1 City Council Meeting: May 9, 2023 Santa Monica, California
EXTENSION OF THE 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;
WHEREAS, the Director has found that it is vitally important to cooperate with other regional agencies to address threats to public health and safety in the City of Santa Monica (“City”) 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;
WHEREAS, based on the most recent Homeless Count data from 2022, 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States, 171,521 in California, 69,144 in Los Angeles County, and 807 in Santa Monica;
WHEREAS, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) conducted a point in time count in March 2022 and estimates that approximately 800 individuals experiencing homelessness were sheltering at the rail and bus rapid transit stations on any given night, and Metro’s current End of Line policy requires deboarding of all passengers and belongings at the end of the line when trains go out of service, resulting in an inflow of unhoused passengers at a time when sufficient resources are not available;
2 WHEREAS, homelessness is a complex regional issue that cannot be solved by or ignored by any single community, and the City has an extensive history of deep investments and coordinated efforts with other agencies to prevent and address homelessness;
WHEREAS, in May 2022, the City Council reaffirmed addressing homelessness as a top community priority; the City’s continued strategic investments, with a focus on permanent solutions, have helped to stem the increase in homelessness locally as demonstrated by the 2022 Homeless Count results; nevertheless, the impacts of homelessness are felt sharply on our streets;
WHEREAS, a 2019 report by the California Policy Lab found that 46% of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness reported experiences of trauma or abuse that caused or contributed to their homelessness; further, surveys found that 84% of unsheltered people had physical health conditions, 78% had mental health conditions, and 75% had substance abuse conditions; these challenges are worse for people of color and other marginalized groups who face additional hurdles to accessing housing, healthcare, and employment;
WHEREAS, the City has made investments in each of these areas, as well as advocated at the regional and state level to address homelessness on the scale being experienced in the Los Angeles region;
WHEREAS, it is critical that the City continues to keep our public spaces safe for everyone through enforcement of our local laws;
WHEREAS, the City has implemented a diverse set of strategies to identify the most vulnerable on our streets, repeatedly engage them to establish trust and address 3 their needs, connect them with appropriate medical and behavioral health services, and move them into housing while working closely with first responders to keep our community safe;
WHEREAS, the City’s coordinated interdepartmental efforts have historically relied on close collaboration with an emphasis on prioritizing resources for the most vulnerable chronically homeless individuals and judiciously enforcing applicable laws to promote public health and safety, while acknowledging that City resources alone are insufficient to address the region’s pressing crises of homelessness, affordable housing1, systemic racism2 and behavioral health3;
WHEREAS, the City adopted and continues to implement a strategic approach for preventing and addressing homelessness in March 2019, including:
1. Preventing housed Santa Monicans from becoming homeless and increasing affordable housing opportunities;
2. Addressing the behavioral health needs of vulnerable residents;
3. Maintaining equitable access to safe, fun, and healthy open spaces;
4. Strengthening regional capacity to address homelessness; and WHEREAS, conditions evidencing the ongoing crisis of homelessness include the following:
1 California Housing Partnership (2021). Los Angeles County 2021 Affordable Housing Needs Report. https://chpc.net/resources/los-angeles-county-housing-need-report-2021/ 2 Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (2018). Report and Recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness.
https://www.lahsa.org/documents?id=2823https://www.lahsa.org/documents?id=2823-report-andrecommendations-of-the-ad-hoc-committee-on-black-people-experiencing-homelessnessreportand-recommendations-of-the-ad-hoc-committee-on-black-people-experiencing-homelessness 3 California Policy Lab (2019). Health Conditions Among Unsheltered Adults in the U.S. https://www.capolicylab.org/health-conditions-among-unsheltered-adults-in-the-u-s/ 4 1. An increasing number of calls-for-service to the Police Department attributed to people experiencing homelessness. In 2021, the Police Department received 18,564 calls-for service and in 2022, the Police Department received 19,946 callsfor-service.
2. An increasing number of calls-for-service to the Fire Department attributed to people experiencing homelessness. In 2021, the Fire Department received 2,672 calls-for service and in 2022, the Fire Department received 3,017 calls-for-service.
3. An increasing number of encampments. In 2021, the Police Department responded to 1,630 encampments and in 2022, the Police Department responded to 1,879 encampments.
4. An increase in the number of public death cases attributed to individuals experiencing homelessness. In 2022, the City responded to 20 public death cases.
5. An increase in the number of outdoor fires and arson that resulted in the Fire Department responding to 393 fires in 2022, a 26% increase compared to 2021.
6. An increase in the amount of general debris, encampments and vandalism. An estimated $4 million of the Public Works Department annual maintenance budget is utilized in service of providing facilities and amenities such as clean restrooms, showers, and clean drinking water for the homeless population, as well as cleaning public spaces (beach, parks, Downtown and public right of way) that are heavily utilized by people experiencing homelessness. On average, the Public Works Department estimates that approximately 20-40 concentrated areas of congregation by unhoused residents are serviced weekly. 5 7. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, approximately 207 people a day are rehoused at the same time as 227 become homeless.
