Administrative
Report
N.3., File # 23-5897 Meeting Date: 4/18/2023
To: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
From: MICHAEL W. WEBB, CITY ATTORNEY JOY ABAQUIN FORD, QUALITY OF LIFE
PROSECUTOR
TITLE
DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON A STRATEGIC PLAN OBJECTIVE TO REPORT ON
THE STATUS OF HOMELESS SERVICES, METRICS AND A DEDICATED MENTAL HEALTH
CLINICIAN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On September 1, 2022, the City Council added an item to the City Strategic Plan, directing staff to report to Council on the status of homeless services and metrics as well as on the progress for providing a dedicated mental health clinician. The Enhanced Response to Homelessness Program has shown substantial results in moving many people off the streets and into permanent housing by responding to community concerns and reducing barriers to permanent housing. This has been accomplished through various efforts the City Attorney’s Office made such as the Redondo Beach Homeless Court, Pallet Shelter, Bridge Housing, hiring Homeless Housing Navigator, Lila Omura, as well as the support and joint efforts of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. At this time, a dedicated mental health clinician has not been employed.
BACKGROUND
The 2022 Redondo Beach Point-in-Time count of people experiencing homelessness was conducted on the night of February 23, 2022, by volunteers and the Redondo Beach Police Department. On September 8, 2022, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) released the results of the 2022 Homeless Count. The results estimated that 99 people were experiencing homelessness in the City of Redondo Beach, the lowest it has been since 2013. This estimate of 99 people includes a count of 15 people residing at the Redondo Beach Pallet Shelter, whether or not all fifteen individuals were present at the Pallet Shelter at the time of the count.
A Point-in-Time count was not conducted in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. In 2020, the Redondo Beach estimate was 176 people experiencing homelessness. From 2020 to 2022, the estimated number of people experiencing homelessness increased countywide by 4.1% and in Service Planning Area 8 (SPA 8) by 17.4% Regardless, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the City of Redondo Beach decreased by 44.0%.
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*The unsheltered population is the total number of people counted by volunteers and the estimated number of people sleeping in the dwellings counted by volunteers. The total persons in uninhabitable dwellings is an extrapolation based on a sampling approach for each type (car, van, camper/RV, tent, or makeshift shelter). Estimates of the people inside these dwellings was rounded to whole numbers for the purposes of the LAHSA dashboard. (LAHSA Homeless Count by City/Community Dashboard: Redondo Beach (December 5, 2022) < <https://www.lahsa.org/data?id=54-homeless-count-by-city-community>>.) When the City Attorney’s Office discovered there would be no point in time count in 2021, our office contracted with City Net to conduct a census of Redondo Beach’s homeless population. City Net takes a different approach than the county point-in-time count. City Net conducted a census of people experiencing homelessness in Redondo Beach on the morning of March 29, 2022 and the evening of March 31, 2022. The census reported unsheltered and sheltered people separately. The report notes that all fifteen individuals were in the Redondo Beach Pallet Shelter on both the 29th and the 31st of March. Because the census occurred over multiple days, unsheltered individuals who chose not to complete the survey may have been counted more than once. The results of the census revealed 85 unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in Redondo Beach, a decrease from 92, the total unsheltered count in 2021.
The 2023 LAHSA Point-in-Time count was conducted on the night of January 25, 2023. Results from this count will not be available until later in the year. While we cannot account for the newly unhoused in Redondo Beach, we know that in the past year, about 60 people have been permanently housed between Homeless Court, Pallet Shelter, our SPA 8 bridge housing, joint efforts with Ronson Chu, Senior Project Manager for Homeless Services from the South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG) and Homeless Housing Navigator Lila Omura. This does not include the number of people permanently housed by Harbor Interfaith, PATH and City Net separate and apart from these projects. Although reports from Harbor Interfaith, PATH and City Net also reflect success
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from these projects. Although reports from Harbor Interfaith, PATH and City Net also reflect success of permanently housed clients, those reports do not account for the metrics of those housed clients that were housed because of Homeless Court and the Pallet Shelter. It would be safe to say that more than 60 people have been permanently housed. In addition, new interim housing recently opened in Los Angeles prior to the 2023 point in time count; with this opening, Lila Omura, Harbor Interfaith and the Redondo Beach Police department were able to get 33 people off the streets and into interim housing.
