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# Todd Flora: Santa Monica's homelessness burden and the Ocean Park shelter compromise
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/081903-story-20030819-2/
- Published: 2003-08-19T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:47:44.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*By Todd Flora*

■ It’s no secret that one of the biggest problems Santa Monica faces is homelessness. The problem is much larger than one entity can solve but Santa Monica continues to try.

Let me be clear. I believe our city carries far too great a burden in caring for the homeless population. If you ask me, the city should be lobbying around the clock for a greater county and state role in caring for the needs of the area’s homeless.

Further, we must certainly foster business efforts to remain a more attractive shopping destination than emerging local competitors like the Grove. And while I don’t exactly see the homeless population as more culpable than consumer confidence with regard to Promenade foot traffic, concerns of merchants and residents must be addressed.

Unfortunately, City Councilmembers — popular punching bags that they are — didn’t do themselves any political favors by creating a compromise in voting to relocate the Ocean Park Community Center last week. Now, a new facility off of Cloverfield Boulevard will house homeless persons at night, while a smaller version of the existing facility downtown will provide daytime services.

In so doing, the Council has displeased Pico neighborhood residents by relocating the new property in their back-yard and handed downtown political interests even more political fodder by spending more than $7 million to do it, all while creating at least the appearance of another insufficiently planned, railroaded decision.

And can I just ask? Where is the city’s communications machine every time council-bashers pounce? It’s constantly a one-sided debate out there, with a reticent city leadership either unable or unwilling to defend its decision-making.

For example, I beg someone at City Hall to publicly correct me on the following: I believe that dragging a portion of the homeless population from one end of town to the other at separate times of the day will prove to be a mistake. It may result in not only the homeless populations using its limited resources to bus themselves to the Cloverfield site, but also increases the chance that many won’t make the trek to use the new facility at all.

The fact is whatever level of future aid we might wrestle from the county and state, we have a homeless population NOW. And regardless of how divided our city may be on aspects of this issue, I hope we all remember that the biggest problem remains — people are homeless, many are mentally ill and someone must help them. (Todd Flora is a professional communications and issues manager in Santa Monica. He can be reached at junkfood6@aol.com, and encourages readers to contact him and Evelyn with suggestions for weekly writing topics.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 19, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081903.pdf?ref=smdp.com)