WHEREAS, in November 2022, Moss Adams completed a comprehensive study of the City’s homelessness response and prevention efforts and developed a series of recommendations as to how the City can optimize its efforts to address homelessness; WHEREAS, the City is experiencing elevated levels of vacancy throughout the organization and when combined with the staffing shortages that are experienced throughout the County, and inflexible civil service rules, the City struggles to fill positions expeditiously. This hampers the City’s ability to create the necessary organizational capacity to effectively and efficiently implement the programs and services that are needed to address homelessness;
WHEREAS, the City of Culver City, County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, and City of Long Beach, among others in the State, have each declared or proclaimed a local emergency to address homelessness;
WHEREAS, the City is located in Service Planning Area 5 (SPA 5) and falls under the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Continuum of Care (CoC); WHEREAS, the City is committed to creating new housing opportunities, preserving existing affordable housing, and helping residents keep their housing in Santa Monica. Along with rent control, inclusionary zoning, and the programs of the Housing Authority, allocation of resources from the Housing Trust Fund is one of the key drivers of preserving housing affordability levels in Santa Monica through production of new units and preservation of existing ones;
6 WHEREAS, a declaration of local emergency on homelessness would enable the City to:
1. Communicate to local, regional, state and federal partners that the City considers homelessness a regional crisis, warranting the deployment of additional resources;
2. Position the City to receive additional county, state, and federal resources to address the homelessness crisis. More resources are needed and could be deployed for the following:
a. Expanding multi-disciplinary outreach teams to connect individuals experiencing homelessness to local and regional services and housing; b. Providing enhanced supports, including rental assistance, for individuals that are rent burdened to prevent homelessness;
c. Increasing the supply of affordable housing and permanent supportive housing in the City through partnerships with local and regional entities; d. Enhancing public works resources to address the impacts of homelessness, which can be dangerous work that requires specialized training and equipment;
e. Enhancing the City’s public safety response to address impacts of homelessness; this cuts across both police and fire departments that are impacted in multiple ways, including arson, medical calls, etc.; and f. Expanding collaborative solutions that provide valuable services, programs in the areas of mental health, medical support and street medicine, and substance abuse.
7 3. Support the City’s work to address behavioral and mental health needs of residents and those experiencing homelessness;
4. Support regional homelessness and prevention planning and strategy through the Westside Cities Council of Governments and Los Angeles County;
5. Streamline and expedite any and all City processes and approvals concerning development, deployment of resources, employment, contracting, grant approvals, receipt, and 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; and
6. Allow the Director to take any and all actions authorized under Chapter 2.16.
WHEREAS, the City is experiencing elevated levels of vacancy throughout the organization, and when combined with the staffing shortages that are experienced throughout the County, and inflexible civil service rules, the City struggles to fill positions expeditiously. This hampers the City’s ability to create the necessary organizational capacity to effectively and efficiently implement the programs and services that are needed to address homelessness;
WHEREAS, Los Angeles is experiencing a massive workforce shortage, the ripple effects of COVID-19 hiring freezes and diminished workforces, which has led to understaffing and problems hiring and retaining staff due to the demands of the work of addressing and preventing homelessness, leading to delays in implementing programs, as reported by the Press Telegram, which cited the delay in implementation of Santa Monica’s therapeutic transport van as an example, the Los Angeles Times, and documented in the Moss Adams report;
8 WHEREAS, the City’s efforts to prevent and address homelessness are Council’s top priority, a cross-functional concern, the responsibility of the entire organization, and the Council and community desire a clean and safe Santa Monica. However, the City is experiencing elevated levels of employee vacancy throughout the organization and when combined with the staffing shortages that are experienced throughout the County, and strict civil service rules, the City struggles to fill positions expeditiously, if at all. This hampers the City’s ability to create the necessary organizational capacity to effectively and efficiently implement the programs and services that are needed to address and prevent homelessness and support a clean and safe Santa Monica; WHEREAS, Moss Adams recommended that the City appropriately match staff capacity and resources with community expectations related to homelessness prevention and response. The community’s expectations for additional investments in preventing and addressing homelessness and maintaining public safety were conveyed through the passage of Measure CS and Measure GS in November 2022, which will generate new funding sources specifically for an expansion of City personnel, services, and programs to prevent and address homelessness and maintain a clean and safe community; WHEREAS, on February 14, 2023, the City adopted a Proclamation Declaring a Local Emergency on Homelessness (the “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; WHEREAS, the conditions that existed at the time the Proclamation was adopted continue to persist, and, therefore, the City Council wishes to extend the adopted Proclamation through May 31, 2024, to increase City services and programs to address 9 and prevent homelessness, maintain public safety, and maintain a clean and safe community.
