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# City courting solution to homelessness
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-courting-solution-to-homelessness/
- Published: 2005-01-15T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:00:42.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*Help or jail? New programs would give transients a choice*

(Editor’s note: This is the first article in a three-part series detailing new strategies for dealing with homelessness, the cost and effectiveness of providing social service programs, and the impacts of homelessness on Santa Monica.) CITY HALL — A special courtroom may soon be established for homeless residents who routinely land in court for what social service workers call “lifestyle violations,” like taking shopping carts for personal use or sleeping in Santa Monica parks.

The idea of a homeless court, where officials could help offenders transition out of the courts and into social service programs, was one of several new ideas discussed at City Hall this week for tackling the persistent problem of homelessness.

Last year, nearly 2,200 homeless people received some form of help from city-funded nonprofit organizations in Santa Monica, according to an annual report on homelessness delivered to city officials last week. City Hall gave more than $1.8 million to nine local agencies, which collectively leveraged another $5 million from outside sources, the report says.

Residents and merchants continue to rank homelessness as the No. 1 problem in Santa Monica. Officials said this week that they were working on several new efforts to reduce the number of transients on the streets, while continuing established programs.

Starting last summer, officials launched a pilot program to tackle what they dubbed “chronic homelessness.” A dozen people who have been homeless in Santa Monica for between 5 and 20 years were picked, based on their frequent interaction with police and paramedics, and given preference at local social service organizations.

As a result of a combined effort between city staffers, authorities, social service providers and county mental health workers, eight of the 12 homeless people chosen are now off the streets, three in permanent housing, said Julie Rusk, City Hall’s human services manager. No extra costs were incurred, as existing resources were rearranged within the pilot program.

“It really is the most chronic, entrenched people on the streets, in the parks, on the (Third Street) Promenade of Santa Monica,” Rusk said. “It’s a start.”

The idea of operating a special courtroom for homeless offenders in Santa Monica was raised by Dan Grunfeld, president of Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm. Grunfeld said the model is currently enjoying success in San Diego and Los Angeles. In a homeless court, offenders who take concrete steps to turn around their lives, stay sober and reestablish connections to society can have warrants dismissed for so-called lifestyle offenses.

Paul Freese, also from Public Counsel, suggested Santa Monica consider another program entitled “Streets or Services,” which allows long-time transients charged with low-grade misdemeanors to choose to enroll in social service programs rather than serve time in jail. In 2004, the program served 568 homeless people along Los Angeles’ Skid Row with a success rate of 17 percent, according to Freese.

“If they accept services — for example, rehabilitative services, access to shelter, access to detox — if the person voluntarily chooses that, they can opt to avoid the whole court system,” said Freese, adding that it costs about $100,000 to staff the police department with a counselor to work with candidates for the program.

The City Council is expected to consider both the homeless court idea and the “Streets or Services” program at its Jan. 25 meeting, when the overall strategy for reducing homeless in Santa Monica over the next year will be established.

Several other strategies were laid out in the annual report on homelessness. Among them is City Hall’s intention to open a sobering center where public drunks can be taken, instead of jail, to sober up and receive counseling. Goals were identified this week for the center, which may be built in the old jailhouse behind City Hall.

In the meantime, new homeless housing projects are in the works, including a 55-bed facility at Michigan Avenue and Cloverfield Boulevard that is scheduled to open in March of 2006\. In a separate development, social service provider Step Up On Second has purchased the property at 1548 Fifth St. and hopes to open a new shelter there. The new beds will be critical, officials said. “A lot of people talk to us about homelessness, and we talk about the regional plan and we talk about the various things that we’re doing, but the bottom line in the issue of homelessness is there aren’t enough homes to live in,” City Councilman Richard Bloom said. “That has to be a place where we put a great deal of emphasis.”

Officials also are looking at opening a year-round shelter somewhere on the Westside, something housing providers say is desperately needed.

“One of my concerns is that we’re reaching a critical mass point,” said John Maceri, executive director of the nonprofit Ocean Park Community Center. “We simply will never get ahead of this problem until we establish increased bed capacity.”

> “One of my concerns is that we’re reaching a critical mass point... We simply will never get ahead of this problem until we establish increased bed capacity.” — — JOHN MACERI Executive director, OPCC

Also critical in the effort to reduce homelessness, officials said, are increased participation from neighboring communities and fine-tuning a set of ordinances aimed at reducing the impact of vagrancy on residents, merchants and tourists.

One of those ordinances, which currently is being challenged in court as a First Amendment violation, was designed to relocate large homeless feedings currently held in Santa Monica parks indoors. Many of the feedings are staged by nonprofit groups from outside Santa Monica that don’t belong to what the city calls its “continuum of care.”

“I think a lot of the visible impression (of homelessness) could be mitigated significantly” by moving the feedings inside, City Councilman Kevin McKeown said.

“Besides which, there’s a level of dignity to people to just let them sit down and have their meal indoors.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 15, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/011505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)