What was the Norwalk City Council thinking? Los Angeles County had 75,000 homeless people at last count. Voters have repeatedly said in polls and surveys that reducing homelessness should be among the government’s top priorities, and people want to see humane solutions, such as more housing and shelters.
So what did Norwalk leaders do? In August, they adopted a 45-day moratorium on homeless shelters and supportive housing. Even after Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta warned the ban violated several state planning and fair housing laws, Norwalk leaders went ahead and voted in September to extend the moratorium to August 2025 — blocking Los Angeles County from launching a new effort to move people living in an encampment along the 105 Freeway into a nearby motel.
That’s outrageous. Now Newsom has cracked down on Norwalk — and rightfully so.
The governor announced Thursday that his administration is decertifying Norwalk’s state-mandated housing plan. The decision makes the city ineligible for certain funding and triggers the “builder’s remedy,” a provision in state law that lets developers apply to build whatever they want so long as the project includes units for low- or middle-income people.
The state’s crackdown on Norwalk’s obstruction is necessary and it sends a clear message to other NIMBY cities. For too long, the state took a hands-off approach, deeming housing and homelessness decisions a local control issue. As a result too many cities were allowed to limit growth, which is why the state has an affordable housing and homelessness crisis today.
And it has had real consequences. Norwalk’s ban stopped a plan to house homeless people. Earlier this year, Los Angeles County received a $51.5-million state grant to help nearly 600 people living in sprawling encampments along the 105 Freeway and nearby riverbeds move into temporary housing with supportive services, with the goal of getting them into permanent housing.
The effort was supposed to start last month. The county had reserved 80 rooms at a Norwalk motel — 60 for people leaving the encampment along the 105 Freeway and 20 for homeless individuals from other parts of the city, the Whittier Daily News reported. But the city’s moratorium blocked the use of the hotel as homeless housing.
The Norwalk ordinance temporarily bans homeless shelters, single-room occupancy housing and supportive housing, along with liquor stores, laundromats, car washes and payday lending businesses — all of which “could increase the risk of negative public health and public safety outcomes.” The moratorium was designed to give the city more time to study the impacts of these uses and develop new regulations.
But state housing regulators weren’t buying it, saying the city’s rationale for the moratorium defies logic. Housing and shelters promote the health and safety for both the unhoused and the surrounding community.
Too many people are living and dying on the streets in Los Angeles County. Norwalk city leaders should rescind their moratorium, and quickly.