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RESOLUTION NO. 2023- RO o 1
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA, RATIFYING THE DIRECTOR OF
EMERGENCY SERVICES' PROCLAMATION OF LOCAL
EMERGENCY AND CONFIRMING THE EXISTENCE OF A
LOCAL EMERGENCY REGARDING HOMELESSNESS.
WHEREAS, Culver City Municipal Code (CCMC) Section 3.09.020.B empowers the City Manager, as the Director of Emergency Services, to proclaim the existence or threatened existence of a Local Emergency if the City Council is not in session; and WHEREAS, the City of Culver City Director of Emergency Services did proclaim a Local Emergency on January 3, 2023, finding that a threat to public health and safety now exists in the City due to a homelessness crisis in the City, which has grown incrementally and exponentially, leading to deplorable living conditions, illness and death of unhoused and unsheltered persons within the City; and
WHEREAS, once a person falls into homelessness, an intricate network of services must come together in a coordinated fashion to help lift them out of that state; and WHEREAS, the City of Culver City is located in Service Planning Area 5 (SPA 5) and falls under the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Continuum of Care (CoC) for homelessness services, and is reliant and dependent on Los Angeles County for countywide welfare and social services, such as outreach and mental health care; and WHEREAS, according to the final LAHSA 2022 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count Point-in-Time final figures, there are approximately 350 persons experiencing homeless in the City of Culver City; and
WHEREAS, the magnitude of the persistent and disproportionate impact of the COVI D-19 pandemic, and the persistent discriminatory impacts of a lack of housing, warrant and necessitate the existence of a local emergency; and -1-
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WHEREAS, the mobilization of local resources, ability to coordinate interagency response, accelerate procurement of vital supplies, use mutual aid, and allow for future reimbursement by the state and federal governments where feasible, will be critical to successfully responding to the homelessness crisis; and WHEREAS, after discussion with the State of California Office of Emergency Services, the City has determined to rescind any request for reimbursement or financial assistance at this time, with the understanding that reimbursement and/or financial assistance may be requested at a future date, including potentially coordinating such a request with the County of Los Angeles and neighboring cities; and
WHEREAS, the benefits of the emergency proclamation, coupled with past and future actions by the City Council to address the homelessness crisis, will help ensure that this Local Emergency will be of a temporary nature; and
WHEREAS, the City Council does hereby find that the aforementioned conditions of peril and those detailed in the January 3, 2023 Proclamation of Local Emergency did warrant and necessitate the proclamation of a Local Emergency.
NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Culver City, California, DOES HEREBY RESOLVE as follows:
1. IT IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that the Local Emergency proclaimed by the Director of Emergency Services on January 3, 2023, attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference as though fully set forth, is hereby ratified except as set forth in Section 2 below, delaying any request for financial assistance, and it is further proclaimed and ordered that said Local Emergency shall be deemed to continue to exist until its termination is proclaimed by the City Council of the City of Culver City, State of California.
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requesting that the Director find it acceptable in accordance with State law; and that upon request the State expedite access to State and Federal resources and any ,AS /fO FORM:
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ALBERT\/ERA,MAYOR
City of Culver City, California
H ATHER BAKER
City Attorney
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that a copy of this IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that this Resolution shall
2. 3.
APPROVED and ADOPTED this 9th day of January 2023.
Resolution shall be forwarded to the Los Angeles Office of Emergency Management, to be forwarded to the Director of California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, requesting that the Governor of California waive regulations that may hinder response and recovery efforts; that recovery assistance be made available under the California Disaster Assistance Act upon request by the City, notwithstanding that such request for financial reimbursement or assistance is not being made by the City at this time; and other appropriate federal disaster relief programs.
take effective immediately upon its adoption and that widespread publicity and notice shall be given of this Resolution throughout the City.
