The south Los Angeles County city of Bellflower on Monday joined a homelessness lawsuit in Orange County, a move that the judge in the case said could be a game changer in helping to ease the region’s homelessness crisis.

The agreement, reached Sept. 23 in a federal court in Santa Ana, marked the first time a city from outside Orange County became part of the lawsuit that already has led to new shelter and other services being provided for homeless people in several cities.

At the hearing in his courtroom, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said the unanimous decision by Bellflower’s city council to provide shelter beds and other services under terms of the lawsuit could prompt other cities in Southern California — and perhaps statewide — to do the same.

“Quite frankly, this is a momentous occasion,” Carter said as lawyers signed the agreement at a side table. Carter added that calls were already coming in to him and to Bellflower officials from other cities in Southern California about the agreement in the Orange County lawsuit.

Carter declined to say who else has made inquiries, but said he expects other cities in the region to “quickly follow” Bellflower’s lead in opening shelters and cleaning up their parks and other public spaces.

He called for someone — perhaps Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose 4th District includes Bellflower and parts of cities in and around Orange County, or an elected official from Orange County — to step up as a leader in bringing other cities in Southern California on board.

“I want a hero or heroine to emerge,” Carter said. “I want to become non-relevant.”

Mayor Pro Tem Juan Garza of Bellflower told Carter that the settlement with his city “balances the needs of those who want help” with “the needs of residents who want results.”

Read the Bellflower settlement

Right after the Bellflower accord was discussed, officials from Laguna Beach — a city not previously involved in the lawsuit — announced their own settlement agreement in the action. The lawsuit, known as the Catholic Worker case, originally named Orange County and the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange as defendants.

The January 2018 complaint was filed by advocates for the homeless at a time when the county had just taken action to clear tent camps, with hundreds of people, away from the Santa Ana River Trail. Negotiations in the lawsuit, under Carter’s guidance, led to temporary shelter for more than 700 homeless people as the encampment was dismantled, along with settlements that call for a more humane approach from local jurisdictions by sending outreach workers to offer assessment, health care, and other services before enforcement.

During his remarks on Monday, Carter cautioned that homeless people who won’t accept services offered under the Bellflower agreement will “migrate” to other communities. That possibility is one of several issues that has led to settlements and goosed efforts to open new shelters in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, and Tustin, along with plans for others in Huntington Beach, Buena Park and Placentia.

A related lawsuit involving five cities in south Orange County — an action originally under Carter’s jurisdiction — was transferred to another federal judge over concerns that Carter could appear to be biased, based on his rulings and comments in the Catholic Worker lawsuit.

But Bellflower was impressed by how all of the litigants in the Catholic Worker suit, after being nudged by Carter, were working together to balance the rights and needs of homeless people with the public health and safety concerns of residents in those communities. Even though the city reported making progress back in 2012 on reducing homelessness, the issue now is the No. 1 concern among residents, city officials said.

Bellflower officials contacted Carter about a year ago as cities in north and central Orange County began reaching their settlement agreements. The connection came about through the efforts of former Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez, who lost bids for a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors and for mayor of Santa Ana but remained a role player in the homelessness lawsuit.

The 2019 Point in Time count conducted by Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority recorded 148 homeless people in Bellflower, a city with an overall population slightly higher than 77,000. The settlement document estimates the number of Bellflower’s homeless at 70.

All five members of the Bellflower City Council were at Monday’s hearing, along with the city attorney and city manager, and later posed for cellphone photos with Carter. The Laguna Beach contingent, which included city officials and police officers who work with the homeless population, also took a selfie with the judge.

Laguna Beach joined more than a dozen cities in north and central Orange County that have reached settlements calling for the same basic homeless outreach, including providing enough beds for at least 60 percent of the city’s homeless population. Those cities also will use similar enforcement procedures to keep homeless people off local streets.

Read the Laguna Beach settlement

Carter praised Laguna Beach, where he lives, as “exemplary” for dealing with its homeless population. About a decade ago, the city of about 23,000, established the 45-bed Alternative Sleeping Location (ASL), an emergency shelter on Laguna Canyon Road.

According to city officials, more than 200 people have been transitioned from the ASL in Laguna Beach to more stable housing.

The ASL was the subject of a now-settled lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California on behalf of disabled homeless people.

Carter made a show of displaying a chart on a courtroom screen in remarking on how, in recent years, the shelter in Laguna Beach had housed 27 homeless people who somehow got there from Aliso Viejo. Carter noted that Aliso Viejo’s homeless population dropped from 28 in 2017 to 1 in 2019, according to the most recent Point In Time report.

“Twenty-seven people got transported or found themselves, miraculously,” in Laguna Beach, Carter said, addressing the Laguna Beach officials. “Twenty-seven people, I’m going to use the word, (were) ‘dumped’ on you.”

The moves by Bellflower and Laguna Beach weren’t the only steps aimed at the homelessness problem taken during the hearing Monday.

Santa Ana filed a settlement agreement that includes opening a second 200-bed shelter in addition to The Link shelter the city opened last year. The city remains at odds with the county over the location of a facility to replace the county-run Courtyard shelter.

Read the Santa Ana settlement

Also, Fullerton Mayor Jesus Silva announced that his city is working with the nonprofit Illumination Foundation to open a facility that will proved 60 beds for homeless people who are recuperating from health issues, and another 90 beds that could be used by people with no health conditions.

And Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, spoke of state money that could be used to shelter and treat up to 200 severely mentally ill homeless people at Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. That project, she said, could start as soon as early next year, though housing homeless people at Fairview also has drawn criticism from neighboring residents and elected officials in Costa Mesa.