m20220511_Spec 1 May 11, 2022
CITY OF SANTA MONICA
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
MAY 11, 2022
A special meeting of the Santa Monica City Council was called to order by Mayor Himmelrich at 6:08 p.m.,
on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, via teleconference pursuant to Assembly Bill No. 361 signed by, Governor
Gavin Newsome at City Council Chambers, 1685 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA.
Roll Call: Present: Mayor Sue Himmelrich
Mayor Pro Tem Kristin McCowan
Councilmember Phil Brock
Councilmember Gleam Davis
Councilmember Lana Negrete
Councilmember Oscar de la Torre
Councilmember Christine Parra (attended via phone)
Also Present: City Manager David White
Interim City Attorney Joseph Lawrence
City Clerk Denise Anderson-Warren
CONVENE/PLEDGE
On order of the Mayor, the City Council convened at 6:08 p.m., with all
members present, and Councilmember Parra via teleconference.
Councilmember Davis led the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance.
AGENDA
MANAGEMENT
On order of the Mayor, Council heard Item 8.A. before 2.A. because the
commendation recipient was not present.
STAFF
ADMINISTRATIVE
ITEMS:
HOMELESSNESS CRISIS
8.A. Update on Local Efforts Addressing the Regional Homelessness
Crisis, was presented.
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Review and comment on the Annual Interdepartmental
Homelessness Report, including the 2022-2023 Homelessness
Workplan;
2. Endorse three key investments for FY2022-23 budget consideration:
expanding the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) Homeless
Liaison Program (HLP) Team); creating an additional
multidisciplinary street team to provide coverage outside of the
Downtown Santa Monica and beach areas; and redesigning the
SAMOSHEL program scope to facilitate after-hours intakes for City
referrals;
3. Direct staff to return with an action item to revise the Below Market
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Housing (BMH) waitlist priorities to prioritize households with
Emergency Housing Vouchers;
4. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute Agreement No.
11265 (CCS) with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA)
for legal and support services to Santa Monica renters at risk of
eviction. This recommended award is made as an exception to the
competitive bidding process pursuant to Section 2.24.250 (b) and is
for a total amount not to exceed $200,000 with future-year funding
contingent on Council budget approval.
Members of the public Jerry Rubin, Denise Barton, Zach Coil, Genevieve
Riutort, Catie Czapanskiy, Barry Snell, James Fleming, Tanya Pemberton,
Johnathan Foster, Brian Stedge, Arthur Jeon (time donated by John Alle)
and, Ericka Lesley spoke to the recommended action.
Questions asked and answered of staff included: is having Santa Monica
Shelter (SAMOSHEL) at the corner of 5th and Olympic the best place to
have it located, especially being so close to the downtown business district;
has there been any thought about moving that shelter to another location; if
resources are approved, how many people are expected to stay in
SAMOSHEL; how long would a person stay at SAMOSHEL before they
transition to a permanent facility; would this 24/7 only be for Santa Monica
residents and not for those from other jurisdictions; what is the vision for a
timeframe for the healthcare program; how will the $10 million from St.
John’s play into the regional concept plan; how is our approach
incentivizing other cities to do their part; what if there was a national
registry for homeless, that the city could bill back the originating city, and
is there anything currently like that; would it be possible to create a registry
of those who are dangerous or criminals that end up in Santa Monica and
may end up committing crimes against residents; what are the strategies to
engage families with those who are homeless in order to get more support;
do we prioritize residence or former residents, or families with a single
parent for these types of services; on a regional basis, are most people in
L.A. County originally from the county; how do we reduce some
institutional barriers to get people to move into interim to permanent
housing; is it true that 85% of people who get into permanent housing,
remain in long-term permanent housing; is there a further breakdown of the
felony versus misdemeanor arrest of homelessness; is there some plan of
how often a report should be made to the community, and how do we
evaluate the workplan on homelessness; how are we reaching out to
evaluate what we can do better to help those in need; how often is there
outreach for all areas of the city outside of the downtown and beach area
who need services; are we starting to consider public-private partnerships
to help fund these street teams; what are the hours the People Concern
function, and how often are they there; is there a Team dedicated to the
Promenade area; how often is there turnover in the downtown area; and
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Councilmember Parra
excused at 10:14 p.m.
