The state of California filed suit against Norwalk on Monday, alleging 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 residents in need,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
In August, Norwalk’s City Council passed a law banning the facilities along with new laundromats, liquor stores and payday lenders until at least next summer. Council members said the city of 100,000 had been a dumping ground for homeless projects that were straining the budget and leading to disorder. Norwalk’s ban has already led to the cancellation of a hotel leasing effort that county officials believed would have sheltered 80 people.
Calling Norwalk’s law “beyond cruel,” Newsom has threatened litigation for months and already withdrew state approval for Norwalk’s development blueprint, making it ineligible for certain affordable housing dollars.
Monday’s suit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court contends Norwalk’s ordinance violates anti-discrimination, fair housing and other laws.
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Norwalk’s actions have been “brazenly and defiantly violative of the law,” and cited the city’s lumping homeless shelters in with the other businesses as especially problematic.
“It’s very revealing and frankly very offensive to compare shelter, housing, compassion and the ability to bring someone off the street to things that they consider public nuisances,” Bonta said.
Norwalk, a Latino-majority city with a median household income under $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 have said Norwalk does more than its fair share on homelessness, citing a social services department that assists homeless residents and support to repurpose abandoned buildings at a public psychiatric care facility for homeless housing. Multiple supportive housing developments are expected to open in the coming months that will be grandfathered in under the ban.
The city has protested pandemic-era hotel-turned-shelter projects that residents and business owners said were poorly managed and led to a surge in Norwalk’s homeless population. A 2021 ruling in L.A. County Superior Court allowed one such project to go forward but deemed it a “public nuisance.”
“Why is always Norwalk the pinpoint for these programs?” Councilmember Rick Ramirez told The Times for a recent story. “Where’s the assistance from the other surrounding cities? We’ve decided to stand up for ourselves.”
Bonta said the city has multiple avenues to address its complaints with county and state officials without resorting to a shelter ban. Bonta said the state is willing to continue working with Norwalk to repeal its ordinance out of court, but will enforce the law.
“They have required us to sue them and we are,” Bonta said. “We hope to get a resolution quickly. They can control how quickly that is.”
