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# A grand plan that’s doable: Rand building a bridge for homeless
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/a-grand-plan-thats-doable-rand-building-a-bridge-for-homeless/
- Published: 2004-12-10T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:47:42.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Sunset Park, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*By TED WINTERER*

I was battling insomnia the other night so I surfed through the city of Santa Monica’s Web site. I find it slows my heart rate and lulls me to sleep.

Posted there are the resident satisfaction surveys from 1998-2002\. In each year, homelessness is identified by citizens as the predominate challenge facing our city and yet little has changed on our streets. A cynic might suggest that’s why no surveys are available for 2003 and 2004\. If Wal-Mart was this responsive to its customers’ feedback, it would still be a small mom and pop operation in Arkansas — not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, mind you.

Why hasn’t our government made our primary concern an institutional priority? It’s telling that in a town with a plethora of boards, commissions and task forces convened to address everything from Albatross Rights to Zeppelin Management, there isn’t a Commission on Homelessness. Perhaps that’s because all of our City Council members live north of Wilshire or in Sunset Park, behind the invisible wall of proactive policing which minimizes the homeless population. Or maybe it’s because city staff is rarely exposed to the issue, as the only significant homeless presence at City Hall occurs at the Saturday feedings on the front lawn.

Do you think we’d get a sharper focus on the matter if we relocated homelessness to the Civic Center? During the last City Council campaign Herb Katz suggested setting up tents in an area parking lot to shelter the homeless. He’s since disavowed the notion, but he may have been headed in the right direction. What if a permanent tent city were erected in front of City Hall to house some of those without homes? Might that then inspire some genuine solutions to local homelessness?

Instead our City Council in recent years has pursued the same tired policy of doling out a modest $2 million for social services, passing a couple of inadequately enforced ordinances posing as tough love, and bleating in Orwellian happy speak about providing a continuum of care. Excuse me, but what’s so compassionate about leaving people to fend for themselves on the streets?

You see, while many would argue we spend too much money on the homeless in this city, I’m one of those deranged pinkos who believes we don’t spend enough and don’t spend it well. There’s a reason these unfortunate people are called the homeless and not the clothesless, temporary shelterless, foodless, or showerless: to provide these amenities without homes does little to cure this societal ill. Simply put, Santa Monica needs to provide supportive, transitional housing to substantially reduce our homeless population. To do so would improve the quality of life for both the homeless and the housed.

Bobby Shriver has proposed turning vacant buildings on the Veterans Administration land in West LA into housing for the chronically homeless. And I say bless him. Finally a local leader is talking about a real solution to homelessness: Homes. But even this farsighted proposal will take some time to implement.

In the meantime the city of Santa Monica owns its own vacant buildings which can sooner be put to a similar use. Now that the Rand Corporation has moved into its ungainly new fortress, the city has taken possession of the old Rand buildings. These structures are scheduled for demolition to make room for the implementation of the Civic Center Plan, a project which will cost more than $100 million and amounts to the de facto McMansionization of City Hall. Incidentally, nowhere in those resident surveys did I see an iota of demand for a makeover of the Civic Center.

I say let’s put that notion on hold and instead use the Rand buildings to provide housing for the homeless with on-site support services to help those who want to steer their lives in a new direction. It’s a quick and relatively inexpensive stopgap measure to substantially reduce our homeless population while we wait for some of these grander regional schemes and 10-year plans to play out. And it puts the issue of homelessness right in front of City Hall. When our government truly ameliorates our citizens’ primary concern, then and only then should we proceed with a Civic Center remodel whose primary support comes from City Council and staff.

Like my idea? Then e-mail the City Council at council@smgov.net. Every day the old Rand buildings move one step closer towards demolition. Soon a rare opportunity will be lost. (Ted Winterer is a writer and lives in Ocean Park).

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 10, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/121004.pdf?ref=smdp.com)