Homeless Court
In 2019, then Senior Deputy City Prosecutor, Ana Papadakis, initiated Redondo Beach’s Homeless Court. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the City Attorney’s Office created the first outdoor Homeless Court in Los Angeles County. It took two months to hold the first outdoor Homeless court session from the first conversation with the Honorable Judge Alan Honeycutt, faster than other jurisdictions that are trying to create a similar Homeless Court. Since 2019, 101 people attended Homeless Court and accepted services. A total of 41 people graduated from the Redondo Beach Homeless Court, moving into permanent housing. 41 people, not necessarily the same as the 41 graduates, were placed in interim housing. Nine people exited the program either voluntarily or because they failed to participate. Four people passed away while participating in the program.
Eight people were found to be incompetent to stand trial, so they were referred to and treated in mental health court. There are currently 39 active participants in Homeless Court. Although this is a population that usually fails to appear to their court hearings, there is an average attendance rate of 79% since bringing Homeless Court outdoors, with some months at 100% in attendance.
Pallet Shelter
In September of 2020, the City Attorney’s Office was invited to present to the SBCCOG’s Homeless Services Task Force about Homeless Court. At that same meeting, there was a presentation on pallet shelters. Immediately after the meeting, Councilmember Christian Horvath and City Attorney Mike Webb contacted each other to discuss purchasing pallet shelters for Redondo Beach, which were fully occupied within three months. The Pallet Shelter has served as one of the Program’s interim housing locations for participants. The shelter has permanently housed 45 people since opening in December, 2020, with 20 people currently residing there and a waitlist of at least 6 people at any time. The Redondo Beach Pallet Shelter has a 62% rate of exits from shelter to permanent housing. For comparison, the SPA 8 percentage rate of exits to permanent housing is 17%. While working with the County to fund the pallet shelter, the Permanent Local Housing Allocation (PLHA) was brought to the City Attorney’s attention as a source of funding, a fund that the Community Services Department did not apply to despite knowing about it for over a year.
PLHA provides state funding to local governments in California for housing-related projects and programs that assist in addressing the unmet housing needs. The PLHA formula allocations estimates the City will receive approximately $784,980 for years 2019 to 2023, a low estimate and is subject to change based on the number of real estate transactions recorded each year.
Bridge Housing
On August 4, 2020, the Mayor and City Council directed the City Attorney’s Office to prepare and return documents to rent beds within a collaborative housing program in a nearby city within SPA 8 to house people experiencing homelessness. On November 17, 2020, Quality of Life Prosecutor Joy Abaquin Ford and Homeless Housing Navigator Lila Omura toured an apartment building in the City
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Abaquin Ford and Homeless Housing Navigator Lila Omura toured an apartment building in the City of Wilmington owned by Swami International. On December 15, 2020, the City Attorney’s Office brought a master lease for five Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units with Swami International for City Council approval. The SRO units in Wilmington have since been a source of interim housing.
City Net, PATH, Harbor Interfaith and Lila Omura have placed nineteen people in the SROs: Nine of which subsequently moved into permanent housing and five currently residing there. That is a 47 percentage rate of exits to permanent housing solutions.
Grants and Awards
The City Attorney’s Office received over $2.8 million dollars in grants, donations and probate fees for the Enhanced Response to Homelessness Program. Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi granted $500,000 of his discretionary funds for Homeless Court. Los Angeles Board of Supervisor Janice Hahn granted $100,000 of her discretionary funds for Homeless Court. In Fiscal Year 2020-2021, the SBCCOG granted $245,287 of Measure H Innovative Funds for the Enhanced Response to Homelessness Program. In the following application round, the SBCCOG granted $306,299 of Measure H Innovative Funds for bridge housing, services, and the addition of Hermosa Beach to Redondo’s Homeless Court. The Los Angeles Chief Executive Office - Homelessness Initiative’s Office granted $250,000 of Measure H funds for capital improvements to the Pallet Shelter to reduce operational costs. Quality of Life Prosecutor Joy Abaquin Ford applied for funding from the Los Angeles County Cities and Councils of Governments Interim Housing Services Fund (CCOGIHS) and the PLHA for operational costs of the Pallet Shelter. The county awarded $583,971 from the CCOGIHS fund and the state awarded $784,980 from the PLHA. Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church donated $4000 towards the Enhanced Response to Homelessness Program. Joy Abaquin Ford was named the executor of a prior resident’s estate on the City’s behalf, so the City received $23,454.17 in statutory and extraordinary commissions for the administrative services rendered by Joy Abaquin Ford. Those commissions started the Quality of Life Donation Fund in April of 2022, and since then, various residents have made over a thousand dollars in donations to that fund. City Attorney Mike Webb met with Beach Cities Health District (BCHD) CEO Tom Bakaly about various needs the City had related to homelessness. BCHD granted Redondo Beach $50,000 for homeless related services. The City Attorney’s Office also received the 2022 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence under the Housing Programs and Innovation category for the Enhanced Response to Homelessness Program.
