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Beds we already pay for

What Santa Monica spends on homelessness now, and the beds it buys.

What it is

Every January, Los Angeles County counts the people who are homeless on one night. In Santa Monica the count took place on the night of Jan 22, 2026. Volunteers walked and drove the streets and wrote down every person they saw sleeping outside, every lived-in car, van or RV, and every tent or makeshift shelter. Shelters reported who slept inside. The total was 718: 222 people in shelters, 389 people seen outdoors, 59 occupied vehicles and 48 tents or makeshift shelters. Each vehicle and each tent counts as one person, even when more than one person lives in it. This is called a Point-in-Time (PIT) count.

The count is run by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), an agency the City and County of Los Angeles created in 1993. LAHSA took over Santa Monica's count in 2024; before that the city ran its own. The count matters because money follows it: federal and county homelessness funds are divided partly by these numbers. It also misses people. Someone asleep in a doorway, an alley or a bush is hard to see at night, and volunteers cannot always tell a lived-in van from a parked one. RAND, the research group headquartered in Santa Monica, ran its own professional counts in three Los Angeles neighborhoods and found LAHSA's count 32% short there in 2025. RAND did not measure Santa Monica this way.

On the money side, we added up every homelessness line we could find that touches Santa Monica: city budget lines, federal grants, county money, police and fire time spent on homelessness calls, and an estimate of health costs. It comes to about $94.2M a year. The years do not all match, and $34.6M of it is a share of police and fire salaries that the city pays either way, so read it as a rough size. About $12.7M of it, 13 cents of each dollar, pays for a bed tonight. That is the bar called "Beds we already pay for".

The $12.7M has three parts. SAMOSHEL, the city's 60-bed shelter downtown, costs about $1.9M a year and has been the city's only dedicated shelter for more than 30 years. A city-run system approved on July 28, 2026 costs $4.26M this year: the 34-room Palm Motel in Santa Monica, and 35 beds at the Salvation Army's Bell Shelter, which is in the City of Bell, outside Santa Monica. The last $6.48M is our own estimate of county-funded shelter beds in the city, and it is the weakest of the three numbers. It may count some beds twice. The estimate, (222 minus 60) times $40,000, includes Palm Motel occupants, who were county-funded on count night, and the Palm Motel is also inside the city's $4.26M from Sept 1, 2026. If so, the $12.7M is overstated by roughly $1.4M to $1.9M (inference, low to moderate). So not every dollar in this bar is a bed in Santa Monica: about $1.97M pays for beds in Bell, and part of the county estimate may repeat the Palm Motel. It may count the Palm Motel twice: the motel's occupants were in county-funded beds on count night, and from Sept 1, 2026 the city pays for the motel inside the $4.26M. If so, the $12.7M is overstated by roughly $1.4M to $1.9M (inference, low to moderate). Not every bed in the bar is in Santa Monica either: $1,965,119 of the $4.26M buys 35 Salvation Army beds in the City of Bell (fact).

On a normal Tuesday, residents see people sleeping downtown, where RAND finds homelessness most concentrated; riders leaving the last Metro E Line trains at the downtown terminus; vehicles parked overnight; and a city cleanup crew that hauled 436 tons of debris from encampments in 2025. Outreach workers, police, firefighters and ambassadors make thousands of contacts a year. Most of those contacts end with the person still outside. The city's outreach teams made 6,666 contacts in FY2024-25 and placed 67 people in interim housing and 6 in permanent housing.

How it started

Santa Monica has counted its homeless population for about 23 years (secondhand, Lookout). A 2006 Urban Institute report for the city cited an early count of about 2,000 people in Santa Monica out of about 66,000 in the county. For years the city ran its own count with more than 300 volunteers covering every street, 226 miles in all. Its last count, in 2023, found 926 (786 people plus 140 dwellings), while LAHSA's figure for the city that year was 826 (secondhand). LAHSA, a joint powers authority of the city and county of Los Angeles created in 1993, leads the region's federal Continuum of Care, which includes the count. It took over Santa Monica's count in January 2024. That night 99 volunteers counted 774 people, and the regional count had trouble with new counting technology adopted after undercounts in 2022 (secondhand). The 2025 count moved to Feb 20 because of the January wildfires and found 812. The Jan 22, 2026 count found 718, the lowest on record. In October 2025 RAND reported that LAHSA's count matched its own within 5% in 2022 and 2023, then fell 26% short in 2024 and 32% short in 2025. The agencies changed too. On April 1, 2025 the county Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to create a Department of Homeless Services and Housing (HSH), which took over county homeless contracts on July 1, 2026 (secondhand). HUD suspended LAHSA on June 11, 2026. In September 2026 LAHSA's board voted not to seek its lead role, the count included, from 2027 (secondhand). On July 28, 2026 Santa Monica approved its own city-run system of care.

