ACLU alleges unfair treatment of homeless in Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach resident Jim Keegan (center, with back to camera) serves coffee in the mornings to the homeless at Heisler Park. The ACLU filed a suit March 19 alleging that the city of Laguna Beach harasses the chronically homeless who camp out in the beach-side community. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Dino Lauretti, who has been homeless for the last four moths, smokes a cigarette in Heisler Park in Laguna Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
David Edward Jones joins other homeless residents for coffee at Heisler Park. Laguna Beach residents pride themselves on being tolerant and helpful to the homeless population, but the ACLU’s lawsuit alleges that the city doesn’t do enough to provide shelter for them and that police sometimes rouse them from sleep to interrogate, search and cite them. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Mark Lane, 51, has been homeless since 1993. They are pretty friendly to the homeless. They feed us and all. All the cops know me after all these years,” he said of Laguna Beach. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Bryan Stillwell, who is homeless but employed, sleeps next to the boardwalk on Laguna’s Main Beach. In response to the ACLU’s lawsuit, city officials voted last month to repeal the 80-year-old anticamping ordinance that had made it illegal for people to sleep on the beach overnight. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Laguna Beach resident and homeless advocate Jim Keegan, second from left, helped initiate the ACLU lawsuit. He said the suit was needed to prod the city to provide beds for the homeless. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
