Cleveland's Mayor Settles Dumping Case with Homeless (3-97) FWD
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Sun, 4 Jan 1998 22:30:17 -0800 (PST)
FWD from the "Homeless Grapevine" newspaper (3-1-97)
Greater Cincinatti Coalition for the Homeless (513) 421-7803
http://www.cincy.com/gcch/
CLEVELAND'S MAYOR SETTLES DUMPING CASE WITH HOMELESS
Clevelands Mayor Settles Dumping Case with Homeless by Max Johnson
A settlement in the lawsuit Clements vs. City of Cleveland, which was
scheduled to go to trial on February 18 in United States District Court is
complete. In the growing criminilization of poverty, this is a rare
victory.
Brian Davis, Director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless,
hailed this settlement as permanently stopping a policy of forcibly picking
up homeless people against their will. He said, "I think this lawsuit and
the settlement will force police and city officials from examining their
interaction with the homeless of Cleveland".
Participants in the so-called dumping or kidnapping case alleged that the
City of Cleveland police department officers were ordered to pick-up and
deliver them to remote locations. Plaintiffs filed the lawsuit because
they were being picked up against their will by the police and dumped.
It was the contention of the plaintiffs that this was an attempt to clean
up certain high traffic areas, and to sweep poverty out of the sight of
visitors to the Downtown business district. With the prospect of the Mayor
of Cleveland having to testify about his involvement in creating the
policy, and a credible law student who was going to testify that she
witnessed the dumping, the City's attorneys decided to settle the lawsuit.
The City of Cleveland originally demanded that the specifics of the
settlement be kept confidential, but because of pressure from the media the
specifics were released. The settlement does not punish the city for
engaging in such an assault on the rights of the homeless of Cleveland, but
it does prevent such a policy from ever being implemented again. The
settlement includes:
*$9,000 for the Coalition to pass completely on to the three plaintiffs for
education, job training or housing.
*A public statement from the city stating that activity involving violating
homeless peoples right to move around downtown will never be policy in
Cleveland.
*A directive to the police stating that they cannot pick up homeless people
against their will and deliver them to services.
*The City will pay the costs associated with this lawsuit that the ACLU has
incurred.
The Coalition had asked as part of the settlement that the City make some
act of contrition to all those homeless people that were dumped, but who
were not named in the suit. This was rejected by the City The Coalition for
the Homeless will remain vigilant in the monitoring of the civil rights of
the homeless members of our city.
END FORWARD