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It’s been more than a month since Gov. Gavin Newsom placed the city of Norwalk in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
As part of a push to get local municipalities to provide more housing and address the homelessness crisis, Newsom made examples out of Norwalk and other cities that the state said had not done enough or stood in the way of progress.
Since the first City Council meeting following the governor’s comments, Norwalk has been on a campaign to defend its image and push back against accusations that city is heartless and not committed to change.
“I don’t think he really knows or has the full picture of everything that the city of Norwalk has done, everything that we plan on doing,” Norwalk Mayor Margarita Rios said.
In August, Norwalk passed a moratorium on new homeless shelters and interim housing. This in response to L.A. County’s attempt to open a interim housing program at a local motel. Newsom’s first statement on the moratorium came Sept. 16 a day before the city voted to extend the moratorium another 10 months.
At the City Council meeting Sept. 17, a video highlighting the city’s homeless outreach team, the H.O.P.E. (Homeless Operation Prevention and Engagement) Team, was played during the city manager’s comments.
Following the extension, a series of barbs and warnings from Newsom culminated in Norwalk’s compliance with the state’s housing element law being revoked by the Department of Housing and Community Development.
Newsom once again mentioned Norwalk and Huntington Beach this week during a press conference announcing $380 million in state money would go to the Los Angeles region to address homelessness.
Huntington Beach lost an appeal this week in federal appeals court to have the city’s lawsuit against the state reinstated. Huntington Beach has refused to plan for more housing construction.
Speaking in her office at City Hall Oct. 21, Rios remained steadfast that Norwalk would not back down due to pressure from the county or state. She said she did not expect Newsom to weigh in Norwalk’s moratorium.
She said this month state officials met with the city and plan to meet again.
“At the last meeting, sadly, I kind of got the vibe that they didn’t care what we’d done in the past and that’s not cool because we’ve worked so hard and invested so much of our money and it has been successful … I don’t like that they’ve dismissed what the city of Norwalk has done to address the unhoused population,” Rios said.
When reached for comment regarding any new efforts to gain the city’s compliance, a governor’s office spokesperson said there were no new updates.
Part of the city’s thought process in enacting the moratorium to block the county interim housing project “Pathway Home” was born out of past experience with county housing programs. Specifically, Rios mentioned Project Roomkey in 2020 which also took over Hotel Saddleback.
Rios called the 2020 project haphazard and the proposal for Pathway Home didn’t do enough to convince the city that Pathway would not be a repeat of 2020.
“There was a lot of questions that were not answered or there were no answers to and so there was a lot of hesitation to go down that route again because we learned the first time around it didn’t work,” Rios said.
A key part of Norwalk’s defense has been highlighting its Social Services Department. Rios and members of city staff have touted the department as being unique in Southern California and evidence that Norwalk has been walking the walk of serving the most vulnerable in the community for decades.
On a Monday morning last month month, the department hosted seniors for lunch as part of its senior nutrition program. It’s one of several programs that social services offers. Social Worker Miguel Ochoa, a Norwalk native, walked through a food pantry which serves the homeless and anyone in the city in need of a meal or support.
Ochoa said having its own department provides Norwalk residents something unique to other cities that solely rely on the county.
“They get a influx of people so they try to get people in and out and they try to get them the services as quick as possible,” Ochoa said. “We do too but we also have that time to really connect with the individual and like I said provide that human aspect of it.”
Sgt. Jordan Warren is one of eight members of Norwalk’s H.O.P.E. Team. Under the city’s public safety division, the team’s main focus is contacting people experiencing homelessness and connecting them with whatever resources they need whether at the Social Services Department or with the nonprofit agencies the city contracts with.
“Having the H.O.P.E. Team really alleviates all those emergency calls and it reduces the crimes that are happening because we’re constantly out there with transients getting them off the street. Helping them get to where they need.”
Moving forward, Rios said the city is happy to work with the county and the state to come up with solutions but will insist to being part of the conversation.
“We have in the past been subjected to mandates and orders and direction from county and state that did not fit the needs of our city and that’s the biggest thing,” Rio said. “We live here, we work here, we see what the need is. We have to be part of the solution and we will.”