A stunning new video has proven the truth of Santa Monica’s iconic seaside at dawn — with dozens of individuals in sleeping baggage littered throughout the sand.
The video, shared by metropolis council candidate Derrick Townsend, confirmed the shoreline lined in what seems to be homeless individuals napping because the solar got here up.
“I’m going to start out calling this ‘Sleeping Bag Seashore.’ One other Saturday dawn in Santa Monica,” he stated on social media.
Santa Monica is understood worldwide for its seashores, tourism and high-end actual property.
The common dwelling itemizing value within the metropolis is roughly $3.1 million, whereas median sale costs vary from about $1.7 million to $1.8 million.
But critics say the town has struggled with a rising divide between its picture as a premier California vacation spot and the seen points taking part in out on the streets.
Many residents and enterprise homeowners blame a long time of liberal management, arguing metropolis insurance policies have centered closely on homelessness packages whereas failing to deal with issues over public security, downtown decline and high quality of life.
Some hint the start of recent seen homelessness in Santa Monica again to 1981, when Santa Monica Renters’ Rights, a progressive political coalition, gained a majority on the town council.
Led by figures together with future mayor Ruth Yannatta Goldway, the group helped form a political route that critics describe as a extra permissive method to enforcement.
Greater than 4 a long time later, homelessness stays one of many metropolis’s most debated points.
Santa Monica has a density of roughly 97 unhoused people per sq. mile, a focus critics say has contributed to ongoing tensions across the seaside, downtown, and vacationer areas.
Security issues have fueled that frustration.
Town confronted one other high-profile incident on Might 24, when a 49-year-old man recognized as Nay Min Tar of Illinois was arrested by Santa Monica police after an alleged focused assault involving a canine assault on a Jewish couple.
Throughout Labor Day weekend 2025, an worker at Pier Pizza Subs and Salad close to the Santa Monica Pier was stabbed a number of instances from behind whereas consuming lunch.
In August 2025, the Santa Monica Police Division arrested a homeless man following an unprovoked multi-stabbing assault close to the pedestrian staircase connecting Ocean Entrance Stroll to Appian Method.
The next month, in June 2024, a homeless man was charged with tried homicide after allegedly grabbing an aged lady and dragging her into the ocean surf in an try and drown her.
In Might 2024, a homeless individual was accused of brutally assaulting a feminine jogger and dragging her right into a seaside restroom.
In July 2023, former Metropolis Councilman Phil Brock was confronted, cursed at, and bodily shoved by a homeless man on the Third Avenue Promenade. The person was reportedly on his third felony arrest in a two-week interval.
The controversy has additionally affected Santa Monica’s enterprise group.
The Third Avenue Promenade continues to battle with a retail emptiness charge estimated between 25% and 30%, with quite a few storefronts displaying “For Lease” indicators.
The Santa Monica Hearth Division’s Neighborhood Response Unit, launched in late 2021, has turn into one other level of dialogue.
This system price $523,000 throughout its preliminary two-year pilot interval and continues at an estimated annual price of $300,000.
It operates with a two-firefighter group, a low-acuity ambulance, and specialised de-escalation tools.