What we take and when

Nothing in this bar is cut. SAMOSHEL's 60 beds stay open until replacement sites open, and the Palm Motel and Bell Shelter contracts continue. The petition builds on top of them: 480 places by June 30, 2028, with the county asked to pay for 150 of them (D5, D9), plus 75 county treatment and locked beds (D8). Spending on beds rises from about $12.7M to $26.7M to $31.7M a year, and beds go from 13 cents to 25 to 28 cents of each homelessness dollar (inference, petition model). The petition also changes how today is measured. From April 2027, D3 asks for a public monthly report of open beds by type, offers made and refused, and placements, so the yearly count stops being the only number. The plan judges success by the official count, RAND's weighting and that monthly report together.

The numbers today

  • People counted homeless in Santa Monica718Jan 22, 2026 count fact
  • In shelter; seen outdoors; occupied vehicles; tents and makeshift shelters (each dwelling counted as one person)222; 389; 59; 48Jan 22, 2026 count fact
  • Unsheltered, each dwelling counted as one person (718 minus 222)496, down 18.7% from 6102026 vs 2025 count inference
  • People seen outdoors, change from 2025 (475 to 389)down 86, or 18.1%2026 vs 2025 count secondhand
  • Previous counts: 2025 (Feb 20, 2025); 2024 (first LAHSA-run count)812; 7742025, 2024 secondhand
  • Last city-run count vs LAHSA figure for the same year926 vs 8262023 secondhand
  • Volunteers counting Santa Monica: LAHSA-run 2024 vs city-run years99 vs more than 3002024 secondhand
  • RAND's Santa Monica total from the same LAHSA data, weighting each tent or vehicle at 1.7 people793 (preliminary); peak 1,026 in 20192026 fact
  • Unsheltered at RAND's 1.7 people per dwelling (389 plus 107 times 1.7)about 5712026 inference
  • LAHSA count shortfall against RAND's professional count in Hollywood, Venice and Skid Row26% (2024); 32% (2025)2024, 2025 fact
  • Unsheltered if the 32% shortfall measured elsewhere applied here (571 divided by 0.68; not measured in Santa Monica)about 8402026 inference
  • Los Angeles County Continuum of Care count; Santa Monica share73,040 (up 1.2%); about 0.98%2026 secondhand
  • Homelessness spending touching Santa Monica, every line we found, mixed yearsabout $94.2M a year (low to moderate confidence)FY2020-21 to FY2026-27 inference
  • Part of that total paying for a bed tonight$12,657,144, about 13 cents of each dollar, including $1,965,119 for 35 beds in the City of Bellmixed years inference
  • SAMOSHEL yearly cost, funded through multi-year grants$1,912,471FY2025 (Strategic Plan cost table) fact
  • SAMOSHEL beds; share held by people with Santa Monica ties (SMPP)60; about 10%July 2026 fact
  • Housing Focused System of Care (Palm Motel, The People Concern, Bell Shelter)$4,264,673; then $5,271,136 the next yearFY2026-27 (from Sept 1) fact
  • Of that, Salvation Army Bell Shelter beds in the City of Bell$1,965,119FY2026-27 fact
  • Palm Motel rooms; maximum occupants34; 48July 2026 fact
  • Bell Shelter beds the city activates35Aug 2026 fact
  • County-funded shelter beds in the city, estimated as (222 minus 60) times $40,000$6,480,000FY2025-26 inference
  • Rest of the total: housing and rent help; prevention, treatment and services; outreach and cleanup; police and fire$7.5M; $28.4M; $8.7M; $36.9Mmixed years inference
  • Of the police and fire figure, a share of salaried time that is not movable cash$34,582,023FY2025-26 budgets inference
  • Last full city accounting of homelessness spending (Moss Adams)$42.5MFY2020-21 fact
  • Police calls; fire calls related to homelessness19% (17,831 of 93,847); 16.6% (2,495 of 15,073)FY2020-21 fact
  • City outreach teams: contacts; placed in interim housing; placed in permanent housing6,666; 67; 6FY2024-25 fact
  • Debris hauled by the Public Works cleanup crew (HoST)436.02 tons, up from 253.97 tons in 20242025 fact
  • Unhoused people seen gathering overnight at the Downtown Santa Monica E Line terminus, Metro survey592023 secondhand

