Prado v. City of Berkeley

In September 2023, DRA and East Bay Community Law Center filed a lawsuit challenging the City of Berkeley’s treatment of unhoused people with disabilities during encampment sweeps. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the City from evicting unhoused residents living near 8th and Harrison Streets until it provided adequate shelter, housing, or other alternative accommodations that account for their disability-related needs.

Filed on behalf of five individual plaintiffs and the unhoused advocacy organization Where Do We Go, the lawsuit alleges that the City discriminates against unhoused people with disabilities by failing to provide reasonable accommodations and subjecting them to disproportionate harm during encampment sweeps. The complaint also challenges the City’s repeated seizure and destruction of essential belongings, including tents, medical equipment, identification documents, and other items necessary for survival.

The plaintiffs allege that the City’s policies and practices fail to account for disability-related needs, creating barriers with devastating consequences for unhoused people with disabilities. Through this lawsuit, they seek systemic changes to Berkeley’s encampment sweep policies and practices to bring them into compliance with federal and state law and provide greater protections for unhoused people with disabilities.

In July 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. The certified class includes all unhoused people with disabilities who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing the City’s encampment sweep policies and practices. The Court also certified a subclass of unhoused people with disabilities who live in their vehicles and, because of their disabilities, are unable to comply with the City’s policy requiring vehicles to be moved every 72 hours.