how many contacts to accept help; how much would it cost to have a 24/7
team in the downtown area; what is the cost to have one of those portable
restroom trailers available around town; in the parks, are there any new
solutions to help residents close to the parks feel safe; are both the Access
Center and SAMOSHEL both scheduled to be more permanent; would
having some tiny homes in parking lots in Santa Monica, would that help
alleviate some of the homelessness in Santa Monica; are all the agencies we
work with on the Workplan list; how is homelessness eligibility determined
and what is the criteria; are we giving out more vouchers than other
jurisdictions; is it possible to incentive property owners to accept affordable
housing vouchers; how much are we reaching out to other partners in the
city to talk about long-term beds to address mental health challenges; what
are the resources used to help those who achieve permanent housing to help
them remain there; where is the property crime most concentrated in the
city; is it fair to say that most of the property crimes are happening in
apartments; at the state level, what are we doing to lobby to assist with
diversion; what happens to a person once they are arrested for breaking in,
stealing a bike, or other smaller crimes; how do we get help for those who
are repeat offenders, before they cause harm to another person; how is our
the housing requirement going impact our infrastructure and basic
municipal needs (i.e. water, electricity, streets, transportation, etc.) if
looking at housing the homeless; how can our Housing Element address the
issues being discussed tonight; are the maps based on a census track; what
is the average undercount in the homeless count over the years; what are
the impacts of some encampments on the eastern, northern and southern
borders of the city; why is the daytime hours considered the best time for
the C3 team to be out instead of overnight; why is the 30 to 60 day time
needed to come back to Council with the affordable housing voucher RFP;
are a lot of these individual duplicated; was the location for SAMOSHEL
selected because that was the largest concentration of homeless; who are
considered Santa Monicans amongst the homeless; when we’re designing
our programs, are they built on services; explain the demographics of the
cases prosecuted by the criminal division; of those prosecuted, how many
of those are Santa Monica residents; are the policies of the County keeping
the criminal division from getting the sentencing or punishment requested
for some of these misdemeanor crimes; are the misdemeanor crimes even
doing any good; would it help if they brought back criminal cases to the
Santa Monica Courthouse; what is the estimated time to update and
complete the homelessness audit; is there a regional approach to providing
housing in other areas where it would be more cost effective than building
in Santa Monica; how much of the third party programs are happening in
Santa Monica, and is there any tracking of those programs; is there a way
that the third-party vendors could move their needle exchange to another
location away from the public parks; does it make sense to strengthen
security supervision in the parks where needle exchanges and our unhoused
residents reside; and, would it be possible to assign a Public Safety Officer
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for when the needle exchange program is delivering at the public parks.
Considerable discussion ensued on topics including, but not limited to:
things need to be addressed that have a multitude of conflicts between
Human Services and the Police Department that need to be worked out, or
create other options; this is a regional problem, that we cannot do alone;
reducing services is not going to resolve the homeless problem; the
conversation is not about criminalizing homelessness; there is a huge drug
problem on our streets which is coordinated to a lot of the homeless; there
is a need for more services; as far as housing, there needs to be a discussion
about the housed and unhoused, and creating relationships with other
jurisdictions to come up with alternative solutions; this study session was
useful to provide a look for things to consider once more funds become
available; a large majority of our homeless come from outside the Santa
Monica borders; advocate for a Care Court here in Santa Monica to help
people with mental issues who really need help; take the steps to make our
city as safe as possible for residents as well as the homeless; frustration
because we aren’t able to do enough to resolve a problem that has no
solution; need to talk about prevention, specifically drugs, work with the
school districts; look at how difficult it is to keep families housed,
including Rent Control; we need to be mindful about our approach,
compassionate accountability; require behavior, and abide by the rules in
public spaces; we are responsible to protect our public spaces; there are
other people who need housing (teachers, veterans), and we need to
strengthen our services and outreach to veterans; in the downtown, the
same amount of effort needs to be made that were made on the Pier to
enforce vendors, the same needs to be done to reduce the amount of
homeless; we want to help homeless get off the street and back on their
feet; we need to have program evaluation and accountability as part of the
grants program, and homelessness programs; and, would like to see more
input and outputs so residents can also see where the funding is going.
Motion by Councilmember Brock, seconded by Councilmember Negrete,
to endorse three key investments for FY2022-23 budget consideration:
expanding the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) Homeless Liaison
Program (HLP) Team); creating an additional multidisciplinary street team
to provide coverage outside of the Downtown Santa Monica and beach
areas; and redesigning the SAMOSHEL program scope to facilitate after-
hours intakes for City referrals, with the amendment to look at a possible
relocation of SAMOSHEL. The motion was approved by the following
vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Davis, Negrete, Brock, de la Torre,
Mayor Pro Tem McCowan, Mayor Himmelrich
NOES: None
ABSENT: Councilmember Parra
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Motion by Councilmember Davis, seconded by Councilmember Brock, to
direct staff to revise the Below Market Housing (BMH) waitlist priorities to
prioritize households with Emergency Housing Vouchers. The motion was
approved by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers de la Torre, Brock, Negrete, Davis,
Mayor Pro Tem McCowan, Mayor Himmelrich
NOES: None
ABSENT: Councilmember Parra
Motion by Mayor Pro Tem McCowan, seconded by Councilmember de la
Torre, to authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement
with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) for legal and support
services to Santa Monica renters at risk of eviction. This recommended
award is made as an exception to the competitive bidding process pursuant
to Section 2.24.250 (b) and is for a total amount not to exceed $200,000
with future-year funding contingent on Council budget approval,
Councilmember de la Torre proposed a friendly amendment to include this
additional work to the annual report back to Council on how the funds are
being expended. The amendment was considered friendly by the maker.
The motion was approved by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Davis, Negrete, Brock, de la Torre,
Mayor Pro Tem McCowan, Mayor Himmelrich
NOES: None
ABSENT: Councilmember Parra
SPECIAL AGENDA
ITEMS:
2.A. Commendation: Dr. Jon Sherin, was not present, and will be
mailed.
ADJOURNMENT On order of the Mayor, the City Council meeting adjourned at 12:01a.m.
ATTEST: APPROVED:
Denise Anderson-Warren Sue Himmelrich
City Clerk Mayor
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