Santa Monica City Council members Mayor Torosis, Mayor Pro Tem Zwick and Councilmember Raskin are asking their colleagues to guarantee that SaMoShel, the city's 60-bed congregate shelter, will not close until a replacement plan for its capacity is fully developed, according to a council request set for Tuesday night's meeting.
The three council members' item states support for preserving services at The Palm Motel and for replacing SaMoShel's congregate housing model with other forms of emergency shelter and interim housing "better suited for the needs of our city and those exiting homelessness." But the request stops short of endorsing SaMoShel's closure without more detail on what would replace its bed capacity.
"We do not support closing Samoshel without a further developed plan to replace its capacity," the request states.
The item also calls for any future site-selection process to exclude the Pico Neighborhood, citing the council's commitment to equity and to affirmatively furthering fair housing. The three council members are asking fellow members to direct staff to take the steps necessary to carry out that direction.
The request comes as the council considers a broader restructuring of the city's homeless services system, called the Housing Focused System of Care, also on Tuesday's agenda. That plan, outlined in a staff report from Housing and Human Services Director Aileen Reynolds, would shift control of homeless services from Los Angeles County to the city amid what staff describe as a significant regional retrenchment: the county Board of Supervisors' decision to pull Measure A funding from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the creation of a new county homeless services department, roughly $200 million in county budget cuts to homeless services, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's June suspension of federal funding to LAHSA and the Los Angeles Continuum of Care.
Under the plan, the city would move to preserve The Palm Motel as stabilization housing after county funding for its current program ends, direct money to The Salvation Army's Bell Shelter in Bell to fund currently inactive beds, and launch a Request for Expression of Interest seeking motels, hotels and other non-congregate sites to eventually replace SaMoShel.
Staff have proposed a combined $9,535,809 across the three agreements, including $4,264,673 in fiscal year 2026-27, with a budget amendment shifting $3,458,150 from the Providence Saint John's Development Agreement fund balance to help cover costs. The city has also applied for more than $5 million in state Encampment Resolution Program grant funding.
The plan follows years of city study, including a 2022 assessment from Moss Adams, a strategic plan developed with BerryDunn and published in March 2025, and an October 2025 Realignment Plan directing staff toward a "healing center" sheltering model. Fourteen community meetings held between April and July surfaced general support for new approaches alongside concerns about site security and geographic concentration, staff said.
The item requires five votes to pass because it includes a budget amendment.