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PROCLAMATION OF A LOCAL EMERGENCY ON HOMELESSNESS
BY THE DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY SERVICES
OF THE CITY OF CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA
WHEREAS, Culver City Municipal Code Section 3.09.020.B empowers the City Manager, as the Director of Emergency Services, to proclaim the existence or threatened existence of a Local Emergency if the City Council is not in session; and WHEREAS, the Director of Emergency Services of the City of Culver City does hereby find that a threat to public health and safety now exists in the City of Culver City due to the homelessness crisis in the City of Culver City, which has grown incrementally and exponentially, leading to deplorable living conditions, illness and death of unhoused and unsheltered persons within the City; and
WHEREAS, Culver City is located in Service Planning Area 5 (SPA 5) and falls under the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Continuum of Care (CoC); and
WHEREAS, the Culver City City Council formed the Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness (ACOHH), an appointed body of City residents and representatives from the business and supportive service community whose goal is to identify and advocate for solutions to end homelessness and methods and means for improving the quality of housing and life for all individuals; and WHEREAS, in support of the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 2016-R 113 on November 28, 2016, to partner with Los Angeles County to combat homelessness; and
WHEREAS, at its regular meeting of February 13, 2017, the City Council also took a position in support of Measure H, the Los Angeles County quarter cent sales tax increase to fund homeless services and prevention. In 2022, the City of Culver City contributed $5.6 million in sales tax to support Measure H funds countywide for homeless supportive services; and
WHEREAS, witnessing the growth of homelessness in the City of Culver City and in the region, in July 2018 the Culver City Council adopted the Plan to Prevent and Combat Homelessness; and
WHEREAS, once a person falls into homelessness, an intricate network of services must come together in a coordinated fashion to help lift them out of that state; and
WHEREAS, the City of Culver City is part of LAHSA's CoC for homelessness services, and is reliant and dependent on Los Angeles County for countywide welfare and social services, such as outreach and mental health care; and WHEREAS, according to the final LAHSA 2022 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count Point-in-Time final figures, there are approximately 350 persons experiencing homeless in City of Culver City; and
- WHEREAS, the homelessness crisis has had unacceptable consequences for persons in the Los Angeles County region, including a significant death toll that has rapidly increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported an average of over five deaths per day of unhoused persons as of March 2021, a 200% increase in the death rate of persons experiencing homelessness over the past decade and a 56% increase over the previous 12 months; and, in Culver City, the Culver City Fire Department (CCFD) reported that in 2022, six unhoused persons in the City were deceased on arrival of paramedics; and WHEREAS, to protect renters at-risk for homelessness due to unreasonable rent increases, unlawful evictions and discrimination, the Culver City Council adopted urgent, interim rent control measures in 2019 and permanent Rent Control and Tenant Protection Ordinances in 2020; and
WHEREAS, state and local residential eviction moratoriums, which prevented many residents from falling into homelessness, have expired locally or will soon expire.
Culver City's residential eviction moratorium expired on September 30, 2020 and California state law, which governed all residential eviction protections related to pandemic impacts, expired on September 30, 2021. The Los Angeles County's COVID- 19 Tenant Protections Resolution, which provides protections against certain evictions is currently in effect; however, it is set to expire on January 31, 2023, unless extended; and WHEREAS, the homelessness crisis has strained the City's public safety resources, with paramedic and fire calls to address the crisis on our streets and in our other public spaces increasing at alarming rates, such that in 2022 there were over 1, 150 calls to CCFD involving unhoused persons, including 646 calls for emergency medical services, which is an increase of 12% from 2021 and a 20% increase from 2020; and 105 calls to CCFD regarding fires, an increase of 40% from 2021; and WHEREAS, to prevent low-income households from falling into homelessness, the Culver City Council invested $1.5 million in two rounds of an emergency rental assistance program for people experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020;and
WHEREAS, the State of California's COVID-19 State of Emergency, which has provided resources to keep many Californians from falling into homelessness, ends in February of 2023, thus requiring immediate action in order to create replacement and additional housing and shelter, and in order to support the necessary infrastructure and laws required to protect and provide that shelter and housing; and WHEREAS, the City of Culver City was awarded $26.6 million from the State of California, Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) under Project Homekey for the creation of harm reduction, service enriched interim and permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals through the conversion of two local motels; and
2 WHEREAS, the City of Culver City has made a one-time commitment of $7.3 million from the Culver City Housing Authority's Low and Moderate Income Housing Asset Fund (LMIHAF) for Project Homekey construction and an ongoing annual commitment of approximately $5 million from the City General Fund for Project Homekey staffing, operations and services; and
WHEREAS, the Culver City Project Homekey Interim and Permanent Supportive Housing project will be the first in the City and will provide housing for approximately 20% of the homeless population; and
WHEREAS, the City of Culver City has responded to the rapid increase in its homeless population with unprecedented investments into homelessness solutions, including $3.2 million from the City General Fund for the creation of a Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit consisting of professionals to address the homelessness and mental health crisis; $275,000 from the City's General Fund to explore a Safe Parking or Safe Camping Program; $845,000 from a combination of Measure H funding, the City General Fund and the LMIHAF Low and Moderate Income Housing Asset Fund for an expanded Culver City homeless street outreach team; $260,000 from the City General Fund and in Westside Council of Governments Innovation Grant funds for an internal motel voucher program; and $112,500 from the City General Fund for professional services with a communications firm to develop a public communication and messaging program to educate and engage the public about homelessness and the City's efforts to address homelessness; and
WHEREAS, the City's ability to mobilize local resources, coordinate interagency response, accelerate procurement of housing units, use mutual aid, and seek assistance and potential reimbursement by the State and Federal governments will be critical to successfully responding to this homelessness crisis; and WHEREAS, the magnitude of loss of life, the persistent and disproportionate impact of the COVI D-19 pandemic, and the persistent discriminatory impacts of a lack of housing warrant and necessitate that I declare the existence of a local emergency; and WHEREAS, the benefits of this emergency declaration, coupled with past and future actions by the Culver City City Council to address the homelessness crisis, will help ensure that this local emergency will be of a temporary nature; and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Culver City is not in session and cannot immediately be called into session, and that the aforementioned conditions of threat to public health and safety warrant and necessitate that the Director of Emergency Services proclaim the existence of a Local Emergency.
