Editor’s Note: The CCH Law Project is co-counseling this case with the law firm of Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd.
A homeless couple is suing the city of Chicago and some of its employees over what they claim is repeated harassment over the last three years.
WBEZ’s Odette Yousef reports.
Amie Smith and Shawn Moore claim that city workers threw away at least eight tents they’ve lived in. WBEZ reported on one of those incidents late last year.
Diane O’Connell, their attorney from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, says that’s not even the half of it.
“By destroying their property, forcing them to move repeated times, and by other conduct, the city of Chicago has violated their right to equal treatment, their right to privacy in their possessions, and their right to use public space.”
O’Connell says they have those rights under the Illinois Bill of Rights for the Homeless Act. The city’s law department did not immediately respond.
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is now Chicago Coalition to end Homelessness (CCH).