Fresno violated the constitutional rights of homeless residents by enforcing a public camping ban, a new lawsuit alleges.

Civil rights attorney Kevin Little filed the class-action suit Wednesday in federal court on behalf of Wickey TwoHands, Joseph Quinney, and potentially several others.

The lawsuit lists 26 claims, including false arrest, malicious prosecution, and violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments regarding search and seizure of property.

“Rather than address the homelessness crisis through pro-housing and other humanitarian solutions, the city has doubled down on criminalization. The challenged ordinances are enforced selectively and discriminatorily against unhoused persons while housed individuals engaging in identical conduct face no consequences,” Little said in a news release.

The city says it is prepared to defend the ordinances.

City Attorney Andrew Janz told GV Wire, “Kevin is a friend and I look forward to taking this case to the Supreme Court — the same Supreme Court that upheld this sort of ordinance. Again, the municipal law passed by the city council does not punish housing status, just behavior. To that point, one of the named plaintiffs, Joseph Quinney, told officers he was housed.”

Magistrate Judge Sheila K. Oberto is scheduled to hold a preliminary hearing March 24, 2026.

Lawsuit Stems From 2024 Resolution

Fresno’s homeless population increased 13.9% in 2025 to nearly 5,000. The lawsuit says there are not enough shelter beds.

“There is simply nowhere for the vast majority of Fresno’s unhoused population to go, especially with increasing rents and decreasing availability of shelters and resources,” the lawsuit said.

The Fresno City Council passed a resolution in 2024 making it a crime to camp in public. The law took effect after the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision, which allowed jurisdictions to pass and enforce such laws. The city council strengthened the language earlier this month.

Little, in the lawsuit, described the amendments, which allow the city to seek injunctions and define certain terms, as vague and illegally targeting the unhoused.

TwoHands was the first test of the law this past April. The case was dismissed on a technicality after the city waited too long to bring it to trial, violating TwoHands’ right to a speedy trial, Judge Brian Alvarez ruled.

The lawsuit alleges the city discriminated against TwoHands, 78, and Quinney, 52, because of disability — and additionally against TwoHands because of his age.

Quinney’s case was dismissed in August, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also accuses the city of failing to preserve seized property, violating residents’ property rights.