By Daily Press staff
(Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of installments posing questions to City Council candidates. Each Tuesday leading up to Election Day, candidates will be asked a question by the Santa Monica Daily Press. Readers are encouraged to submit potential questions for the candidates to sack@smdp.com. Responses from challengers vying for four City Council seats appear first; incumbents appear last. See their responses on pages 8 and 9).
CITY AT LARGE — It’s the No. 1 concern of Santa Monica residents for, at least, the past three years, according to numerous surveys.
The number of homeless people appears to be on the upswing here, with estimates falling somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 individuals living on the streets on any given day in Santa Monica. City leaders, including the four incumbents looking to keep their seats, support social service programs that are designed to help the local homeless population. They have also passed laws designed to eliminate anti-social behavior, like sleeping in doorways or allowing food lines to assemble in area parks.
But critics of those laws and social service programs say they are ineffective and are attracting more homeless people to Santa Monica, allowing them to capitalize on the city’s compassionate and socialistic way of doing things.
Not surprising, many of the candidates running for City Council are using the homeless issue as a leading campaign platform. They say there is a glaring need for tough love and more accountability for social service programs. Incumbents feel it’s not that simple, and the issue is of national proportions. At the very least, it’s a regional issue and other cities must help share the burden, the incumbents contend.
This week’s question: “How would you define the ‘homeless’ problem? What do you plan to do about it, and how would you specifically improve the quality of life for residents affected by homelessness?”
Unfortunately, we’ve become so accustomed to seeing people sleeping in doorways and alleys that it doesn’t warrant a second glance. Is this helping? Our children are learning to ignore the suffering they are forced to witness daily. Santa Monica may have started out with high ideals and sympathy towards those less fortunate, but it has turned to apathy and decayed as our community has been overwhelmed by more homeless than we could ever hope to accommodate.
We use the word “homeless” as a catch-all phrase to include anyone on the street. In fact, some of them are homeless, needing and wanting our help to get off the streets. And there are some limited successes getting homeless people into the mainstream. This should be celebrated and duplicated.
However, there are others on the streets who do not want our help. Vagrants and transients have chosen a lifestyle that is enabled by our generosity.
Our programs must be held accountable, especially when our tax dollars are supporting the programs directed at helping the homeless. We must expect cooper-ation from the shelters and lunch giveaways which have become so concentrated in Santa Monica.
Recommendations: ■ Identify those who are truly in need and focus the free food and giveaways to those who need it most. ■ Tie free food handouts to job training, counseling and other services. ■ Enact sunset clauses on programs to encourage those in charge to help people move through the system and become self-sufficient. ■ Work with surrounding communities to find low-cost housing alternatives in areas with cheaper land.
The future of Santa Monica is in the balance. To continue to do the same thing but expect different results is one definition of insanity. It’s time to change direction.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 12, 2004. Read the original PDF.