In July 2021, a “cabin community” of homeless housing opened in Tarzana to a great fanfare of political credit-taking. Now, it’s closing down.
“Demobilization of Tarzana Cabin Community” headlined an October 24 post on City Councilman Bob Blumenfield’s District 3 website.
“To help address the crisis of homelessness, five years ago, I led the effort to create the ‘Sunflower’ Cabin Community in Tarzana with the help of the non-profit Hope the Mission,” Blumenfield stated. He praised the 74-cabin project located on a slice of property owned by the county transportation agency, Metro, for providing housing and services “to help people on our local streets have an opportunity to turn their lives around.”
The statement is all about intentions. Results?
“It is no secret that this site had its share of issues,” Blumenfield wrote. “While some clients were caught in drug offenses and petty theft, compared to other Cabin Communities, it also had a lower transition rate to permanent housing.”
The councilman cited regulatory hurdles that “would have required hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to install new ramps and infrastructure changes,” as well as this: “Over the last few years, I tried to make it a sober site, but due to state and federal rules, this designation would take years at best and cost more to the taxpayers.”
That’s a reference to the “Housing First” laws and regulations that make public funding for homeless housing contingent on the project having absolutely no requirement for residents to stop using drugs, or even to participate in programs or counseling.
Bob Blumenfield is not a bystander in California government. He has been a member of the City Council since 2013, before that he served in the California Assembly starting in 2008, before that he was a district director for Congressman Howard Berman, and before that he worked in Washington, DC, from 1989 to 1996 as a staffer for Senator Bill Bradley, Rep. Berman and the House Budget Committee.
Instead of posting a statement on a website citing “state and federal rules” that prevent homeless housing from being “a sober site,” Blumenfield could be in front of state legislative committees and in the offices of members of Congress, demanding changes to those rules.
Has he ever spoken publicly about the terrible consequences of California’s “Housing First” law, Senate Bill 1380 enacted in 2016?
The Sunflower Cabin Community was built under pressure from a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit over homelessness. But that was before the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision confirming that cities have the power to enforce a generally applicable anti-camping ordinance. Los Angeles still refuses to do that.
So L.A. residents are watching their tax dollars go down the sewer to build and operate $800,000-per-unit housing, as well as to buy and renovate hotels and apartments, and then wait for people in the throes of substance use disorder to decide for themselves that they are ready to come inside. If they do, counseling and sobriety are optional.
Only the taxpayers are required to do anything. L.A. County’s latest half-percent sales tax increase for homelessness programs will remove $1 billion per year from the wallets of people who are trying to pay their own bills, a task made more difficult when drug addicts are hanging around workplaces.
“This is one of the hardest messages I’ve ever had to write,” said the owner of Theresa’s Country Feed/Red Barn in Tarzana in a September 8 Facebook post. After decades serving the community, October 6 was the last day of operation for the Tarzana store, located right next to the Sunflower Cabin Community.
“Criminal, drug and homeless activity in the area—including break-ins and threats to both employees and customers—has taken a serious psychological, physical, and financial toll over the past year,” the owner wrote. “Despite our efforts for capital improvements and security solutions to protect our customers and employees, we ultimately had to accept Metro’s offer to release us from our lease.”
In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 79, which allows Metro to build high-rise residential and commercial buildings on its land.
Somehow, when California public officials decide “to help people,” the people who get the most help are real estate developers.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley