Plaintiff:
Stephen Bryant
Incident date:
07/10/2013
Location:
120 Lower Wacker Dr.
Allegations:
The plaintiffs are homeless individuals who stay temporarily or for longer periods on Lower Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. On many occasions, without warning or notice, unknown Chicago Police officers and Streets and Sanitation workers ordered residents to move and forbade them from taking all of their personal property with them, which was then thrown away. They used arrest or the threat of arrest to deprive homeless people of their property. This practice violates a settlement in a 1999 lawsuit, in which the city agreed that it would not remove the property of homeless people from Lower Wacker Drive without posting notices 24 hours in advance and providing temporary locations where the individuals could leave their possessions during a cleaning. The sweeps often result in the loss of important personal items and documents, medication, toiletries, clothes, and blankets, requiring the homeless individuals to face nights without protection from the cold, or to skip meals or undergo extreme hardship. (Editor's note: This lawsuit resulted in an agreement by the city to change its policy regarding cleanings of Lower Wacker Drive. The new policy requires regular weekly off-street cleanings of Lower Wacker Drive to be conducted with personnel from the Department of Family and Support Services, provided for 24 hour notice before these cleanings, and prevented police from discarding certain personal items, such as documents, photographs, and medication, during cleanings, except in emergency situations. However, the policy also placed restrictions on the types and amount of personal property that homeless people in that area can have.)