By Jorge Casuso

April 17, 2025 -- The City Council on Tuesday is expected to ratify a proclamation extending Santa Monica's local homelessness emergency for a third year.

The action comes more than two years after the City Council declared its initial emergency on February 14, 2023 to boost funding and speed up hiring to address the worsening crisis ("Council Votes to Declare Homelessness Emergency," February 15, 2023).

A second proclamation was adopted on May 14, 2024, followed by a third on March 11 that will be in place for the remainder of this year.

Like the two previous emergency proclamations, the current one "allows the City to expeditiously increase City services and programs to address and prevent homelessness."

The 2025 Proclamation cites the County government's "massive workforce shortage," which is delaying programs like the Therapeutic Transport Team.

In addition, the City is struggling to "fill positions expeditiously,
if at all" due in part to strict civil service rules, hampering its ability to "effectively implement" homeless programs and services.

As evidence the homelessness crisis continues, the proclamation notes that last year:

• 60 percent of the arrests made by Santa Monica police involved the homeless;
  
  
• 180 out of 459 fire incidents, or 39 percent, were "related to people experiencing homelessness;"
  
  
• Police responded to 1,648 calls related to encampments, and the Department's Homeless Liaison Program (HLP) Team handled 862 requests to address encampments through the 311 system;
  
  
• There were 22 public death cases of people experiencing
  homelessness, and
  
  
• On an average monthly basis, some 224 homeless individuals were identified in the areas that are serviced by the Public Works Department.

According to staff, the 2025 Proclamation "will allow the City to continue to address the crisis in a nimble way, including allowing for enforcement of laws that support homelessness prevention," including rent gouging.

The proclamation also will "streamline, accelerate, and expedite processes to advance development of affordable housing infrastructure and programs," staff said.

"By leveraging the flexibility provided by the emergency order, we can adapt our hiring practices to ensure we have the necessary workforce to effectively address homelessness."

State law requires "local governmental authorities to renew a local emergency every 60 days until the governing body terminates the local emergency," staff said.

In addition to Santa Monica, the County of Los Angeles and the cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Culver City have each declared or proclaimed a local homelessness emergency, according to staff.