Homeless shelter opponents are using California environmental law in bid to block new housing
SAN FRANCISCO - Earlier this spring, residents of a San Francisco waterfront neighborhood put up a plea on GoFundMe, seeking to raise $100,000 to file a lawsuit under one of California's landmark environmental laws.
The fundraiser, which surpassed its goal, wasn't intended to fight a toxic waste facility or industrial warehouse. Instead, residents plan to sue to stop a temporary homeless shelter proposed on a parking lot in their community.
State and local governments have dedicated billions of dollars in recent years toward homeless housing and services, even as the state's unhoused population has increased to nearly 130,000. But some efforts to build temporary and permanent housing have run into a form of opposition that could only happen in California.
Two months before the activists in San Francisco started their GoFundMe campaign, residents near a proposed shelter in Los Angeles' Venice neighborhood filed suit under the California Environmental Quality Act - a