What we give up

We keep a system the city itself calls short. SAMOSHEL is a dormitory where, by the city's own census, only about 10% of the 60 beds hold people with Santa Monica ties, and it keeps running until replacements open. About $1.97M of this year's $4.26M pays for beds in the City of Bell, which serve the whole region and put no one inside in Santa Monica. Keeping both while adding 480 places means paying for old and new sites at once during the changeover (inference). Monthly reporting under D3 costs staff time the city has not priced.

Why this works

People leave the street when a place exists. In Santa Monica's own 2026 count, people in shelter rose by 20 while people seen outdoors fell by 86 (city). In Culver City, unsheltered people fell from 51 in 2025 to 38 in 2026 while city programs sheltered 164 people on count night (Wave, secondhand). Houston, long the model for housing first, saw unsheltered homelessness rise 15.8% in 2025 while the number in shelter fell 6% (CFTH). San Diego's auditor found that much of the downtown drop after its camping ban moved into city safe-sleeping sites, and that citywide unsheltered homelessness did not fall (audit). Money that is not a bed rarely ends the night indoors. Santa Monica's outreach teams made 6,666 contacts in FY2024-25 and placed 73 people in housing of any kind (CAPER). The count matters as much as the beds. RAND found that for every four tents removed, about three rough sleepers or vehicle dwellers appeared, the people a volunteer count misses most (RAND). A plan sized only to the raw count would build too few beds.

The strongest case against

The count is the federal standard, and it says Santa Monica is improving. The 2026 total of 718 is the lowest on record, down 11.6% in a year while the county rose 1.2%. People in shelter rose and unsheltered homelessness fell 18.7%. The city has just taken control of its own system of care and plans to replace the SAMOSHEL dormitory with private rooms. Raising the need to 840 borrows an undercount RAND measured in Skid Row, Hollywood and Venice, never in Santa Monica. The $94.2M total mixes years, includes $34.6M of police and fire salaries that would be paid with or without a single homeless call, and adds a guess at health costs; dividing beds by that total makes the system look worse than it is. The Bell beds are regional by design, and Santa Monica has long carried more than its share of the region. Building 480 places on a count that is falling risks paying for beds that sit empty.

Our answer

We size the plan to the official count. The floor is 496 people without a bed on Jan 22, 2026, and 840 is labeled as an inference everywhere it appears. The drop is real in the count and uncertain beyond it. The count ran on 99 volunteers in 2024 against more than 300 in city-run years, the 2026 volunteer number is not published, and RAND's own weighting of the same LAHSA data gives 793 people. On money, we agree the total is rough and say so. Leave out police and fire time entirely and beds are still $12.7M of about $59.6M, about 21 cents of each dollar (inference). Either way most of the money ends the day with the person still outside. Empty beds would show up in D3's monthly report within weeks; Los Angeles city-funded interim sites ran 82% full in 2025. We keep the new system of care. It adds 34 rooms in Santa Monica and 35 beds in Bell, against 496 people counted outside.

Who decides

Who votes
Santa Monica City Council (seven members; three seats are on the Nov 3, 2026 ballot) for city-paid beds, the SAMOSHEL changeover and the D3 reporting ordinance. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and its Department of Homeless Services and Housing for county-funded beds. The count belongs to the Continuum of Care's lead agency. LAHSA ran the 2026 count; who runs the January 2027 count is unsettled after LAHSA's board voted in September 2026 not to seek the role from 2027 and a federal appeals court kept LAHSA in place for 2026 duties (secondhand).
Votes needed
Council: a majority (4 of 7 if all attend) for the FY2027-29 budget and for the D3 ordinance; 5 of 7 for any budget change after adoption (FY2025-27 Adopted Budget p.295; City Charter section 1505). Board of Supervisors: 3 of 5.
When
D3 ordinance by Feb 23, 2027 (petition deadline). Next count in the last 10 days of January 2027 under HUD's rule, unless HUD grants an exception (inference). FY2027-29 city budget adoption about June 2027 (inference from the June 2025 schedule).
Where the rule is written
hudexchange.info

The agenda or process

Questions people ask

If the count fell 11.6%, why do we need more beds?

