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Judge Allows Case Against San Francisco Over Drug Use And Crime To Move Forward

On Tuesday, a federal judge declined to dismiss a lawsuit over drug use and crime in San Francisco's Tenderloin brought by unnamed residents of the neighborhood and the local Phoenix and Best Western Hotels, Courthouse News reports. The residents first sued the city earlier in 2024, claiming the city treats the Tenderloin as a containment zone where it ignores drug use, and claim the city is violating residents’ rights to equal protection and disability laws by allowing tents and people to crowd the sidewalks, creating a public nuisance. In his order Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar found that the city isn't immune under state law to claims it fostered a nuisance in the notorious neighborhood. He allowed claims of public and private nuisance, along with those brought under the California Disabled Persons Act, to proceed, but dismissed their due process claims that the state created the drug and crowding issues plaguing the neighborhood.


Tigar, a Barack Obama appointee, said the plaintiff now properly claims city took affirmative action that created a danger for them, noting that this resolved the issues that prompted him to initially dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims in July when the residents merely claimed the city's inaction led to the Tenderloin's current condition. Following the judge's suggestions, the plaintiffs' amended claims accuse the city of actively contributing to the Tenderloin's drug problem, including distributing drug paraphernalia and fentanyl smoking kits to addicts living on the sidewalk. Additionally, the plaintiffs say that the city encouraged addicts to consume fentanyl at the Tenderloin Center, a temporary site in the neighborhood used to reduce overdose deaths, which led to increased narcotic use and sales in their neighborhood. "Plaintiffs’ amended complaint….now alleges affirmative conduct on the part of the city," Tigar wrote. "Thus, 'if and when the court considers remedies, the appropriate relief may be as simple as ordering the city to cease engaging in certain activities.'" The city had also argued in court on Thursday that providing housing, the drug paraphernalia and the street-based support in the Tenderloin could not be linked to the conditions in the neighborhood, but the judge disagreed.

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