A lawsuit filed in Superior Court alleges San Diego city and county officials have not adequately protected people with disabilities and homeless people during the coronavirus pandemic, leaving vulnerable residents living on the street.
“The first thing we’re asking for is for the court to compel the city to follow its own policies,” said attorney Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi, arguing that the city and county have programs to safely shelter people like her clients.
The city and county have millions of dollars in state and federal funding for COVID-19 relief and have stated policies to protect the area’s most vulnerable residents during the pandemic, yet many people are being left behind, Ijadi-Maghsoodi said.
The complaint was filed June 8 by Disability Rights California on behalf of five homeless people and the San Diego chapter of Food Not Bombs, a global volunteer group that shares free vegan meals as a protest to war and poverty, San Diego Union Tribune reported.
Because infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are higher among Black and Latino people, the suit also argues the city and county’s actions have been harmful to communities of color.
The county is providing about 2,000 hotel rooms, which mostly have gone unused, for people who are symptomatic or have tested positive for COVID-19 and have no other place to isolate. The Regional Task Force on the Homeless oversees about 200 rooms for homeless people.
Plaintiffs include Arthur Price, a Black, 31-year-old disabled man at a high risk of infection who has been living on the streets for about three years, according to the complaint. His only income is from Supplemental Security Income, and he has been living in a motel but cannot afford to stay there.
