By Jorge Casuso

February 13, 2026 -- Community leaders in two neighborhoods Tuesday opposed City Council negotiations to lease spaces in three area properties that provide transitional housing for the homeless.

The testimony came before the Council went into closed session for nearly three and a half hours to discuss legal and real estate items that included leasing the properties in the Pico and Sunset Park neighborhoods.

While the negotiations are confidential, City officials have said they are looking at options to relocate homeless services and temporary shelter from Downtown as a key component of a citywide "Realignment Plan."

Leaders from the Pico Neighborhood -- which has Santa Monica's highest concentration of working class and minority residents -- denounced any plan that would continue to burden the area with homeless programs.

Mathew Millen, a neighborhood landlord who has been monitoring the City's activities, said half a dozen homeless programs are located in the Pico neighborhood, accounting for 377 beds.

By comparison, the City's upscale neighborhoods north of Wilshire Boulevard have a total of 21 units reserved for homeless individuals, while the Ocean Park Neighborhood has none.

"It's time to end the dumping of all these social projects in the Pico Neighborhood and put them in the other neighborhoods," Millen said.

Millen cited a report in the Lookout indicating City officials are considering leasing the three properties to relocate homeless individuals currently staying at SamoShel ("City Taking Steps to Lease Beds for Homeless Outside Downtown," February 9, 2026).

Responding to a request for clarification from Mayor Caroline Torosis, City Manager Oliver Chi said that in the closed session negotiations, the Council was "not considering moving SamoShel to the Pico Neighborhood.

"We are contemplating options to establish a different type of response to addressing the issue of homelessness," Chi said.

Another option, however, has included purchasing a newly constructed office building at 1640 14th Street in the Pico Neighborhood, as well as two nearby lots at 1639 and 1645 Euclid Street.

The item on last year's November 18 closed session agenda led to speculation the City could be considering the properties as a potential site to relocate Samoshel, a top priority in the City's Realignment Plan ("Why Does the City Want to Buy a New Office Building?" November 17, 2025).

Maria Loya, a leader of the Pico Neighborhood Association (PNA), denounced the City's "longstanding practice to dump undesirable and toxic developments in the Pico Neighborhood."

Loya noted that the two properties at 1905 and 2019 Pico Boulevard that are the subject of closed-door negotiations are operated by The Manor, which provides transitional housing for mentally ill homeless individuals.

"The Pico Neighborhood has done way, way more than any other neighborhood has done," Loya said. "We don't need these kinds of services."

Former City Councilmember Oscar de la Torre noted that The Manor, which provides 155 beds at one property and 16 units at the other, has posed challenges for the neighborhood.

"There are a lot of disabled people, people with serious mental health conditions, many of them with drug problems," de la Torre said.

"Place that in a low-income community where some people are involved in that illicit drug activity, and it's just a bad situation."

"It's really a question of fairness and equity, of how we treat one part of the city and how we treat another part of the city," de la Torre said.

Zina Josephs, a leader of Friends of Sunset Park, addressed the Council Tuesday to oppose leasing beds at the Palm Motel, which City officials said LA County has been using as a homeless shelter and will vacate in coming months.

Neighbors, who complain the move has made the area surrounding the motel at 2020 14th Street dangerous, weren't notified when the County leased the rooms during the COVID shutdown, Josephs said.

And they weren't notified now that the City plans to negotiate in closed session to take over the beds and continue housing the homeless. "It was startling to see these items on the agenda without warning," Josephs said.

City Manager Chi said the community would have the opportunity to weigh in on any direction the Council gives.

"Of course as we get direction from the Council, we'll be engaging plenty of public outreach to share details of what we're thinking," Chi said.

The Council last October unanimously approved steps to make the process for new homeless housing facilities more transparent ("Council Votes to Make Homeless Housing Projects More 'Transparent,'" November 3, 2025).

The item was placed on the agenda by then Mayor Lana Negrete days before two transitional housing facilities for the mentally ill homeless on Ocean Avenue were pulled by County Commissioner Lindsey Horvath after a pubic outcry ("Ocean Avenue Mental Health Projects Pulled," October 27, 2025).