The official count still found 496 people without a bed on Jan 22, 2026. The city's own places inside Santa Monica are SAMOSHEL's 60 beds and the Palm Motel's 34 rooms. Even if the count is exact, the gap is in the hundreds. If the count is low, the gap is bigger.

Isn't $94M a year already plenty?

It is a lot of money, and only about 13 cents of each dollar is a bed. Much of the rest is police and fire time, cleanup and services that end the day with the person still outside. We move money toward beds instead of asking for a new tax.

Why not just fix the count?

We want a better count too, and D3's monthly bed report gives a second measure every month. A better count tells us how many beds we need. It does not open any.

Are the Bell Shelter beds in Santa Monica?

No. They are in the City of Bell and open to any city that works with the Salvation Army. Santa Monica pays for 35 of them so its outreach teams always have a referral for people who do not meet the local-ties rule.

Who are the 718?

The count does not ask. The city's July 2026 staff report found that only about 10% of SAMOSHEL's beds hold people with Santa Monica ties. The rest came to the city from elsewhere in the region.

Sources

  1. City of Santa Monica, 2026 count release (July 24, 2026)718 total and its parts; unsheltered down 18.7%
  2. Santa Monica Daily Press, 2026 count718, 389 outdoors down 86, vehicles 84 to 59, LAHSA running the count since 2024, totals raw and unadjusted
  3. The Argonaut, Aug 6, 2026Countywide count held Jan 20 to 22, 2026; 73,040 countywide
  4. Santa Monica Lookout, July 27, 2026Count night Jan 22, record low, about 23 years of counts, volunteer drop
  5. Santa Monica Lookout, July 24, 20252025 count of 812 on Feb 20 and its parts
  6. Santa Monica Lookout, June 28, 2024First LAHSA-run count, 774, 99 volunteers vs more than 300, 926 vs 826 in 2023, technology problems
  7. RAND RR-A5222-1, Santa Monica's Recent Economic and Social Trends (Oct 1, 2026)793 preliminary, 1,026 peak, 1.7 per dwelling, downtown concentration, SAMOSHEL 60 beds near the E Line terminus, 2006 estimate of 2,000
  8. RAND RR-A4438-1, Growing Inaccuracies in Official Counts (Oct 15, 2025)PIT within 5% in 2022 and 2023, 26% short in 2024, 32% short in 2025
  9. RAND commentary, Why L.A.'s Homelessness Numbers No Longer Tell the Full Story (Aug 2026)Why volunteers miss rough sleepers and vehicles; four tents removed, about three rough sleepers or vehicle dwellers added
  10. RAND RR-A4903-1, LA LEADS 2025 Annual ReportProfessional count methods and dwelling weights
  11. HUD Exchange, PIT and HICFederal count rules and timing
  12. LAHSA, AboutJoint powers authority created in 1993, lead of the Los Angeles Continuum of Care
  13. Spectrum News 1, 2025 count rescheduled2025 count moved to Feb 18 to 20 after the wildfires
  14. CBS Los Angeles, supervisors create homelessness departmentApril 2025 4-0 vote to create HSH and pull funding from LAHSA
  15. LAist, county takes control of homeless spendingHSH took over county homeless contracts (secondhand)
  16. HUD press release No. 26-048 (June 11, 2026)HUD suspension of LAHSA
  17. Westside Current, LAHSA steps aside for 2027LAHSA board vote not to seek lead role from 2027 (secondhand)
  18. MyNewsLA, Sept 24, 2026Court keeps LAHSA as lead agency for 2026 duties, including the count (secondhand)
  19. Homelessness Strategic Plan 2025-2030SAMOSHEL $1,912,471 a year on multi-year grants; outreach team cost
  20. Staff report, Housing Focused System of Care (July 28, 2026)Contract amounts by year, Palm Motel 34 rooms and 48 occupants, Bell Shelter in the City of Bell, SAMOSHEL 60 beds and 10% SMPP
  21. Santa Monica Next, city submission (Aug 6, 2026)35 Bell Shelter beds
  22. Santa Monica Daily Press, SAMOSHEL to closePalm Motel was county-funded for two years before the city took it over
  23. Moss Adams, City of Santa Monica Homelessness Study (Nov 2022)$42.5M in FY2020-21; 19% of police calls and 16.6% of fire calls
  24. Santa Monica FY2024-25 CAPEROutreach team contacts and placements
  25. Realignment Plan update (March 24, 2026)HoST debris tonnage
  26. Transit Talent on Metro end-of-line survey (May 2023)59 people at Downtown Santa Monica E Line terminus (secondhand)
  27. Wave Publication, Culver City 2026 countUnsheltered 51 to 38; 164 sheltered by city programs on count night
  28. Coalition for the Homeless, Houston 2025 countUnsheltered up 15.8%, sheltered down 6%
  29. San Diego City Auditor, April 2026Downtown drop moved largely into safe sleeping sites; citywide unsheltered did not fall
  30. City of Los Angeles Housing Department, May 2025 performance reportCity-funded interim sites 82% full against a 95% target
  31. Petition spending ledger$94.2M total, the $12.7M bed share, and how each line is classified

