A plan for a temporary homeless facility drew heavy fire at Tuesday’s Redondo Beach City Council meeting before agreement was reached on two city locations, following a tumultuous five-hour public hearing.
Spurred on by a $900,000 grant promise from Los Angeles County, the council eventually decided to build a pilot facility of 15 “Pallet shelters” and sanitary facilities in the 1500 block of Kingsdale Avenue, near Pacific Crest Cemetery, for six months. After that, the shelters would be moved to Moonstone Park in King Harbor for a similar period of time. Earlier this month the council set aside $300,000 of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, bringing the facility total to $1.2 million for a 13-month program.
The idea, council members agreed, was to “share” the emergency transitional facility between north and south city locales.
Council members and residents were widely divided during the often-contentious meeting, when several other locations were discussed. City Clerk Eleanor Manzano said her office received 102 email communications from residents voicing an opinion on the matter; the council declined to have these read. Ten people spoke via Zoom, again expressing widely diverse opinions.
Resident Mike Garland told the council he was “not happy with the action to not read the email messages.”
Council member Christian Horvath told Garland, “We do read all the emails. To those residents who express fear of the homeless, I get it. But if this is managed properly it should not be the problem some people think it might be.”
Sabrina Kaiser echoed comments from several other speakers that she was “dismayed to hear this council’s disheartening message. I expected to hear (opposition) from residents who don’t want this near them, but to hear this from council members was disappointing. There is no location that won’t be near somebody. Is this how we want to treat our neighbors?”
Jodi Masters, noting she lives on a boat in the marina, told the council that “the unhoused people are here, they are not a problem, and this is an opportunity to create something we can be proud of.”
City Attorney Mike Webb, who presented the plan to the council, said he wanted to make clear that “this isn’t a final decision.” Webb said that it has been determined to be unconstitutional to remove people from public property when there is “nowhere else for them to go,” and that “this is a complicated issue.”
Mayor Bill Brand said Redondo Beach residents “don’t live in a bubble here. We are not immune from (homelessness).”
Council member John Gran proposed utilizing Seaside Lagoon, on Portofino Way, as the facility’s initial location.
“Everyone here agrees,” he said, “that we don’t want this in our neighborhoods, but we have to get past that fact.” He proposed the lagoon location, he said, because it is closed at present, and won’t be “unlocked” for five months.
“No one wants it near them, so let’s put it in front of everyone. It’s the least expensive of the sites (to construct and maintain). It’s fenced. There are few businesses nearby.”
His motion to start the pilot program at the lagoon first, and then move to the Kingsdale location, won a 3-2 endorsement from the council, but the vote required four “yes” votes because the plan requires a budget adjustment. because the vote did not meet that threshold, Brand said he would exercise his veto power.
Gran then suggested tabling the issue to a later meeting. That, too, was rejected by the council.
Council member Todd Loewenstein spoke against the lagoon as a location.
“We have spent years attracting tourists to this district, and now we’re going to just blow it up?” he asked. “The harbor is a jewel. This is the worst place for this.”
At one point, council member Linda Emdee worried, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to agree on a place.”
Eventually, the council did agree on a so-called “compromise” of the Kingsdale/Moonstone Park locations.
Webb noted that efforts by the city to subsidize temporary housing by renting beds in local motels has not proved successful. ER
