By Ashley Oelsen
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath's decision to terminate the two proposed bridge housing facilities at 413 and 825 Ocean Avenue represents a pivotal moment for Santa Monica; not because one neighborhood prevailed over another, but because transparency and accountability finally did.
The projects would have converted former senior living buildings into supportive housing for individuals with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders. They advanced without public awareness or meaningful community outreach, a fundamental breach of the public trust that undergirds democratic governance.
Supervisor Horvath stated it plainly: "When a project moves forward without community awareness, it erodes trust." She was right. Now we must ensure that no community, not Ocean Avenue, not Pico, not anywhere in our city, is ever blindsided again.
Compassion Through Accountability
This has never been about abandoning vulnerable people. Santa Monica has long championed compassion, inclusion, and service to those in need. But genuine compassion cannot come at the expense of safety, oversight, or good governance. Behavioral health services must be strategically placed in clinically appropriate settings with trained staff, medical infrastructure, and proper support systems, not arbitrarily positioned beside homes, schools, or parks without community input.
We must also confront an uncomfortable truth: the social service programs consuming millions of taxpayer dollars annually are not delivering measurable improvements in outcomes. Too often, they perpetuate cycles of dependency without providing the treatment, stability, or pathways to recovery that individuals desperately need. The result is a system that fails the very people it purports to help while compromising neighborhood safety and stability.
Nowhere is this failure more starkly visible than in the Pico neighborhood, which has struggled for years under the weight of these broken systems. Consider the situation at The Manor at 1905 Pico Boulevard, a facility that has operated in distress for years and is now closing without a clear transition plan for its residents. People can be found unconscious on sidewalks, without adequate support or follow-up care. This situation is both heartbreaking and dangerous, illustrating precisely why meaningful oversight and treatment accountability are not optional luxuries but essential safeguards.
The Transparency Deficit
Much about this entire arrangement remains shrouded in mystery. The lack of transparency and the irregular process through which negotiations were conducted gave concerned residents legitimate grounds to challenge these projects. To this day, the public has not seen crucial documents that should have been available from the outset: the Request for Applications, the lease agreement, and the contract between the County, St. Joseph Center, and the property owners. These are not administrative minutiae, they are the foundation of public trust. Without them, residents are left to fill the void with speculation and suspicion.
Addressing the Equity Question
We must acknowledge how this outcome has reverberated across our city. For many residents in historically marginalized neighborhoods, the cancellation of the Ocean Avenue projects felt like another confirmation that wealthy communities receive protection while lower-income areas bear the brunt of poorly planned initiatives. Their frustration is justified and must be heard.
This is not about winners and losers. It is about demanding a process that is fair, transparent, and equitably applied across all neighborhoods, regardless of their zip codes or median incomes.
Meanwhile, commercial corridors and small businesses across Santa Monica are struggling to survive amid growing disorder, vandalism, and safety concerns that drive customers away and make daily operations increasingly untenable.
We must now establish clear, citywide and countywide guidelines for where and how supportive housing facilities are sited. This framework should include proximity standards establishing appropriate distances from schools and residential zones, mandatory community notification with adequate time for public input, transparent vetting of operators including their track records and program models, clinical appropriateness ensuring facilities have proper medical and behavioral health infrastructure, and annual public reporting on treatment outcomes, fiscal efficiency, and public safety impacts.
This is a moment that demands unity. The frustration and fear experienced by Ocean Avenue residents with these proposed projects on Ocean Ave, is something that mid-Wilshire has been trying to fight off for the last few years and could easily visit the any of our neighborhoods tomorrow. The same lack of information, the same erosion of trust. We must work together (north of Montana, Mid-City, the Pico neighborhood, and everywhere in between) to build a city that protects both our residents and those who most need help.
Compassion and accountability are not opposing forces; they are essential partners. If Santa Monica can lead on transparency and thoughtful planning, we can establish a model for cities across Los Angeles County, one where vulnerable individuals receive effective care and communities are treated with respect.
Real progress does not emerge from secrecy or haste. It is built on trust, inclusion, and the conviction that every neighborhood deserves both safety and dignity—including the people we are trying to help.
We call on the Santa Monica City Council to adopt comprehensive oversight measures requiring annual public reporting on the effectiveness of all social service programs and behavioral health facilities operating within our city. These reports must include transparent data on treatment outcomes, fiscal efficiency, and public safety impacts. Only through such accountability can we ensure that every dollar spent makes a meaningful difference: improving lives, restoring trust, and securing the future of our city.
The question before us is not whether we will help those in crisis. It is whether we will do so with wisdom, transparency, and respect for all communities. Santa Monica can and must answer yes to both.