By Jorge Casuso

July 28, 2026 – An item added to tonight's City Council agenda could delay a plan six months in the making to close Samoshel and relocate the Downtown shelter's residents to a local motel and a shelter outside the city.

The item added to the agenda on Thursday and sponsored by Mayor Caroline Torosis and Councilmembers Jesse Zwick and Ellis Raskin states they "do not support closing Samoshel without a further developed plan to replace its capacity."

The three Councilmembers said they oppose the plan because it would relocate shelter beds to the Palm Motel in Sunset Park that borders on the Pico Neighborhood, the city's poorest and most diverse area.

"Consistent with this council’s commitment to equity and affirmatively furthering fair housing, we support a site selection process that excludes the Pico Neighborhood," the item states.

If approved by the Council, as expected, the item would halt the City's plan to immediately close Samoshel, a 60-bed congregate facility that has been located near the 10-Freeway exit to the Downtown for three decades.

A key component of its City's "Realignment Plan," the relocation of Samoshel, which has "no direct links to interim or permanent housing options," would help the City "transition away from a crisis response model and towards a redesigned housing outcomes model," staff wrote in the report.

During the February 10 closed-session, the Council discussed taking over the 34 beds the County was leasing at the Palm Motel as part in its Pathway Home program to provide temporary housing for the homeless during the coronavirus emergency.

Located next to a gas station on the southwest corner of Pico Boulevard and 14th Street, the proposed move was a flashpoint at a Town Hall meeting at Santa Monica College on July 16.

Residents of the two neighborhoods said they feared the fallout and demanded to know if those struggling with substance abuse or mental issues would be admitted and what safeguards the City planned to implement to keep the area safe.

At the Council's closed session on February 24, the City added another potential site when it discussed negotiations on the "price and terms of payment of lease" for space at the Salvation Army Shelter in Bell, some 20 miles east of the city limits.

The Bell Shelter -- located is a small, overwhelmingly Latino suburb near East LA -- "provides a supportive, safe, and nurturing environment for adults who are experiencing homelessness," according to the shelter's website.

The Samoshel relocation plan would make the City accountable for the results, staff said in Tuesday's report to the Council.

"Per the proposed plan, Santa Monica would decide who is placed into the system and where, and Santa Monica would direct the support services, on-site security, and good neighbor commitments instituted at every location," staff wrote.

The plan comes at a time when "the homeless response system in Los Angeles County is undergoing its most significant restructuring in a generation," staff said. "Homelessness moves across city boundaries, and no local system succeeds if the regional system around it collapses."

"If we simply maintain the status quo while the regional system is reordered and defunded, our local outcomes will suffer, both in how we support the unhoused population in our community, and in our efforts to reduce disorder in our neighborhoods and commercial districts.

"The City is prepared for this moment," staff wrote. "Our current circumstances make the need to transition towards a new plan more urgent."