Words on this page

allocated cost
A share of a department's budget assigned to a purpose by the fraction of calls it handles. Police and fire time on homeless calls is counted this way. The salaries are paid either way.
Bell Shelter
A Salvation Army shelter in the City of Bell, outside Santa Monica. The city pays to open 35 beds there for people who do not meet the SMPP definition.
census tract
A small area the Census Bureau draws, usually a few thousand residents. The count is reported by tract.
congregate shelter
A shelter where many people sleep in one shared room.
Continuum of Care (CoC)
The regional body HUD funds to plan homeless services. LAHSA leads the Los Angeles one, which covers Santa Monica.
fiscal year (FY)
The budget year, July 1 to June 30. FY2026-27 runs July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.
General Fund
The city's main account. Most local taxes go in, and police, fire, parks and most staff are paid from it.
HoST
Homeless Support Team. A Public Works crew that clears encampment debris.
Housing Focused System of Care
The city-run network approved July 28, 2026: the Palm Motel, beds at the Bell Shelter, and future private-room sites to replace SAMOSHEL.
HSH
Los Angeles County's Department of Homeless Services and Housing, launched in 2026, which took over county homeless contracts from LAHSA.
HUD
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sets the count rules and pays federal homelessness grants.
improvised dwelling
LAHSA's term for a lived-in car, van, RV, tent or makeshift shelter. Santa Monica's published totals count each one as one person.
interim housing
A temporary place to sleep indoors with services, such as a shelter bed, motel room or tiny home, while someone waits for an apartment.
LA LEADS
RAND's five-year study that counted unsheltered people in Hollywood, Venice and Skid Row every two months with trained staff. It ended in January 2026.
LAHSA
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. A joint agency of the City and County of Los Angeles, created in 1993, that runs the regional count and many shelter contracts.
Measure A
A countywide half-cent sales tax for homelessness and housing, in effect since April 1, 2025. HSH spends most of it.
Moss Adams study
The 2022 study by the city's outside auditor that added up all city homelessness spending for FY2020-21.
multiplier (weight)
An average number of people per tent or vehicle, used to turn a count of dwellings into a count of people. RAND uses 1.7.
non-congregate
Interim housing where each person or couple has a private room or unit, such as a motel room or tiny home.
outreach team (MDT)
A multidisciplinary street team, such as The People Concern's or the county's C3 teams, that finds people outside and connects them to care and beds.
PIT count
Point-in-Time count. A count of everyone homeless in an area on one night. HUD requires it in the last 10 days of January, sheltered people every year and unsheltered people at least every other year. Los Angeles counts both every year.
RAND
A nonprofit research organization headquartered in Santa Monica that studies homelessness and runs its own counts.
rough sleeping
Sleeping with no tent or vehicle at all, on a sidewalk, in an alley or in a doorway. The hardest group to count.
SAMOSHEL
Santa Monica's 60-bed shelter downtown, run by The People Concern, where people sleep in a shared room. The city plans to replace it.
sheltered
Sleeping that night in an emergency shelter, transitional housing or a Safe Haven program.
SMPP
Santa Monica Program Participant. Someone who became homeless in the city, has been homeless there three or more years, or is a frequent user of city services. Only SMPP clients go to the Palm Motel.
unsheltered
Sleeping outdoors, in a vehicle, in a tent or in another place not meant for living.