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Advocate warns Parlier of legal action over treatment of unhoused residents
Summary
Ben Thomas, representing a local homeless advocacy group, told the Parlier City Council the city’s handling of unhoused people risks violating recent federal and state court rulings and warned the group has plaintiffs and ACLU contacts ready to sue if the city doesn’t change course.
Ben Thomas, who identified himself as president of the Homeless and Parlier Advocacy Group, told the Parlier City Council on Dec. 7 that the city’s treatment of people experiencing homelessness could violate constitutional protections and cited federal and local court rulings as precedent.
Thomas said the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Martin v. Boise (2018) and the Kinkade v. City of Fresno settlement show courts are scrutinizing cities that enforce anti-camping rules against people who lack shelter. “The way homeless people have been treated here in Parlier falls under the cruel and unusual punishment of the Constitution,” he said, and…
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