A Woodland Hills man who lives in a recreational vehicle challenged the city of Los Angeles’s car towing practices in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week, after his SUV was hauled off and auctioned, leaving him with thousands of dollars of debt and hours of community service to pay off parking tickets on that car.

Attorneys for Joseph Safuto, who said their client ended up homeless after becoming disabled in an auto accident two years ago, filed an amended complaint in court Tuesday contending that his constitutional rights were violated.

A representative of the City Attorney’s Office said they are reviewing the complaint, and declined to provide an immediate comment.

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Safuto is represented by attorneys from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the Western Center on Poverty & Law, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Shayla Myers, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, contends the towing was an “unreasonable seizure” of Safuto’s vehicle, and a violation under state law and the United States Constitution.

The car was towed for “debt collection” reasons, and not for concerns about public safety, she said.

“There was not a concern that he was ignoring his debt,” she said. “He was doing what he could to work off his debt through a program the city has created for people experiencing homelessness.”

Safuto’s attorneys said their client’s car, a 2000 Honda CR-V, was insured, smog-tested and parked legally, but was towed due to an expired registration tag. A hold was placed on the registration by the city because of two outstanding parking tickets that had racked up late fees and grown to the amount of $374, the complaint said.

Safuto had been working to update his car’s registration by enrolling in a city-run program, aimed at people dealing with homelessness, that allows him to wipe away his parking ticket debts by doing community service. But on the day he was to begin his community service, his car was towed.

Myers said this happened even though Safuto, who was present during the towing, tried to explain his situation to the Los Angeles Police Department officer.

Myers also noted that such seizures have “very significant consequences for people who are low-income.”

Safuto’s car has since been auctioned off, his attorneys said. But in addition to still needing to complete his community service hours to pay off his parking fees, his complaint said he still has debts from the towing. He owes a $115 “vehicle release fee” to the city, as well as a $41.50 daily storage fee and a $70 lien processing fee. He was charged $1004.50 for the lien costs, his attorneys said.

Safuto, who used the car to visit his nine-year-old daughter, said in a statement that he “put a lot of effort into getting the car registered, but I had those two parking tickets that were holding it up.”

The towing of his vehicle “pushed me into a deeper hole, not just financially, but also emotionally.”

“I was already struggling to get me and my daughter housing and to get on my feet again,” Safuto said.

Safuto filed his original complaint in July, challenging the results of a city administrative hearing. He was unable to overturn the decision to seize his car.

In the original complaint, his attorneys alleged his rights to a “full and fair” hearing were violated because the question of whether his car posed a public safety concern was never considered in deciding whether his car should have been seized. The only justification used was that his registration was expired for six months, the latest complaint said.

Myers said that the amended complaint added a challenge to the city’s general policy of not considering public safety reasons when towing vehicles.

The lawsuit now seeks a reversal on the hearing decision, payment of the towing costs, reimbursement for Safuto’s vehicle, and a change in the city’s practices when towing vehicles that adheres to the state and constitutional laws it contends the city violated.

The complaint seeks a “court order to compel the city of Los Angeles to follow the law,” Myers said.