NOW THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that a local emergency on homelessness exists in the City of Santa Monica; 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 Director 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 enactment of Emergency Recruitment and Hiring protocols to expedite staffing essential to respond to urgent situations requiring immediate services to protect persons at-risk and experiencing homelessness from life-threatening harm and the public safety and welfare. This entails, with the approval of the City Manager and advice of the Human Resources Director and City Attorney in each case, the deferred or suspended implementation of certain sections of the City Charter and Santa Monica Municipal Code relating to competitive examinations; eligibility lists; and temporary, limited, as needed, and regular appointments, on a case-by-case basis limited to job classifications that address the homelessness emergency as described in this Proclamation, including Charter section 1100 and Municipal Code sections 2.04.060, 2.04.080, 2.04.140, 2.04.180, 2.04.200,
2.04.210, 2.04.250, and 2.04.270. This may allow, as may be necessary, for example, and without limitation:
10 1. Making changes to certain job specifications to reflect the current nature of the work or departmental structure without prior Personnel Board approval to expedite service delivery;
2. Appointing a probationary employee to serve in an acting role within a higher classification;
3. Appointing an employee who does not meet all minimum qualifications to serve in a temporary position to provide services to address and prevent homelessness or free up staff capacity elsewhere to address and prevent homelessness;
4. Over hiring (two or more employees in one position) to allow an employee who has resigned with a date certain to transfer knowledge and train their successor, whether that successor is a permanent or temporary employee.
IT IS FURTHER PROCLAIMED AND ORDERED that the continuing local emergency be regularly evaluated by the City Council, by referencing actions and key performance indicators of progress in addressing the emergency, which include but are not limited to:
1. Regulatory relief from other jurisdictions and within Los Angeles County agencies to create flexibility to address the crisis;
2. Enactment of an Emergency Procurement Protocol to enable expedited retention of vendors/contractors and acquisition of supplies and services for the provision of services, shelter, and housing to protect persons at-risk and experiencing homelessness from life threatening harm;
3. Coordination with the County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, and LAHSA to address homeless encampments at our shared borders;
11 4. Coordination with Metro regarding their evaluation of their End of Line Policy to mitigate the impacts on Santa Monica when passengers are forced to exit their trains when they go out of service;
5. Coordination with CalTrans to protect the health and safety of the community due to the accessibility of CalTrans right-of-way and encampments that occur on CalTrans right-of-way, especially along the embankments of Interstate-10;
6. Coordination with Los Angeles County to expedite the deployment of the Therapeutic Transport Van that will provide a much-needed resource to respond to persons experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis;
7. Advocacy to regional, state and federal legislative representatives and agencies, including but not limited to the County of Los Angeles, LAHSA, the California Housing and Community Development Department, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the California Department of Social Services, the California Health and Human Services Agency, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to directly allocate resources to the City of Santa Monica to support increased outreach and behavioral health services, emergency response assistance, and production of affordable and permanent supportive housing;
8. Continued deployment of resources to address homeless encampments that pose a threat to health and safety or risk of fire hazard, block the public right-away, or are within 500 feet of sensitive receptors;
12 9. Continuation of support of renter’s rights and tenant protections through the City’s Rent Control and Tenant Protection Ordinances; and prioritize evaluation and implementation of revisions and/or extensions to the City’s existing eviction moratoriums;
10.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;
11.Evaluation of traffic safety related impacts on unhoused individuals and implementation of mitigation measures to prevent pedestrian related deaths among persons experiencing homelessness;
12.To optimize the City’s work to address homelessness, complete an evaluation of the Moss Adams Homelessness Study and prioritize the implementation of recommendations that align with available local, county, state, and federal resources;
13.In order to maximize Housing Trust Fund resources, complete an evaluation of existing and anticipated Housing Trust Fund resources to determine the ability to make specific resources available quickly while the City pursues longer-term initiatives on City-owned land pursuant to the Housing Element;
14.Streamline, accelerate, and expedite processes which implement Councilapproved policy in the 2021-2029 Housing Element regarding City-owned land identified for affordable housing, such as issuing requests for proposals to identify development teams with demonstrated capacity to design, finance, construct, and 13 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;
15.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. On a case-by-case basis, staff may modify or waive the requirements 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 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 and that widespread publicity and notice shall 14 be given of this Proclamation throughout the City; and that this Proclamation shall expire on May 31, 2024, unless repealed or extended by Council.
ADOPTED this ____ day of _____, 2023
By: _________________________
David White
City Manager
Approved as to form: Attest:
__________________________ __________________________
Douglas Sloan Denise Anderson-Warren
City Attorney City Clerk