State sues Southern California city that banned new homeless shelters

The state of California filed a lawsuit against Norwalk on Monday, claiming the southeastern Los Angeles County city's moratorium on new homeless shelters and supportive housing violates a half-dozen housing laws.

“No community should turn its back on its vulnerable residents,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

In August, the Norwalk City Council passed a law banning the facilities, as well as new laundromats, liquor stores and payday loans, at least until next summer. Council members said the city of 100,000 people had been a dumping ground for homeless projects that strained the budget and led to unrest. Norwalk's ban has already led to the cancellation of a hotel lease project that county officials believed would have provided accommodation for 80 people.

Newsom called Norwalk's law “beyond cruel,” threatened litigation for months and has already revoked state approval for Norwalk's development plan, making it ineligible for certain affordable housing dollars.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that Norwalk's ordinance violates anti-discrimination, fair housing and other laws.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Norwalk's actions were “a brazen and defiant violation of the law” and called the city's consolidation of homeless shelters with the other companies particularly problematic.

“It's very telling and frankly very offensive to compare housing, housing, compassion and the ability to get someone off the streets to things they consider a public nuisance,” Bonta said.

Norwalk, a Latino-majority city with a median household income of less than $100,000, stands out from Beverly Hills, Coronado, La Cañada Flintridge and other wealthy white enclaves that have challenged the state on housing issues.

City leaders said Norwalk is doing more than its fair share to combat homelessness, pointing to a social services department that helps the homeless and supports the conversion of abandoned buildings into a public psychiatric care facility for homeless shelters. Several supportive housing developments are expected to open in the coming months and are here to stay.

The city has protested against pandemic-era projects that converted hotels into emergency shelters. Residents and business owners said they were mismanaged and led to an increase in Norwalk's homeless population. A 2021 LA County Superior Court ruling allowed such a project to proceed but classified it as a “public nuisance.”

“Why is Norwalk always the go-to place for these programs?” Councilman Rick Ramirez told the Times a recent story. “Where is the help from the other surrounding cities? We decided to stand up for ourselves.”

Bonta said the city has several options to address its complaints with county and state officials without resorting to a shelter-in-place ban. Bonta said the state is willing to continue working with Norwalk to overturn its ordinance out of court, but will enforce the law.

“They asked us to sue them, and that’s what we’re doing,” Bonta said. “We hope for a quick solution. You can control how quickly it happens.”

Levy Sun, a spokesman for Norwalk, said Monday afternoon that the city had not been served with the lawsuit and declined further comment.