camping citations filed against those who agree to the settlement.¹"

Even what you posted indicates "some" not all were disabled.

 

[conarb]

City of Albany

When attorneys draft a lawsuit they "shotgun" and include multiple causes of action, during law and motion many of those causes of action are demurred out, some would survive. In this case the ADA cause (or causes) were the 1,000 pound gorilla in the room that forced the settlement. I think Albany only has one inspector and he posts here, his name is Dave Henderson, maybe he'll see this and comment. The fact is nobody wants to try a case against a disabled person, in fact I'd bet at the depositions many of those mentally ill people would have shown up in wheelchairs.