Coalition on Homelessness v. City and County of San Francisco

The Coalition on Homelessness and several individual plaintiffs sued San Francisco over its punitive practice of seizing and destroying unhoused residents’ belongings during encampment sweeps in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the city’s own policies.

In September 2022, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed suit on behalf of the Coalition on Homelessness and several unhoused individuals against the City and County of San Francisco and Mayor London Breed for their efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of practices that violated the constitutional rights of unhoused San Franciscans. The plaintiffs also sought a preliminary injunction to stop these practices on an emergency basis.

In December 2022, the Northern District Court of California granted an emergency order in the lawsuit. The order prohibited the city from enforcing practices that violated the civil rights of unhoused San Franciscans. Additionally, the order stopped the city from seizing and destroying unhoused people’s survival gear and personal property. In granting the order, the court also acknowledged that the city’s cruel policies have made it harder for people to exit homelessness. The order was upheld by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that criminalizing homelessness without offering shelter was not "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the U.S. Constitution. That ruling prevented the plaintiffs from pursuing similar claims in this case. But it did not affect the plaintiffs' remaining claims, which focused on the city's unlawful destruction of unhoused individual's personal property during homeless encampment sweeps.

In September 2025, after the city's repeated attempts to dismiss case were rejected, the city approved a settlement with the Coalition on Homelessness. Under the terms of the five-year settlement, San Francisco must give unhoused people an opportunity to reclaim their belongings before the city can destroy them. The agreement also establishes rigorous oversight and accountability measures.