Spotlight on Montebello's Operation Stay Safe: How a 30-Unit Tiny Home Village Is Changing Lives on Flotilla Street

Operation Stay Safe is Montebello's municipal homeless outreach and interim housing initiative, launched in response to the visible increase in unsheltered residents within city limits. After years of relying solely on LA County outreach teams, the City of Montebello took direct action — partnering with the county and the nonprofit operator LA CADA (Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse) to open an interim tiny home community at 2000 Flotilla Street. The program is designed to provide a safe, dignified, and service-rich interim solution while permanent housing options are pursued.

Traditional emergency shelters typically house many individuals in large dormitory-style rooms with limited privacy, restricted hours, and few personal belongings allowed. Tiny home villages provide individual or small shared units — essentially small private rooms with locking doors — that give residents a sense of home and security that dormitory shelters cannot replicate. Research shows that private units significantly improve outcomes: residents stay longer, engage more consistently with case management, and achieve higher rates of transition to permanent housing.

The Operation Stay Safe program gives priority to individuals and families who are current Montebello residents — people who have lost housing within the city. This local preference is critically important: it means people are not relocated away from their community, their children's schools, their family networks, and their familiar environment. Prioritizing local residents reduces the trauma of displacement and increases the likelihood of successful reintegration into the community.

LA CADA (Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse) operates the Flotilla Street site and provides a comprehensive package of on-site supportive services. These include: individual case management (connecting residents to housing resources, benefits enrollment, employment support, and healthcare); three daily meals; 24-hour on-site security; and coordination with LA County's Coordinated Entry System to identify and pursue permanent housing placements. The goal of case management is to move every resident into permanent housing as quickly as possible.

PDLA partners with and complements Montebello's Operation Stay Safe by reaching residents who have not yet entered the formal system. We conduct outreach at encampments and public spaces in Montebello, provide food and hygiene supplies, and actively refer individuals to Operation Stay Safe and other county resources. Many of the unsheltered individuals we serve are on the waitlist for programs like Flotilla Street — our role is to support them with dignity and consistency while they wait.