1 City Council Meeting: September 9, 2025 Santa Monica, California RESOLUTION NUMBER _________ (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN EMERGENCY RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA RATIFYING THE 2025 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 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, which was extended to May 31, 2024; and
WHEREAS, on May 14, 2024 the City adopted a further Proclamation Declaring a Local Emergency on Homelessness (the “2024 Proclamation”), which was utilized to advance several key initiatives related to homelessness; and WHEREAS, based on the 2024 Point-In-Time Homeless Count (“2024 PITC”) data, there were 75,312 people experiencing homeless in Los Angeles County; and WHEREAS, based on the 2024 PITC data for Service Planning Area 5 (SPA 5), the SPA Santa Monica is in, there were 5,383 people experiencing homelessness; and WHEREAS, based on the 2024 PITC data, there were 774 people experiencing homelessness in Santa Monica; and
2 WHEREAS, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) conducted an End of Line Survey in January 2025, and found 39 unhoused persons were unsheltered 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 older adult homelessness has increased by 25% in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care between 2020 and 2024; 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 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 tenants had up to twelve (12) months to repay past due rent owed to avoid risk of eviction; and WHEREAS, the number of eviction lawsuits provided to the Santa Monica City Attorney’s office in 2024 increased by over 28% from the number provided in 2023, with
84.8% of 2024 eviction lawsuits based on nonpayment of rent, suggesting even more tenants at risk of eviction and homelessness than in 2023; and 3 WHEREAS, on March 11, 2025, because the conditions that existed at the time the 2024 Proclamation was adopted persist, the City Council adopted the 2025 Proclamation of the City Council of the City of Santa Monica Declaring a Local Emergency on Homelessness (the “2025 Proclamation”); and
WHEREAS, the 2025 Proclamation extends the local emergency on homelessness through December 31, 2026, and allows the City to expeditiously increase City services and programs to address and prevent homelessness; and WHEREAS, specifically, the extension of the local emergency effectuated by the 2025 Proclamation enables the City to, among other things, receive additional county, state, and federal resources to address the homelessness crisis, prevent rental price gouging, streamline and expedite certain City processes, leverage City resources to support people who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homelessness or to address local impacts of homelessness, and to allow the City Manager to take all available actions authorized under Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 2.16; and
WHEREAS, on April 22, 2025, the City Council adopted Resolution Number 11658 (CCS), ratifying the 2025 Proclamation; and
WHEREAS, on June 10. 2025, the City Council adopted Resolution Number 11669 (CCS), re-ratifying the 2025 Proclamation; and
WHEREAS, on July 29, 2025, the City Council adopted Resolution Number 11686 (CCS), re-ratifying the 2025 Proclamation.
WHEREAS the findings included in the 2025 Proclamation are included herein as if stated in full.
4 NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The 2025 Proclamation of the City Council of the City of Santa Monica Declaring a Local Emergency on Homelessness (“Exhibit A”) is hereby ratified.
SECTION 2. It is hereby proclaimed that a local emergency now exists throughout the City. It is further proclaimed and ordered that during the existence of this local emergency the powers, functions, and duties of the Director of Emergency Services and the emergency organization of this City shall be those prescribed by State law and by the ordinances and resolutions of this City.
SECTION 3. The City Council authorizes the City Manager, in capacity as the Director of Emergency Services, to take all actions related to the protection of life and property that are reasonably necessary to respond to the local emergency.
SECTION 4. The local emergency shall be deemed to continue and exist until December 31, 2026, unless its termination is earlier proclaimed by the City Council. As required by law, the City Council shall review the need to continue the state of emergency every 60 days until this resolution is terminated.
SECTION 5. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this Resolution, or the 2025 Proclamation ratified herein is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Resolution or the 2025 Proclamation. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this Resolution and the 2025 Proclamation and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or 5 phrase not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 6. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_________________________
Heidi von Tongeln
Acting City Attorney