Pallet shelter at Galleria to continue another year, add two units
by Garth Meyer
Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi walked into Redondo Beach City Council chambers Aug. 9 with a $500,000 check.
It was the latest, and largest, donation to the city’s homeless efforts.
The same night, the council approved another year of the pallet shelter project – adding two more units – and discussed broader plans.
“I want to thank the City of Redondo Beach for all of your leadership,” Muratsuchi said. “I think the City of Redondo Beach has really been at the forefront, (using) forward thinking to balance public safety with compassion.”
He singled out City Attorney Mike Webb for praise. Webb has testified twice in Sacramento in an effort to expand the Redondo pallet shelter model statewide. Muratsuchi has written and introduced AB 2220 in support of the proposal.
“This is my first fake check I get to deliver,” said the representative, before presenting the giant bank note to a grateful Webb.
“… I still hope to see the bill pass,” Webb said.
RBPD Chief Joe Hoffman said he believes the pallet homes have made for a reduction in crime.
Webb noted that the units are geared toward longtime Redondo residents.
“We’re trying to solve our problem, not everyone’s problem,” he said.
Though the L.A. County Homeless Count has not been released yet for 2022, Webb told the council he thinks the Redondo Beach “numbers are trending downward.”
Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr., asked questions and weighed his vote.
The District Four representative has drawn criticism for his support last year to continue the pallet shelter project at the Galleria, in his district. Obagi said at the Aug. 9 council meeting that if he voted for this he did not want District Five representative Laura Emdee to send out a newsletter e-mail blaring “Obagi makes pallet shelters permanent…”
City manager Mike Witzansky emphasized that the vote before them was only to extend the program by one year.
“(You) can hit the eject button for this site at any time,” he said.
The council has considered other locations.
“We as a city are looking everywhere for spots,” said Mayor Pro Tem Nils Nehrenheim.
Witzansky told the council he was increasingly confident the program will pay for itself this year (without direct city funds) because of $1.7 million in grants received in the past 12 months, including the $500,000 from Muratsuchi.
Discussion continued, including some public comment which suggested the program could be a magnet for homeless to come to Redondo Beach, and concerns about soft costs.
Councilman Christian Horvath made the motion to extend the program. Emdee seconded it. She pointed to a 2018 federal ruling (Ninth District, Martin vs. Boise) which decreed that a city may not enforce anti-camping laws without the choice of a bed in return.
“We cannot enforce our laws without offering a bed. The first city to figure out something that works is (thanks to) that team right over there,” she said, indicating Webb, Redondo Beach Quality of Life Prosecutor Joy Abaquin Ford, and Lila Omurra, the city’s homeless housing navigator.
Nehrenheim addressed the magnet question, referring to this summer’s District One community meetings about the proposed Section 8 housing project in the former Pacific Coast Inn.
In response to concerns that homeless are drawn to Redondo because of the pallet homes, Nehrenheim said, “People are not coming to Redondo Beach to live in a plastic and metal box. They (go to places) for free services; things we don’t do in Redondo Beach… This is all good.”
The one-year extension passed with a 4-0 vote. Councilman Todd Loewenstein was absent.
The council also approved acceptance of a $250,000 L.A. County grant to be spent on two more pallet shelter units, sewer work at the site, and buying an administrative office trailer with a shower, and restroom. These were previously rented.
Total pallet shelter units will now be 20. So far, 30 people have lived in the units and moved to permanent housing. Fifteen residents live there now.
“That’s 45 people off of Redondo’s streets,” Ford said.
The Redondo Beach city council originally voted to start a six-month pallet shelter pilot program in 2020. It began that December. In spring 2021, the council voted to keep the program at the Galleria for a year.
The homeless court, started indoors in 2019, moved outdoors at the start of the pandemic.
“The environment is a little more formal indoors. Outside is not as intimidating,” Ford said.
Participants in homeless court get the opportunity to have cases against them dismissed if they take steps toward self-sufficiency, such as entering drug rehabilitation, starting the pallet shelter program or otherwise.
More than 30 homeless court cases are now pending. Cases remain pending until the defendants reach certain benchmarks.
In July, the Redondo Beach monthly homeless court moved from a spot by the Detective Bureau to Hermosa Beach in order to serve cases in that city, as well. It will be held in Hermosa Beach through October.
Hermosa Beach homeless are not eligible for the Redondo Beach pallet shelter.
Harbor Interfaith Services manages the pallet shelter, and will also manage the proposed housing at the former Pacific Coast Inn in south Redondo, on Pacific Coast Highway.
Harbor Interfaith formed in 1975 to help homeless and working poor toward becoming self-sufficient.
It was created through a merger of two San Pedro organizations; “FISH: The Emergency Food Pantry, and Advocacy Center, and Harbor Interfaith Shelter. ER