It comes days after the 2026 Point-in-Time Count showed unsheltered homelessness in Santa Monica down 18.7% and the overall count down 11.6% to 718 people.
By Sarah Lin
The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday approved a Housing Focused System of Care that gives the city direct control over homelessness services from street outreach through permanent housing, reducing reliance on the Los Angeles County-run system.
Mayor Caroline Torosis said the change aims to prevent people from falling through the cracks between agencies. “Rather than relying on others to coordinate our homeless response activities, Santa Monica is choosing instead to build a system we control,” she said.
The model centers on four priorities: prioritizing people with a Santa Monica connection for local housing, providing robust on-site services, city-directed security, and good-neighbor agreements. Under the plan, the city will take management of the 34-room Palm Motel at 2020 14th Street and limit placements there to individuals who meet Santa Monica Program Participant criteria — those who became homeless in the city, have been homeless there for three or more years, or are frequent users of city services.
The city will also fund 35 currently unfunded beds at the Salvation Army’s Bell Shelter so outreach teams and first responders always have a referral option for people who do not meet local criteria. Staff will seek non-congregate, scattered-site interim housing to replace the capacity of SaMoShel, the city’s existing congregate shelter, which is scheduled to close by the end of the year.
Housing and Human Services Director Aileen Reynolds said every site will operate with clear outcome goals, on-site services and security. “This is about accountability, to the people we serve and the people we’re trying to help,” she said.
The approval follows 14 community meetings held between April and July. It comes days after the 2026 Point-in-Time Count showed unsheltered homelessness in Santa Monica down 18.7% and the overall count down 11.6% to 718 people, even as homelessness rose slightly across the broader Los Angeles County Continuum of Care.
The shift has drawn concern from some residents, particularly in the Pico neighborhood, who worry about the concentration of services and potential impacts on safety and sanitation as the city repurposes motels and seeks new interim sites. City officials have described the approach as “Housing Focused,” emphasizing screening, assessments and performance measures rather than an unrestricted Housing First model.