Homeless Housing Navigator
During the budget process for Fiscal Year 2021-2022, the City Attorney’s Office proposed a Decision Package to hire a City Homeless Housing Navigator. Redondo Beach Homeless Housing Navigator Lila Omura has played a key role in getting several people off the streets. In 2022, Lila permanently housed 38 people through various means such as permanent supportive housing (PSH), Housing Vouchers, reunification, relocation, etc., and matched 18 people to sources of permanent housing. In addition, she has placed 107 people in interim housing (shelters, hospitals, treatment programs, etc.).
Lila’s work goes beyond housing placement. She also served as a case/ retention manager for 16 clients after they were permanently housed, and prevented three families from losing their homes with the help of Ronson Chu and his team from the SBCCOG.
Lila first started outreaching in Redondo Beach in November 2017 under Harbor Interfaith. She met with Quality of Life Officer Keith Turner, and asked him to identify the top ten people in Redondo Beach needing homeless services. One suggested by Officer Turner was a single elderly female
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Beach needing homeless services. One suggested by Officer Turner was a single elderly female often seen at the 405-freeway off-ramp at Inglewood Avenue; she had been in that location for years and generated the most calls for service. Lila outreached to her weekly, but the client’s mental health illness prevented her from accepting help. The client also refused help from several other service providers. On one occasion the client chased a director down Inglewood, endangering staff members and resulting in her being exited from a full service partnership (FSP) program for mental health. Mental Health America of Los Angeles (MHALA) clinicians assisted the client weekly with Lila, but exited her from their program after a year. The client continued to be arrested and placed on 5150 holds for years. Lila continued her outreach, even visiting the client at the Lynwood Woman’s jail to try to get her to accept help at the request of the City Prosecutor’s office, but she always declined. About six months ago, after the City Attorney’s Office hired Lila as the Homeless Housing Navigator, the client was taken on another 5150 hold. Instead of being released, the hospital transferred her to a psychiatric facility for a two month stay wherein she was administered medication and became stable. The very morning after she was released, Lila again met with her at the 405 freeway where the client finally accepted services, and agreed to sign up for the pallet shelter. Lila worked with Ronson Chu and his team at the SBCCOG, to place the client in a motel that evening for a week. Lila wanted her to stay off the streets before she leaves, becomes unstable and changes her mind. Lila then requested for the Department of Mental Health Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement (HOME) Team to meet her at the motel the following day to offer medication support.
Shortly after, the client moved into the pallet shelter where she obtained her California ID, Social Security Card, medical insurance, Cal Fresh, and general relief. She continued to get monthly injectables from the HOME nurse practitioner. Within a month, the client was matched to PSH. On November 29, 2022, exactly five years to the day from the first time Lila first outreached to her, the client moved into her own apartment. Lila recently received a phone call from the client’s estranged daughter, who shared how her mother struggled with mental health issues, but would never accept help. Lila learned that her client had been in the South Bay her entire life, and was a graduate of Mira Costa High School. The client’s daughter is planning on visiting her mom in February along with the client’s aging father.
With help from the Redondo Beach Police Department and Quality of Life Prosecutor Joy Abaquin Ford, Lila also outreached to a hearing-impaired senior citizen located near the pier’s Quality Seafood one morning at 4:30 a.m. He had been homeless for 42 years with no family. He refused shelter because of his religion, prior negative experiences in other shelters, and he was, at the time, infested with lice. Despite his initial refusal, Lila placed him on the waiting list for the pallet shelter.
