Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/federal-court/)
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, after years of rapid growth in Orange County homeless deaths, issued an emergency request this week describing a “public health crisis in the County leading to the deaths of hundreds of people experiencing homelessness.”
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter warned the County of Orange and its cities they will need to make significant progress on plans for new emergency shelter housing for the homeless, or face a possible court ruling or temporary injunction stopping the enforcement of anti-camping laws.
Unsatisfied with secondhand information about living conditions at the riverbed, 74-year-old Judge David O. Carter, dressed in jeans and a blue sweater bearing the federal court’s seal, went to see for himself, talking to dozens of homeless people, picking up trash and recruiting volunteers.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter will decide at 8 a.m. Tuesday whether the county can immediately begin evicting all homeless people from the Santa Ana riverbed or, as the county requested over the weekend, let the evictions go forward in stages to address a bottleneck in booking motel rooms for the homeless people.
County officials and lawyers for homeless people said they planned to work over the three-day holiday weekend to help ensure any homeless people who want motel rooms before the Tuesday deadline can quickly move into them.
The agreement, brokered by U.S. Dist. Judge David O. Carter, requires the county to provide motel rooms to those now living along the Santa Ana riverbed for at least 30 days. In return, officials can begin clearing the riverbed Tuesday morning.
Orange County officials have a federal judge’s green light to clear out the county’s largest homeless encampment starting next Tuesday, but only if they provide an alternative bed for each of the estimated 400-plus people at the Santa Ana River encampment.
Federal Judge David. O Carter halted the county’s Santa Ana riverbed homeless evictions late Tuesday night when he ordered the County of Orange and Anaheim, Orange and Costa Mesa to stop enforcing anti-camping and trespass laws along the riverbed.
U.S. District Judge David Carter ordered a federal court hearing Feb. 13 that could temporarily stop the county’s eviction of the homeless from the Santa Ana Riverbed after attorney Brooke Weitzman filed a lawsuit against the county and requested a temporary restraining order.
Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies, along with officers from the probation and parole departments, stepped up eviction efforts along the Santa Ana riverbed homeless encampment Thursday, checking for people with outstanding warrants.