San Francisco, CA – On September 22, 2025, Judge Donna M. Ryu entered a landmark consent judgment that creates new mechanisms for transparency and accountability for the way San Francisco treats its unhoused residents and their personal belongings.  The consent judgment reflects the settlement  between San Francisco and the Coalition on Homelessness, which is represented by ECBAWM, the ACLU of Northern California, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. The settlement requires the city to follow its bag-and-tag policy, establishes strong accountability and oversight procedures, and will transform how the city handles unhoused people’s property.

In 2022, the Coalition on Homelessness sued the City and County of San Francisco, challenging its practice of discarding the personal belongings of unhoused individuals during encampment removals. The Coalition secured a preliminary injunction requiring San Francisco to follow its bag-and-tag policy that governs how it must handle personal property. That preliminary injunction was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit on appeal. In June 2025, after months of extensive discovery into San Francisco’s conduct, the Coalition defeated San Francisco’s motion for summary judgment, paving the way for trial. In a significant opinion, Judge Ryu ruled that the Coalition, Apple Cronk and Joshua Donohoe—formerly unhoused individuals whose identity documents, clothes, food, and other survival items had been repeatedly destroyed by San Francisco—had standing to enjoin San Francisco’s property destruction practices and their claims were not moot. Judge Ryu found that the Coalition had sufficient evidence to advance to trial on its Section 1983 claims that San Franscisco violated Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations by failing to provide notice in advance of sweeps and destroying personal property without justification. In a final effort to avoid trial, San Francico filed a motion with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the trial. That was denied.San Francisco thereafter agreed to settle the lawsuit, agreeing to remain under court jurisdiction and to robust enforcement mechanisms. The consent judgment requires San Francisco to provide unhoused people with an opportunity to reclaim their belongings before it discards them. Additionally, San Francisco is required to notify both affected individuals and the Coalition ahead of any planned encampment removals and provide the Coalition with quarterly updates on property confiscations and access to the city’s storage yard.

“This settlement is a powerful step forward in holding the city accountable for its treatment of unhoused residents,” said Vasudha Talla, of counsel at Emery Celli and lead trial counsel on the case. “We are pleased that San Francisco has recognized the constitutional rights of its most vulnerable citizens and committed to meaningful reform.”

ECBAWM attorneys, Vasudha Talla, Zoe Salzman, Vivake Prasad,  and Bianca Herlitz Ferguson, along with attorneys from the ACLU of Northern California, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, represent the Coalition and the individual unhoused plaintiffs.

To read a powerful op-ed published by plaintiff and client, Sarah “Apple” Cronk, please click here.