Gov. Gavin Newsom called out Huntington Beach and Norwalk Thursday, Sept. 19, during a press conference announcing the passage of 32 laws aimed at the state’s housing and homelessness crises.
Newsom signed seven of the 32 bills, alongside Attorney General Rob Bonta, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Bay Area state legislators Timothy Grayson and Buffy Wicks and Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Tomiquia Moss.
“We can pass all these laws and if folks at the local level are blocking all these projects over and over and over, and you saw Norwalk this week,” Newsom said.
The Norwalk City Council this week extended a moratorium — first approved in August — that banned emergency shelters and supportive housing for an additional 10 months on Tuesday, a day after the California Department of Housing and Community Development issued a notice of violation against the city and Newsom decried the city’s actions as “immoral.”
On Thursday, Newsom said the notice of violation was the first from the state’s Housing Accountability Unit addressing homelessness.
“They didn’t even want to zone or support any supportive housing in their community and so we’re just taking a completely different approach than we ever have in the past, and I think we’re lighting a course for the future for other states, as well, to follow,” Newsom said.
Members of Norwalk City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, prior to voting to extend a moratorium on emergency shelters and supportive housing. (David Wilson/Whittier Daily News)
Newsom and HCD warned that if the city did not repeal the ordinance the state Attorney General’s Office could become involved.
Norwalk officials acknowledged receipt of the notice from the state and have said the city’s attorneys were reviewing it and would be responding.
Members of Norwalk city staff said the moratorium, which also prohibits new uses such as car washes and laundromats, is being implemented to give time to study the impacts of the uses on the city, with the goal of updating the zoning code.
“This action was taken to allow the City to further study the impact of the homelessness housing issue within Norwalk and to develop approaches to address this important concern,” Levy Sun, a spokesperson for the city, said in an email Thursday. “The ordinance specifically allows for parties to seek a waiver from the moratorium with the proper review by the City.”
Sun reiterated Mayor Margarita Rios’ comments from earlier in the week, which defended Norwalk’s record on addressing homelessness and that the city has received no Measure H funding.
Sun said Norwalk has opened affordable housing for homeless veterans, supported the county’s Homekey project, Project Roomkey, funded homeless engagement teams and has a dedicated social services department.
But state and county officials say the issue is more acute amid a homeless crisis and a lack of affordable housing.
Newsom on Thursday spoke broadly about the need for local jurisdictions to do their job in getting the state to meeting its goals. He said the state has set the goal of building 2.5 million units of housing by 2030.
“In order to achieve that we’ve got to build housing at a much faster clip than we have over the course of the last many decades,” Newsom said. “In order to do that we need to advance these streamlining efforts.”
Along with Norwalk, he mentioned Huntington Beach and the Sacramento County city of Elk Grove as municipalities not doing enough.
“You will soon be able to ask the folks in Huntington Beach if the law I’m about to sign is not impactful,” Newsom said. “They continue to thumb their nose at the state of California, the people of this great state. They continue to lose decision after decision after decision. They abuse the process, they abuse the law and now we will enforce aggressive fines with the law that I will be signing today.”
Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland speaks during a press conference announcing a federal lawsuit regarding the state of California’s housing mandates in Huntington Beach, California on Thursday, March 9, 2023.(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
One of the bills signed Thursday, SB 1037, will enhance the attorney general’s ability to seek civil penalties against local governments that violate state housing law.
The law will take effect Jan. 1, 2025 and will subject violators to a minimum penalty of $10,000 per month and not to exceed $50,000 per month, for each violation calculated from the date of violation. In addition, the penalty money will go toward the development of affordable housing in the affected jurisdiction.
According to the governor’s office the package of bills fall under the categories of preventing and ending homelessness, accountability, housing streamlining and production, transparency and efficiency, housing protections and tribal housing.
“We just want to radically change the way we’ve been doing things and I think that more than anything else defines the why, the what and the how of the seven bills that we just signed here today,” Newsom said.
While taking questions from the media Newsom defended his executive order urging cities to clear homeless encampments from state land.
Newsom said the state has never provided local jurisdictions more support to address housing shortages including through encampment resolution grants.
“Local government needs to do their job. They need to provide that support and that housing and they need to get people off the streets and sidewalks,” Newsom said. “People are dying on their watch. There is no compassion in allowing people to suffer the indignity of living in an encampment for years and years.”
Related links
Gov. Newsom’s office slams Norwalk’s extension of homeless shelters ban
Judge orders Huntington Beach to plan for more housing development
In State of the City, West Covina mayor highlights city’s diversity, need to build on strengths
San Gabriel cities receive $300,000 for river improvements
Former Montebello seminary deemed eligible for historic registry, in spite of owner’s opposition