NOW THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED by the Director of Emergency Services, that a Local Emergency on Homelessness exists in Culver City, and the Local Emergency shall not remain in effect for a period in excess of seven days, unless it has been ratified by the City Council; and 3 IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that during the existence of said Local Emergency the powers, functions, and duties of the emergency organization of the City shall be those prescribed by state law, and by ordinances, and resolutions of the City; and
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that all City Departments shall review and revise their Continuity of Operations Plans, in coordination with the Emergency Services Director, to address the risks the Local Emergency poses to their critical functions; and shall coordinate all crisis communications to employees and the public with the City's Crisis Communications Team; and
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that the continuing local emergency be regularly evaluated by the City Council, by referencing key performance indicators of progress in addressing the emergency, which include but are not limited to:
• Regulatory relief from other jurisdictions and within Los Angeles County agencies to create flexibility to address the crisis;
• Enactment of an Emergency Procurement Protocol to enable expedited retention of vendors/contractors and acquisition of supplies and services for the provision of services and shelter to protect the unhoused community from life threatening harm; • Coordination with the City of Los Angeles and LAHSA to address homeless encampments at our shared borders by providing shelter and supportive services; • Coordination with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the County of Los Angeles to keep the Ballena Creek clear of any situation that may cause harm to the environment or human life;
• Decrease in the number and size of homeless encampments that create a risk of fire hazard, block the public right-away or are within 500 feet of sensitive receptors; • Continuation of an annual census of people experiencing homelessness in our community through the use of an Internal Homeless Count involving City staff, the Culver City St. Joseph Center (SJC) Outreach Team and members of ACOHH, along with the LAHSA Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, to determine size and characteristics of the unhoused population;
• Creation and maintenance of 73 units of Interim and Permanent Supportive Housing through the Culver City Project Homekey;
• Implementation of a Safe Camping program to provide access to sanitation facilities and supportive services, including medical care, laundry service and security, to the unhoused community residing in encampments; • Establishment of long-term leasing arrangements with local motel owners to provide temporary housing;
• Activation of the Culver City Mobile Crisis Intervention Team to address the mental wellbeing of both housed and unhoused residents;
• Continuation of support to the Culver City SJC Outreach Team, which provides street-based outreach, assessment, and linkage of the unhoused community to services, shelter and housing;
• Continuation of support to Upward Bound House, which provides interim housing to homeless children and their families;
• Continuation of support of renter's rights and tenant protections through the City's Rent Control and Tenant Protection Ordinances;
4 • Continuation of public communication and messaging to educate and engage the public about homelessness and the City's efforts to address homelessness, and engage the unhoused population in the dialogue about the City's efforts to address homelessness;
• Evaluation of traffic safety related impacts on unhoused individuals and implementation of mitigation measures to prevent pedestrian related deaths among persons experiencing homelessness; and
• Securing of funding resources from HCD, LAHSA, and the County of Los Angeles to increase service levels, interim shelter beds and permanent supportive housing; and
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that a copy of this Proclamation be forwarded to the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, to be forwarded to the Director of California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, requesting that the Director find it acceptable in accordance with State law; and that the Governor issue a proclamation declaring an emergency in Los Angeles County; that the Governor waive regulations that may hinder response and recovery efforts; that recovery assistance be made available under the California Disaster Assistance Act; and that the State expedite access to State and Federal resources and any other appropriate federal disaster relief programs; and
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that this Proclamation of Local Emergency shall take effect immediately and that widespread publicity and notice shall be given of this Proclamation throughout the City.
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John M. Nachbar, City Manager
Director of Emergency Services
City of Culver City, California
5 Date: January 3rd , 2023