1 City Council Meeting: May 14, 2024 Santa Monica, California 2024 PROCLAMATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA MONICA DECLARING A LOCAL EMERGENCY ON HOMELESSNESS WHEREAS, Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 2.16 empowers the City Manager, as the Director of Emergency Services (“Director”), to request that the City Council proclaim the existence or threatened existence of a local emergency if the City Council is in session; and
WHEREAS, on February 14, 2023, the City adopted a Proclamation Declaring a Local Emergency on Homelessness (the “2023 Proclamation”) due to the homelessness crisis in the region, which continues to grow, leading to deplorable living conditions and illness and deaths of unhoused and unsheltered persons in the region; and WHEREAS, on May 9, 2023, the City extended the 2023 Proclamation due to the ongoing homelessness crisis in the region, until May 31, 2024; and WHEREAS, the 2023 Proclamation was utilized to advance several key initiatives related to homelessness, including but not limited to:
1. Entering into a contract with Exodus Recovery for the Services, Treatment & Empowerment Program (STEP) Court, a collaborative diversion court to connect qualifying individuals with housing assistance and mental health and/or substance abuse treatment;
2. Entering into contracts with The People Concern (TPC) for operation of the Homelessness Multidisciplinary Street Team and with Los Angeles County for operation of the City + County + Community Homeless Outreach Teams; 2 3. Entering into an agreement with Salvation Army to support the City’s 311 Outreach efforts and provide street team assistance to Santa Monica Police Department’s (SMPD) Homeless Liaison Team (HLP);
4. Entering into a contract with Fetterman Dunn Consulting for support with research and recommendations for the City’s efforts to enhance renters’ protections;
5. Making a loan commitment to Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM) for the construction of a future affordable housing development;
6. Executing a Memorandum of Understanding with Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to begin implementation of the new Stability Voucher program;
7. Working with Los Angeles County’s Homeless Initiative to open a Santa Monica Pathway Home program and house 25 individuals who were formerly homeless on our streets;
8. Increasing the amount of monthly income assistance provided to participants in the Preserving Our Diversity (POD) program;
9. Expediting hiring to ensure sufficient staff support;
10.Launching the Therapeutic Transport Team pilot program in tandem with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health who operates a specialized team that deploys with first responder calls for service related to mental health crises in Santa Monica; and
3 WHEREAS, based on the 2023 Point-In-Time Homeless Count data (PITC), there were 75,518 people experiencing homeless in Los Angeles County, a 9% increase over 2022, with chronic homelessness growing by 18% over 2022; and WHEREAS, in the 2023 PITC for Service Planning Area 5 (SPA 5), the SPA Santa Monica is in, had 6,669 people experiencing homelessness, a 45% increase over 2022; and
WHEREAS, based on the 2023 PITC data, there were 926 people experiencing homelessness in Santa Monica, a 15% increase over 2022, with 73 more individuals counted on the street and in vehicles, and 46 more individuals counted in emergency motels, shelters, hospitals, and the Santa Monica jail; and WHEREAS, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) conducted an End of Line Survey in March 2024, and found 22 unhoused persons, on average, were unsheltered per night at the Santa Monica Downtown Metro Station given Metro’s current End of Line policy, which requires deboarding of all passengers and belongings at the end of the line when trains go out of service; and WHEREAS, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report published in October 2023, the fastest growing group in the nation’s population of people experiencing homelessness is older adults, composing nearly half of the homeless population nationwide, and a number that is expected to triple by 2030; and WHEREAS, a California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) found that high housing costs and low income left participants vulnerable to homelessness, and that the most common reason for leaving housing was economic; and 4 WHEREAS, the Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium that protected tenants from eviction who were under 80% of Area Median Income who were unable to pay rent due to the pandemic expired March 31, 2023; and WHEREAS, Santa Monica landlords reported filing over three times the number of eviction lawsuits in 2023 than they reported in 2021, with over 75% of 2023 cases based on non-payment of rent; and
WHEREAS, at its March 11, 2023 workshop, the City Council reaffirmed Preventing Homelessness as a priority, adopting the following Priority Statement:
“Prevent housed Santa Monicans from becoming homeless and increase the supply of affordable housing; address the behavioral health needs of vulnerable individuals; and advocate for regional capacity to address homelessness”; and WHEREAS, the ongoing crisis of homelessness continues as evidenced by the following:
1. In 2023, of the total arrests in the City, 67.57% were attributable to people experiencing homelessness, an increase from arrests in 2022 and 2021;