For a few weeks, Lila contacted almost every Jewish organization and Synagogue in the county with no success. When an opening became available at the pallet shelter, Lila searched for him on the pier and convinced him to accept the unit. To prepare her client for his housing appointment, Lila purchased portable hair clippers to shave off his hair, and provided new clothing and shoes. Lila’s boyfriend also assisted in shaving his hair. The next morning, Lila checked the client into the pallet shelter where he was able to obtain his California ID, Social Security card, medical insurance, Cal Fresh and general relief. After two months at the pallet shelter, he was matched to PSH for a hearing -impaired unit and is now living happily in his own apartment with all the supportive services he needs.
In October of 2020, the City Attorney’s Office received resident complaints about a woman camping on the beach and requested all housing navigators to outreach to her. Councilmember Nils Nehrenheim and the Los Angeles County Lifeguard also contacted Lila regarding a woman staying
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Nehrenheim and the Los Angeles County Lifeguard also contacted Lila regarding a woman staying on the beach, acquiring more and more umbrellas. Every week, she repeatedly refused to speak to any housing navigator or officer and told them to leave her alone. Officer John Banach was able to convince her to leave the beach due to an upcoming thunder storm. Ronson Chu from the SBCCOG agreed to place her in a motel for a few days. On the day Lila was supposed to pick her up, the motel staff stated that she had checked out early in the morning. She resurfaced near City Hall later in the year, with her umbrellas set up on Carnelian Street. The client refused services from all available service providers and the Redondo Beach Police Department for months, becoming hostile against them until Sergeant Michael Strosnider talked to the client for an hour and was able to convince her to accept a motel stay. Ronson Chu agreed to use SBCCOG homeless funds to place her in a motel because he knew how monumental her acceptance was at that moment. While Sergeant Strosnider loaded her belongings onto the Harbor Interfaith van, Officer Turner, two other officers, Deputy Public Works Director Mike Klein, two Harbor Interfaith staff members, two City Net staff members, and Lila were waiting in the employee parking lot, out of sight to ensure the client does not become hostile again. Sergeant Strosnider transported her in his patrol vehicle, and the client insisted that Officer Turner ride in the Harbor Interfaith truck to make sure her belongings were safe. For the next fourteen days, Sergeant Strosnider visited her at the motel to convince her to accept the Pallet Shelter unit that was being held just for her until she finally agreed. Again, Sergeant Strosnider transported her with Officer Turner in the Harbor Interfaith van to the pallet shelter from the motel. Sergeant Strosnider had to conduct the intake assessment himself because she refuses to speak to the staff at the Pallet Shelter. The Pallet Shelter staff will continue attempts to engage with her until she accepts services and permanent housing.
During the height of the pandemic, Lila noticed a very young woman carrying a backpack and duffle bag near the Redondo Beach Main library, despite the library being closed. After a month of denying that she was homeless every day, she finally admitted to Lila that she was homeless. When Lila mentioned shelters, she started yelling at Lila that she would rather sleep on the streets because she had been assaulted and robbed in shelters. Lila was able to get the client to share that she had just turned 18 and aged out of the foster system; this made her eligible for Harbor Interfaith motel funds.
While at the motel, Lila learned that the client had been in the foster system since she was three years old and has been placed in over a hundred foster or group homes. The client was accepted to the National Guard and went away to basic training for a year. When she returned, the client reached out to Lila and informed Lila that she had nowhere to go while she was off duty. Lila got her into the Pallet Shelter, and picked up her client as soon as she landed in California. Although the client had challenges at the Pallet Shelter and with her search for permanent housing, Lila was able to identify a location with a very patient housing provider. Councilmember Laura Emdee started a Target wish list to provide her with everything she needed to fill her new apartment and make her feel like she finally has the home she never had. When the client received her keys, she broke down and cried on Lila’s shoulder saying, “Thank you Miss Lila, thank you,” repeatedly. The case manager, housing provider and Lila cried with her. The client is now going on weekly drills with the Army and has increased her income dramatically. She also purchased a new car and is loving her new life.
Update on a Dedicated Mental Health Clinician
On May 10, 2022, in response to a Strategic Plan item, the City Attorney’s Office presented a discussion item to the City Council on possible options to improve the City’s Enhanced Response to Homelessness Program. Three recommendations were provided. The unanimous recommendation of the City Attorney’s Office (Lila, Joy, and Mike) as by far the top priority was that the City employ a
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of the City Attorney’s Office (Lila, Joy, and Mike) as by far the top priority was that the City employ a Mental Health Clinician who could assist those that need mental health treatment and medication in a similar way that having Lila as an employee of the City does, being more available and responsive to the City needs and resident complaints.
