UC Law SF Takes San Francisco Back To Court Over Squalor Surrounding Its Tenderloin Campus

Following up on my previous post, UC-Hastings Sues San Francisco Over ‘Insufferable’ Sidewalk Conditions:  San Jose Mercury News, UCSF Law School Takes San Francisco Back to Court Over Tents, Drugs:

Dean of University of California campus complains of squalor.

The University of California Law School in San Francisco asked a federal judge to order its home city to do more to end illegal drug use and reduce tent encampments around its downtown campus in the Tenderloin district.

The university first sued San Francisco in 2020 and reached a settlement requiring the city to address squalid conditions and illegal activity around its campus. The school now says the city isn’t fulfilling its promises.

“The city has known that drug dealers brazenly sell narcotics on the streets and sidewalks in the Tenderloin,” the university said in a court filing Thursday. “Similarly, for years the city has allowed individuals to openly buy and use narcotics in the Tenderloin, and to remain, under the obvious influence of drugs, on the sidewalks and public spaces of the neighborhood.” ...

“Unfortunately, despite promises of progress and reform, the conditions in our neighborhood, particularly with open air drug markets and tent encampments, persist. What happens daily in the Tenderloin wouldn’t be tolerated in any other neighborhood in San Francisco,” David Faigman, UC Law SF chancellor and dean, said in a statement.

Law360, Law School Says SF Ignoring Deal On 'Deplorable' Downtown:

The dispute dates back to May 2020 when the law school — then known as The University of California, Hastings College of the Law — joined with business owners and a merchants' association to sue the city. Their complaint claims unsanitary and unsafe conditions violate the civil rights of those who live in, work near and visit the area since they are "deprived of the safe use and enjoyment of its sidewalks and streets."

The parties reached a settlement a month later that included a stipulated injunction that, among other conditions, required San Francisco to make "all reasonable efforts to achieve the shared goal of permanently reducing the number of tents, along with all other encamping materials and related personal property, [in the Tenderloin] to zero" and also take action to prevent "re-encampment" or new people erecting tents in the neighborhood.

The injunction also required San Francisco to use law enforcement measures for those living on the streets who refuse an offer of shelter or other safe sleeping sites. There was initial improvement, according to the motion for enforcement of the injunction, which says the city reduced the number of tents in the Tenderloin from 448 in May 2020 to just 22 by October 2020.

"But the number of tents now sits at more than triple that figure," the motion states, adding a count conducted in February found 71 tents in the neighborhood. ...

The law school says it has been in talks with San Francisco representatives since last year over the "backsliding," including mediation with a federal magistrate judge, but no resolution was reached, which is why it filed its Thursday motion.