We Have a Chance to Do Something Real About Homelessness in Torrance

By Supervisor Janice Hahn

According to preliminary homeless count data from LAHSA, about 355 people are homeless in Torrance — that is up from around 260 people last year.

Thankfully, some of these people are safe and cared for at Torrance’s Tiny Home interim housing site at the Civic Center. But there are only 40 tiny homes there and they filled up almost immediately after the City opened it three years ago. The folks there are living in these tiny homes an average of 321 days. The reason they are staying so long is because the next logical step is for them to move into an apartment of their own, but we have had a lack of apartments that they can move into.

This bottleneck is one of the biggest reasons homelessness in our communities feels like it never ends. We have to fix the flow. And that means creating permanent housing.

That’s exactly why I’m championing a project that I believe could make a big difference. We were approached by the Weingart Center Association with an opportunity to convert the Extended Stay America motel in Torrance into 118 affordable apartments with on-site services. This is the solution this city has needed and means we could move people out of the Tiny Homes, into these stable apartments, and open up more Tiny Home spots to get people off the streets of Torrance.

If we get state funding for this project through Project Homekey—a program that turns motels into housing with on-site services—we can move quickly and affordably. We can get motel conversions done in one-third the time and at half the cost of building a development from the ground up. We are already making it work across the County. In San Pedro, we turned the run down old Best Western on Gaffey Street into the Louis Dominguez Veterans Center and are housing 100 local veterans. In unincorporated Whittier, 97 people will have comfortable, safe apartments in what used to be a Motel 6. In Commerce, what used to be a Studio 6 motel is now 80 apartments for people who had been homeless.

Members of the Torrance City Council and some Torrance residents have concerns about these apartments and I’m always open to a real conversation. But we have to look at the facts. Without permanent housing, shelters get full, streets stay crowded with tents, and the crisis drags on. With permanent housing, people stabilize, communities heal, and we finally move forward.

The people who would live in these apartments already are in Torrance. This isn’t about “bringing people in” from somewhere else—it’s about addressing the homelessness challenge that the city is dealing with today.

I want to end homelessness in Torrance. Not manage it, not shift it around—end it. And I believe we can, if we make sure cooler heads prevail and make commonsense, compassionate choices like this one.

I’m proud to be pushing this solution. It’s not flashy — but it’s smart, effective, and it will work. I hope the City of Torrance will stand with me—because this is how we end homelessness. Not with talk, but with action.