Thereafter, the City Attorney prepared a Budget Decision Package that would allow the City Attorney’s Office to hire a Mental Health Clinician to work alongside Lila. Instead, in adopting the 22- 23 Budget, the City Council only chose to fund $50,000 towards the position and work collectively with Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach to develop the program. Additionally, the Council directed that the position be put in the Police Department rather than the City Attorney’s Office which ended the City Attorney’s role in hiring the Mental Health Clinician. Moreover, the Police Department could not hire anyone with only roughly 1/3 of the cost allocated. Although the City Managers of Manhattan and Hermosa agree with the idea on a conceptual basis no real progress has been made in implementing this top goal. To date, a mental health clinician has not been hired.
In short, due to the Council’s policy decision on the Budget, this has been a lost year in making progress on what in our opinion remains the top unmet need for responding effectively to persons suffering a mental crisis. Lila Omura is prepared to discuss the difficulties that she has faced the past year without this resource.
Adding the Pier, Veteran’s Park, and the area around Project Moonstone to the specific areas where camping in public is prohibited at all times.
Currently, the City of Redondo Beach does enforce the Redondo Beach Municipal Codes that prohibit camping between the hours of 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in any public area of the City, as well as within 500 yards of an emergency transitional housing facility at all hours of the day. This is a specific time and place prohibition that are permitted under the Ninth Circuit decision in Martin v. Boise. The City Council wanted to discuss adding the Pier, Veteran’s Park, and the area around the upcoming Project Moonstone to the list of specific prohibitions.
The Redondo Beach Pier already has a similar prohibition. Section 12-1.308 of the Redondo Beach Municipal Code states:
It shall be unlawful for any person, other than a person specifically authorized by permit, license, or lease from the City, or a lessee of the City, to camp, lodge, sleep, or tarry overnight upon any portion of the harbor, waterway, or maritime facility or to erect, maintain, use, or occupy any tent, lodge, shelter, structure, house trailer, trailer coach, or conveyance used as a place of abode.
Veteran’s Park does not. Both are located in the Coastal Zone. Adding a new enforcement provision will require the approval of the California Coastal Commission which even if granted will take quite some time.
Amendments to the City’s Local Coastal Program need to undergo review and approval by the California Coastal Commission pursuant to Public Resources Code (PCR) Section 30514 and Title 14, Section 13551 of the California Code of Regulations. PRC 30514 states, “A certified local coastal program and all local implementing ordinances, regulations, and other actions may be amended by the appropriate local government, but no such amendment shall take effect until it has been certified by the commission.” If the regulations require an amendment to the Local Coastal Program (LCP) or the Implementing Ordinance (coastal zoning Title 10, Chapter 5 of the Redondo Beach Municipal
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the Implementing Ordinance (coastal zoning Title 10, Chapter 5 of the Redondo Beach Municipal Code), a resolution would need to be adopted to submit the amendment to the Coastal Commission for their review and approval. It can take several months, and up to a year, for the Coastal Commission to consider the LCP amendment. Once approved by the Coastal Commission, it is certified and effective. However, they may require modifications that the City would have to find acceptable and would require City Council to make further amendments to incorporate those modifications, and then the modified ordinances would return to the Coastal Commission for certification.
The 500 yard area surrounding Project Moonstone is both inside as well as outside the Coastal Zone.
Even if limited to the area outside the Coastal Zone there would be challenges in successfully defending such an ordinance if attacked in court. It would depend largely on the factual findings by the City Council in support of such an expansion. As I have opined previously, the area surrounding a transitional housing facility can be added to such an ordinance because of the number of examples of people camping outside in hopes of getting the next available bed in the facility. Although our Pallet Shelters do not work on that basis, there was legitimate concern (and some actual experience when they first opened) that people would do the same here under the mistaken belief that would work here.
Project Moonstone is not a Homeless Shelter or a transition housing facility. I am not aware of any instances or reasons why people would camp outside a permanent support housing facility.
Therefore, I would have to closely examine and research any proposed City Council factual findings in support of adding them to the ordinance.
COORDINATION
The City Attorney's Office coordinated with the Community Development Department in connection with the last section of this report.