By Jorge Casuso

November 3, 2025 -- The City Council last week unanimously approved steps to make the process for new homeless housing facilities more transparent, but not before setting off some political fireworks.

The item was placed on the agenda by Mayor Lana Negrete days before two transitional housing facilities for the mentally ill homeless on Ocean Avenue were pulled by County Commissioner Lindsey Horvath after a pubic outcry ("Ocean Avenue Mental Health Projects Pulled," October 27, 2025).

The item approved 7 to 0 calls for ensuring "broad communication and outreach" to neighboring residents and businesses when "supportive, shelter, or transitional-housing projects" are proposed.

It also calls for tracking the County projects, which don't require City approval, and creating a map that includes the 14 current homeless developments and facilities in Santa Monica, five of which are Downtown and five in the Pico Neighborhood.

The projects, Negrete said, "are being put in the City with no advanced notice" and are putting a stress on public safety, with 70 percent of 911 calls involving the homeless.

"I think Santa Monica is being burdened with the (County) District's crisis," Negrete said, and "we're not being consulted on it. I'm just asking for transparency."

Negrete's call was embraced by the six members of the super-majority, but not before airing some concerns and making amendments to the Mayor's motion.

The City, said Councilmember Natalya Zernitskaya, needs to "be mindful of not getting in the middle of projects that we are not a party to" at the risk of violating California's fair housing laws.

Zernitskaya also cautioned the Council to "be careful not to increase the stigma (of those) who live in these types of homes."

Councilmember Ellis Raskin echoed her concerns. "We can't add new procedures, we can't add new requirements, we can't add new hearings."

"These projects involve vulnerable populations in need of discretion and protection," Raskin said. "These are populations that are often stigmatized."

Councilmember Dan Hall made several red-line amendments to Negrete's motion, including requiring that the location of sites "remain confidential until the projects are proposed."

The amendment notes the housing could include "rape victims, domestic abuse survivors and child sex trafficking survivors" whose location needs to be protected.

Hall also amended Negrete's motion to ensure that the approved actions comply with the State's fair housing law and the City's housing element.

The amendment, Hall said, would "avoid at all cost the builder's remedy debacle which struck our city in October 2022," noting that the previous Council's lack of compliance allowed developers to increase the size of their proposed projects.

Negrete, who was a member of the Council majority at the time, called Hall's amendment "a very immature response" and noted the proposed "builders remedy" projects were not built.

"Builders remedy has nothing to do with this," she shot back, adding that neither do rape and sex trafficking victims who do not live in the types of housing covered by her item.

The Mayor also took offense at the extensive "red additions" projected on a screen above the dais. "If you want to rewrite my item, knock yourselves out," she said.