Santa Monica is preparing to decommission SaMoShel, the 60-bed congregate shelter that has served as the city's only dedicated sheltering resource for more than three decades, as part of a broader overhaul of how the city addresses homelessness.
The City Council will consider the plan, called the Housing Focused System of Care, at its July 28 meeting. The proposal would replace SaMoShel's dormitory-style setup — in which residents sleep in an assigned area of a large room alongside many others — with a network of non-congregate housing that the city, rather than Los Angeles County, would control from intake through permanent placement.
According to a staff report prepared by Aileen Reynolds, director of the city's Housing and Human Services Department, the shift comes as Los Angeles County dramatically restructures its regional homeless response system. Over the past 15 months, the county Board of Supervisors voted to pull Measure A funding from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, created a new County Department of Homeless Services and Housing, and then cut nearly $200 million from homeless services amid a budget shortfall. In June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended federal funding to LAHSA and the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, adding further strain.
"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 report states.
New housing options across the city
The plan calls for three linked types of housing — stabilization housing, interim housing and permanent housing — each paired with support services, with the city deciding who is placed at each site and directing security and "good neighbor" policies at every location.
The first step involves preserving The Palm Motel as stabilization housing. The 34-room, 48-occupant motel has operated as county-funded interim housing under The People Concern for the past two years, but that program is ending as the county redirects resources. Rather than lose the resource, the city would negotiate agreements with the property owner and with The People Concern to bring the site under city control, limiting placements to people who meet the Santa Monica Program Participant, or SMPP, definition — someone who became homeless in the city, has been homeless in the city for three or more years, or is a frequent user of city services as verified by staff.
The second step directs city funding to The Salvation Army to activate currently unfunded shelter beds at its Bell Shelter in the city of Bell. Because those beds would be available to any Los Angeles County jurisdiction working with The Salvation Army, staff describe the investment as support for the broader regional system, while also giving the city's outreach and first-responder teams a funded referral option for people who don't meet the SMPP definition.
The third step is a Request for Expression of Interest, or RFEI, seeking motels, hotels, residential facilities and other non-congregate sites in and around Santa Monica. Those facilities, once identified, would replace SaMoShel's capacity and complete the local continuum. The city had previously explored partnering with The Manor, an adult residential facility on Pico Boulevard, but halted those talks in favor of the competitive RFEI process. Staff say the transition away from SaMoShel would be sequenced so shelter capacity is maintained throughout, and a subsequent Request for Qualifications would build a bench of service providers for the new sites.
Staff are also asking the council to approve exceptions to competitive bidding for agreements with The Palm Motel, The People Concern and The Salvation Army, and to adopt a finding that the agreements are statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act because they constitute contracts for services to people experiencing homelessness.
The budget request tied to the plan totals $4,264,673 in fiscal year 2026-27 and $5,271,136 in future-year requests, for a combined $9,535,809 across the three agreements. Staff are proposing a budget amendment shifting $3,458,150 from the Providence Saint John's Development Agreement fund balance to cover part of the cost. Officials note that funding beyond year two will need new sources once those development agreement funds run out, and that the city has applied for more than $5 million from a state Encampment Resolution Program grant, with Measure GS and Measure GSH cited as other potential funding streams.
Closure, not relocation
The proposal has met with concern and confusion in the community. Santa Monica is not proposing a relocation of Samoshell, either its people or services. Rather it’s proposing an end to all Samoshell operations. Current residents would be transferred to as yet undermined facilities. Santa Monica would then populate any new facilities in city limits with individuals drawn from its priority population. Those new beds would be filtered for individuals who are able to utilize the interim housing and would be specifically for people transitioning out of homelessness.
The city's homelessness strategy
The proposal builds on several years of city analysis. In 2022, Santa Monica commissioned a homelessness assessment from Moss Adams, which led the council in 2023 to authorize development of a citywide homelessness strategic plan. The city worked with BerryDunn on that plan, which was published in March 2025.
In October 2025, the council adopted a Realignment Plan that called for reimagining the city's sheltering model, replacing SaMoShel with a "healing center" approach pairing shelter with addiction treatment and mental health services and creating a direct pipeline into transitional and permanent housing.
In late March 2026, staff returned with a Realignment Plan update recommending the Housing Focused System of Care and asking for direction to pursue community engagement before finalizing any agreements. That outreach included 14 community meetings between April and July, where staff said they heard general support for new solutions, alongside concerns about site safety and security, how success would be measured, and whether facilities would be concentrated in one part of the city. Staff say those concerns shaped the final proposal, including the security and good-neighbor provisions built into each contract and an equity review planned for the RFEI process.
The 2025 Point-in-Time count identified 812 people experiencing homelessness in Santa Monica. Staff also noted that of SaMoShel's 60 beds, only about 10% are currently occupied by people who meet the SMPP definition, a gap the report cites in proposing a two-part strategy: building a local system for SMPP residents while continuing to invest in the regional response for others experiencing homelessness in the city.
The item is scheduled for the council's July 28 meeting and would require five votes to pass because it includes a budget amendment.