It comes days after the 2026 Point-in-Time Count showed unsheltered homelessness in Santa Monica down 18.7% and the overall count down 11.6% to 718 people. By Sarah LinThe Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday approved a Housing Focused System of Care that gives the city direct control over homelessness services from street outreach through permanent housing, reducing reliance on the Los Angeles County-run system. “Rather than relying on others to coordinate our homeless response activities, Santa Monica is choosing instead to build a system we control,” she said. The model centers on four priorities: prioritizing people with a Santa Monica connection for local housing, providing robust on-site services, city-directed security, and good-neighbor agreements. It comes days after the 2026 Point-in-Time Count showed unsheltered homelessness in Santa Monica down 18.7% and the overall count down 11.6% to 718 people, even as homelessness rose slightly across the broader Los Angeles County Continuum of Care.