> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Activists to challenge council’s new laws - URL: https://www.smdp.com/activists-to-challenge-councils-new-laws/ - Published: 2002-10-24T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:48:40.000Z - Author: Andrew Fixmer - Tags: Government & Politics, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless *Lawsuit seeking injunction will be filed soon* Homeless activists say they will file a lawsuit seeking an injunction of city laws aimed at curbing outdoor food programs and preventing sleeping in downtown doorways. As the Santa Monica City Council turned the two controversial measures into law at its Tuesday meeting, attorneys with the National Lawyers Guild began conducting interviews with operators of outdoor food programs in preparation of a lawsuit to have them reversed. “A lawsuit will be filed seeking an injunction at some appropriate point soon,” said former city attorney Robert Myers, an activist with the National Lawyers Guild. “We’re currently making the preparatory steps needed to file that.” The two laws, which opponents say are anti-homeless, are scheduled to take effect on Nov. 21, and any challenge to the laws would likely be made before they are implemented, Myers said. The first law forces charitable organizations running free meal programs in city parks to apply for a permit if the gathering is over 150 people. Each organization must also receive a permit from the Los Angeles County Health Department, verifying their program follows stringent health codes and is not conducted more than three times in a 90-day period. Also the council unanimously enacted into law an ordinance that allows businesses to post signs prohibiting sleeping in doorways and vestibules downtown and in the commercial zones along Main Street from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. City staff is still developing how the process would be implemented. Some city council members said on Tuesday they are offended by remarks that they are trying to take food away from the hungry or that they are trying to chase the homeless out of Santa Monica. They said Santa Monica, which annually spends millions to aid social service agencies to help permanently lift the homeless off the streets, has a long record of compassion. “I’m sad to see this issue has been so susceptible to spin from those that oppose them,” said Councilman Ken Genser. “We spend more on addressing the homeless issue than any other city of comparable size in Los Angeles County.” 56D,“To say that this is intended to starve people or force them out of town just isn’t true,” he added. A report from the city’s staff to the city council proposing the ordinance covering outdoor food programs makes the city’s intentions clear. “Presumably, enforcement will diminish the number of projects and the number of distributions by each project because, among other things, project participants will be unwilling or unable to comply with the state and county requirements,” the report says. Mayor Mike Feinstein, who along with Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown were the only council members who voted against the ordinance covering the meal programs, said the issue was not fully studied before the city proposed the ordinance. He said the city council is acting prematurely and without having a knowledgeable discussion about alternatives to enacting a “draconian” measure. “Most residents that came before council were people talking about... alcohol and liquor problems,” he said. “There is no health situation.” Other council members said the ordinances need to be enacted out of compassion for the homeless, so they would be encouraged to get help through any one of the local social service agencies. Councilman Herb Katz said even though there had not been any reports of people becoming sick from the food distributed at outdoor locations, it doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. 350,“We’re not trying to stop the homeless from being here, we’re trying to protect them,” he said. Katz asked city staff members to come back with a list of possible locations for the food programs by the next council meeting on Nov. 11. Councilman Richard Bloom said the council was only reacting to what it was hearing from the community, which still wants to help the homeless but who also wants a higher quality of life as well. “It’s a responsible and measured response to what we have heard through e-mail and in public testimony,” he said. “It came out of the community.” Councilman Bob Holbrook sarcastically said since many of the groups operating outdoor food programs are coming to Santa Monica from towns such as Malibu and as far away as Oxnard, perhaps the city should help those less fortunate municipalities set up their own programs. 542,“Because they can’t seem to find anywhere to go with their charity than here,” he said. Myers said the council members that for the ordinances should be ashamed of themselves. “I am reminded of southern segregationists who made comments about how well they treat their Negroes in response to complaints from civil rights activists in the 1960s,” he said. “ No council member who voted for these ordinances should be able to call themselves compassionate.” Myers — who was fired in 1991 as the Santa Monica City Attorney for refusing to write or enforce city laws forbidding camping in public — said the city has slowly been turning more and more anti-homeless over the past decade. He said the city used to do a lot more to help the less fortunate than it does now. Back then he said the city treated the homeless as human beings and with kindness. “Personally, I don’t think you measure compassion by the amount of money you spend but how you treat people,” Myers said. “And when you pass ordinances like this, that is not what you are doing.” > “Personally, I don’t think you measure compassion by the amount of money you spend but how you treat people.” — — ROBERT MYERS Former city attorney ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/102402-01_01.jpg) (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 24, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102402.pdf?ref=smdp.com)