The state of California filed go well with in opposition to Norwalk on Monday, alleging the southeastern Los Angeles County metropolis’s moratorium on new homeless shelters and supportive housing violates half a dozen housing legal guidelines.
In August, Norwalk’s Metropolis Council handed a regulation banning the amenities, together with new laundromats, liquor shops and payday lenders, till not less than subsequent summer season. Council members mentioned town of 100,000 had been a dumping floor for homeless initiatives that have been straining the funds and resulting in dysfunction. Norwalk’s ban has already led to the cancellation of a lodge leasing effort that county officers believed would have sheltered 80 individuals.
Monday’s go well with filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket contends Norwalk’s ordinance violates anti-discrimination, truthful housing and different legal guidelines.
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta mentioned Norwalk’s actions have been “brazenly and defiantly violative of the law,” and cited town’s lumping in of homeless shelters with the opposite companies as particularly 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 mentioned.
Norwalk, a Latino-majority metropolis with a median family revenue beneath $100,000, stands out from Beverly Hills, Coronado, La Cañada Flintridge and different rich, white enclaves which have challenged the state on housing points.
Metropolis leaders have mentioned Norwalk does greater than its fair proportion on homelessness, citing a social companies division that assists homeless residents and assist to repurpose deserted buildings at a public psychiatric care facility for homeless housing. A number of supportive housing developments are anticipated to open within the coming months that can be grandfathered in.
The town has protested pandemic-era hotel-turned-shelter initiatives that residents and enterprise homeowners mentioned have been poorly managed and led to a surge in Norwalk’s homeless inhabitants. A 2021 ruling in L.A. County Superior Court docket allowed one such mission to go ahead however deemed it a “public nuisance.”
“Why is always Norwalk the pinpoint for these programs?” Councilmember Rick Ramirez informed The Occasions for a current story. “Where’s the assistance from the other surrounding cities? We’ve decided to stand up for ourselves.”
Bonta mentioned town has a number of avenues to handle its complaints with county and state officers with out resorting to a shelter ban. Bonta mentioned the state is keen to proceed working with Norwalk to repeal its ordinance out of court docket, however will implement the regulation.
“They have required us to sue them and we are,” Bonta mentioned. “We hope to get a resolution quickly. They can control how quickly that is.”
Levy Solar, a spokesperson for Norwalk, mentioned Monday afternoon that town had not been served with the lawsuit and declined additional remark.
