{"id":202843,"date":"2025-09-05T17:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202843\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T17:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:13:14","slug":"norwalk-agrees-to-repeal-homeless-shelter-ban-ag-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202843\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwalk agrees to repeal homeless shelter ban, AG says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The city of Norwalk will repeal a local law passed last year that banned homeless shelters<\/a> as part of a settlement that will end a state lawsuit, Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Friday.<\/p>\n

Last fall, the state sued<\/a> the southeastern Los Angeles County community alleging that Norwalk\u2019s policy violated anti-discrimination, fair housing and numerous other state laws. Norwalk leaders had argued its shelter ban, which also blocked homeless housing developments, laundromats, payday lenders and other businesses that predominantly served the poor, was a necessary response to broken promises from other agencies to assist with the city\u2019s homeless population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Norwalk City Council\u2019s failure to reverse this ban without a lawsuit, despite knowing it is unlawful, is inexcusable,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. \u201cNo community should turn its back on its residents in need \u2014 especially while there are people in your community sleeping on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The settlement<\/a>, which needs judicial approval before taking effect, calls for Norwalk to repeal its ban at an upcoming City Council meeting, Bonta said in a release. In addition, the city will dedicate $250,000 toward the development of new affordable housing, formally acknowledge that the ban harmed fair housing efforts and accept increased state monitoring of its housing policies.<\/p>\n

Bonta said that the legal action shows the state will not back down when local leaders attempt to block homeless housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are more than willing to work with any city or county that wants to do its part to solve our housing crisis,\u201d Bonta said. \u201cBy that same token, if any city or county wants to test our resolve, today\u2019s settlement is your answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norwalk officials could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Norwalk stood out compared to other communities that have found themselves in the state\u2019s crosshairs in recent years. Many cities that have fought state housing policies, such as Beverly Hills<\/a> and Coronado<\/a>,<\/a> are predominantly wealthy and white. By contrast, Norwalk is a Latino-majority, working- and middle-class city. Elected leaders in the city of 100,000 have said they\u2019ve borne a disproportionate burden of addressing homelessness in the region. <\/p>\n

Though the ban led to the cancellation of a planned shelter in Norwalk, city leaders contended that the policy largely was a negotiating tactic to ensure that the state and other agencies heard their concerns. Last year, the city said that even though the shelter ban remained on its books, it would not be enforced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an act of defiance but rather an effort to pause, listen, and find common ground with the state,\u201d city spokesperson Levy Sun said in a statement following a February court ruling that allowed the lawsuit to proceed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of Norwalk will repeal a local law passed last year that banned homeless shelters as part…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[37717,1582,276,2451,718,3059,112021,37715,112023,112020,16405,2961,13940,224,5337,112018,112022,153,10495,112019],"class_list":{"0":"post-202843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bonta","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-city","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-county","14":"tag-fair-housing","15":"tag-gen-rob-bonta","16":"tag-homeless-housing-development","17":"tag-homeless-shelter-ban","18":"tag-housing-policy","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-last-year","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-norwalk","24":"tag-other-agency","25":"tag-policy","26":"tag-settlement","27":"tag-state-lawsuit"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115152814371483549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}