2. The number of calls-for-service to the Fire Department attributed to people experiencing homelessness constituted 12% of the total call volume in 2023;
3. In 2023, SMPD responded to 1,849 calls related to encampments, slightly fewer than in 2022, but the HLP Team handled an additional 1,015 requests to address encampments through the 311 system;
4. An 85% increase from 2022 to 2023 in the number of public death cases of people experiencing homelessness;
5 5. The Public Works Department estimates that on an average weekly basis, approximately 20-40 areas with a concentrated congregation of people experiencing homelessness are serviced;
6. According to LAHSA, in 2022, approximately 207 people a day are rehoused at the same time as 227 become homeless; and
WHEREAS, the City of Culver City, County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, and City of Long Beach have each declared or proclaimed a local emergency to address homelessness; and
WHEREAS, Los Angeles County is experiencing a massive workforce shortage which has led to understaffing and challenges hiring and retaining staff due to the demands of the work of addressing and preventing homelessness, leading to delays in implementing programs, such as the Therapeutic Transport Team; and WHEREAS, when combined with workforce shortages experienced throughout the County, and strict civil service rules, the City struggles to fill positions expeditiously, if at all, which hampers the City’s ability to create necessary organizational capacity to effectively implement programs and services needed to address and prevent homelessness; and
WHEREAS, the conditions that existed at the time the 2023 Proclamation was adopted persist, and, therefore, the City Council finds it necessary to issue another Proclamation Declaring a Local Emergency on Homelessness through May 31, 2025 (“2024 Proclamation”), to expeditiously increase City services and programs to address and prevent homelessness; and
6 WHEREAS, another proclamation of local emergency on homelessness would enable the City to:
1. Receive additional county, state, and federal resources to address the homelessness crisis to further efforts such as:
a. Expanding multi-disciplinary outreach teams;
b. Providing enhanced supports for individuals that are rent burdened to prevent homelessness;
2. Prevent rent price gouging through enforcement of Penal Code 396(e) to limit rent increases to no more than 10% a year during the existence of the Proclamation;
3. Streamline and expedite City processes and approvals concerning development, deployment of resources, employment, contracting, grant approvals, receipt, budgeting, and community activities to assist in expediting services and housing for people who are at-risk of or experiencing homelessness or to address local impacts of homelessness;
4. Streamline, accelerate, and expedite processes to implement the 2021-2029 Council approved Housing Element regarding City-owned land identified for affordable housing;
5. Issue requests for proposals to identify development teams with demonstrated capacity to design, finance, construct, and operate affordable housing and execute agreements and ground leases with selected development teams. The selection of any development teams involving City-owned land would be subject to Council approval;
7 6. Leverage Housing Trust Fund resources and streamline, accelerate, and expedite the process to review and approve loan commitments for affordable housing developments that serve Santa Monicans who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness, or Santa Monica residents and workers; and
7. Allow the City Manager to take all available actions authorized under Chapter
2.16. NOW THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that a local emergency on homelessness exists in the City of Santa Monica; and IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that during the existence of this local emergency the powers, functions, and duties of the emergency organization of the City shall be those prescribed by state law, and by ordinances, proclamations, and resolutions of the City;
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that the City Manager shall be empowered to seek, receive, budget, and expend all potential funding sources that may be used to address the homelessness crisis;
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that the Proclamation will allow the City Manager to modify or waive the requirements on a case-by-case basis for process, participation, approvals, and limits set forth in the Housing Trust Fund Plan and Housing Trust Fund Guidelines as well as require additional qualifications for projects such as size, target population, and location in order to achieve the production of affordable housing and permanent supportive housing;
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 8 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.
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that this Proclamation of Local Emergency shall take effect immediately on May 31, 2024, upon expiration of the 2023 Proclamation, and that widespread publicity and notice shall be given of this Proclamation throughout the City; and that this Proclamation shall expire on May 31, 2025, unless repealed or extended by the City Council.
ADOPTED this ____ day of _____, 2024.
By:
__________________
David White
City Manager
Approved as to form: Attest:
__________________ __________________
Douglas Sloan Nikima Newsome
City Attorney City Clerk