State is suing Southern California city that banned new homeless shelters

The state of California filed a lawsuit against Norwalk on Monday, alleging the southeast Los Angeles County city’s moratorium on new shelters and supportive housing violates a half-dozen housing laws.

“No community should turn its back on its residents in need,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

In August, the Norwalk City Council passed a law banning the facilities along with new laundromats, liquor stores and payday lenders until at least next summer. Council members said the city of 100,000 was a dumping ground for homeless projects that strained the budget and led to disorder. Norwalk’s ban has already led to the cancellation of an effort to lease a hotel that county officials believed would have housed 80 people.

Calling Norwalk’s law “beyond cruel,” Newsom threatened litigation for months and has already withdrawn state approval of Norwalk’s development plan, making it ineligible for certain affordable housing dollars.

Monday’s lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court claims Norwalk’s ordinance violates anti-discrimination, fair housing and other laws.

Atty. Maj. Rob Bonta said Norwalk’s actions were “indiscriminate and defiant of the law” and cited the city’s homeless shelters, along with other businesses, as particularly problematic.

“It’s very revealing and frankly, very offensive to compare shelter, housing, compassion and the ability to get someone off the street to things they consider public nuisances,” Bonta said.

Norwalk, a predominantly Latino city with a median household income under $100,000, stands out from Beverly Hills, Coronado, At Canada Flintridge and other wealthy, white enclaves that challenged the state over housing.

City leaders said Norwalk does more than its fair share of homelessness, citing a social services department that helps homeless residents and supports repurposing abandoned buildings into a public residential psychiatric care facility for homeless people. More supportive housing developments are expected to open in the coming months, which will be accepted through the ban.

The city protested pandemic-era hotel-turned-shelter projects that residents and business owners said were mismanaged and led to an increase in Norwalk’s homeless population. A 2021 ruling by the LA County Superior Court allowed such a project to go forward, but deemed it a “public nuisance.”

“Why is Norwalk always the point of view for these programs?” Councilman Rick Ramirez said The Times for a recent story. “Where is the assistance from the other surrounding towns? We decided to defend ourselves.”

Bonta said the city has several avenues to address its complaints with county and state officials short of resorting to a shelter ban. Bonta said the state is willing to continue working with Norwalk to repeal its ordinance out of court, but will enforce the law.

“They asked us to sue them and we are,” Bonta said. “We hope to get a quick resolution. They can control how fast that is.”