The state of California filed a lawsuit against Norwalk on Monday, alleging that 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, the Norwalk 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 causing disorder. Norwalk's ban already led to the cancellation of an attempted lease for a hotel that county officials said would have housed 80 people.
Calling Norwalk's law “beyond cruel,” Newsom has threatened litigation for months and has already withdrawn state approval for Norwalk's development plan, making it ineligible for certain affordable housing dollars.
Monday's lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court contends that Norwalk's ordinance violates anti-discrimination, fair housing and other laws.
Lawyer. Gen. Rob Bonta said Norwalk's actions have been “blatantly and defiantly violating the law,” and cited the city's grouping of homeless shelters with other businesses as especially problematic.
“It's very telling and frankly very offensive to compare shelter, housing, compassion and the ability to get someone off the street with things you consider public nuisances,” Bonta said.
Norwalk, a majority-Latino 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 have said Norwalk does more than its share on homelessness, citing a social services department that helps homeless residents and supports the repurposing of abandoned buildings into a public psychiatric care facility. for housing for homeless people. Multiple supportive housing developments that will be protected by the ban are expected to open in the coming months.
The city has protested pandemic-era hotel-turned-shelter projects that residents and business owners say were poorly managed and led to a spike in Norwalk's homeless population. A 2021 ruling by the Los Angeles County Superior Court allowed one of those projects to move forward but deemed it a “public nuisance.”
“Why is Norwalk always the benchmark for these programs?” Councilman Rick Ramirez told the Times a recent story. “Where is the help from the other surrounding cities? “We have decided to defend ourselves.”
Bonta said the city has multiple avenues to address its complaints with state and county officials without resorting to a shelter 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 have demanded that we sue them and we have done so,” Bonta said. “We hope to get a resolution quickly. “They can control how fast that is.”
