Santa Monica is preparing to decommission SaMoShel, the 60-bed congregate shelter that has served as the city’s only dedicated sheltering resource for more than three decades, as part of a broader overhaul of how the city addresses homelessness.
The City Council will consider the plan, called the Housing Focused System of Care, at its July 28 meeting. The proposal would replace SaMoShel’s dormitory-style setup — in which residents sleep in an assigned area of a large room alongside many others — with a network of non-congregate housing that the city, rather than Los Angeles County, would control from intake through permanent placement.
According to a staff report prepared by Aileen Reynolds, director of the city’s Housing and Human Services Department, the shift comes as Los Angeles County dramatically restructures its regional homeless response system. Over the past 15 months, the county Board of Supervisors voted to pull Measure A funding from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, created a new County Department of Homeless Services and Housing, and then cut nearly $200 million from homeless services amid a budget shortfall. In June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended federal funding to LAHSA and the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, adding further strain…