By SACKA SOMETHING Daily Planet Slave
An emergency homeless shelter will open Friday in the exclusive neighborhood north of Montana Avenue to house an influx of down-and-out residents whose luck has suddenly run out.
Nearly 86 percent of Santa Monicans found themselves without a paycheck this month, which left local politicians scrambling to find a way to accomodate them.
“All along we’ve said that everyone is one paycheck away from being homeless and now it’s happened,” said City Councilman Ian Toldyouso. “No one thought it would happen to them but reality has delivered a blow to our hard working citizens.”
Santa Monicans — of every age, race and socio-economic class — were denied their pay after the CEOs of all the banks in Southern California took off to the islands of Thailand with their cash. Local employers, who were already strapped because of the poor economy and increasing worker’s comp costs, were left with no options.
“Hey, it’s not our problem if these workers didn’t have a savings account or any assets,” said Brook Needleme, a local business owner. “Maybe they should have thought about that before they decided to live and work here, it’s not like it’s a place for the average Joe Shmoe to live comfortably.”
A worker, whose name actually is Joe Shmoe, said by the time he paid all of his bills, including his $5,000-a-month studio apartment, there was hardly any money left to eat or drink with.
“I mean, I come from a good family and have a decent work ethic,” he said. “I cannot believe that I now have to turn to a homeless shelter... oh well on the positive side... it’s the clos-est I’ll ever get to living north of Montanta.”
Meanwhile, shots rang out in the Pico neighborhood. The City Council voted in the wee hours of the morning when most of the public was alseep, to build the emergency shelter on Marguerita Avenue. One of the reasons they decided on Marguerita Avenue was because most of the residents in the area were predominately against the living wage measure that was defeated last fall. They reasoned that it’s time for that segment of the population to pay for the ills of society, some of which they created.
“They are part of the problem,” said City Manager Len Iruletheworld. “They can’t keep the man down and then expect them to stay off the street forever.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2004. Read the original PDF.