> ## 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. # City Hall wants a little help with homeless burden - URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-hall-wants-a-little-help-with-homeless-burden/ - Published: 2003-11-04T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T03:09:35.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness *It’s time for other cities to buck up* (Editor’s note: This is the last article in an ongoing series covering the issue of homelessness in Santa Monica.) By John Wood Daily Press Staff Writer City Hall is refocusing its efforts to deal with the growing homeless population by looking to nearby cities to help shoulder the burden. While City Hall will continue to fund and expand a diverse network of programs designed to help the homeless, it’s time for the problem to be approached regionally, which means other cities need to step up to the plate, officials say. Many residents, merchants and homeless people have complained that because neighboring cities don’t offer services, needy people from those cities come to Santa Monica, creating a higher demand locally for services for homeless people. In many surrounding communities like Beverly Hills, homeless people aren’t accepted, which is why they flock to Santa Monica, some argue. In order to encourage other cities to help, City Hall now plays a role in several regional groups. One of those groups, which Mayor Richard Bloom is a key member of, is dedicated to ending homelessness in LA in the next 10 years. A different group is lobbying for year-round shelters in neighboring communities. This year, $1.8 million in taxpayers’ money will go towards 22 programs sponsored by 10 agencies, each of which contribute three times that in outside funds, said Julie Rusk, City Hall’s manager of human services. But rather than simply pumping money into the nonprofits, City Hall will also look at improving the way it handles the growing homeless population. “As a community, we are continuing to really attempt to tackle something that very few communities attempt to tackle,” Rusk said. “We’re addressing an issue that has really gotten very few state and national resources, but is a very important and complex problem. 4D5,“We’re at a point now where we would be unlikely to tackle any major initiative without regional support,” she added. “It seems to me that we’ve made our commitment and we’ve made our resources available... and now our challenge is to get others to step up and do the same, and that’s a very daunting and difficult challenge.” > “We’re at a point now where we would be unlikely to tackle any major initiative without regional support.” — — JULIE RUSK Manager of human services, City Hall The City Council last week held its annual review and public hearing on City Hall’s “Coordinated Plan for Homeless Services,” which is now in its 10th year. At the hearing, the concerns of residents, business leaders, social service providers and homeless people were considered before next year’s plan was adopted. Another change in City Hall’s plan for the coming year is the addition of 35 beds in the Ocean Park Community Center’s new homeless shelter at Michigan Avenue and Cloverfield Boulevard, which will open soon. The new shelter has drawn criticism from neighborhood groups and residents who complain the area, in the eastside of Santa Monica, already has more than its fair share of social services agencies. But because OPCC agreed to scrap the day services portion of the proposed shelter, which serves about 150 people each day, the City Council approved the $7.4 million project in September. 45F,OPCC’s day center also in the coming year is likely to be consolidated with SWASHLOCK, a program that provides showers, lockers and washing machines for homeless people at the Big Blue Bus headquarters on Colorado Avenue. Rusk said combining the two will streamline the entry point for homeless people into City Hall’s programs. Yet another controversial topic staffers at City Hall will research over the next year is whether a sobering center for public inebriates should be created. Some officials have said public drunks need a place to go other than jail because it would free up police and emergency personnel, which would save City Hall millions while making the streets safer for everyone. In 2002, the SMPD received 3,106 calls related to intoxication. Police arrested an average of 4.5 people per day on public drunkenness charges. The SMFD responded to another 963 alcohol-related calls and Santa Monica and St. John’s hospitals lost a combined total of $250,000 by devoting medical resources to intoxicated people who were sobering up, Santa Monica Fire Department Capt. Bruce Davis said earlier this year. Finally, Rusk said City Hall will continue to look at ways of managing open space in Santa Monica. A series of laws have been enacted in the past designed to keep local parks and outdoor areas safe and free to enjoy for everyone. They include making it illegal to camp in parks or to serve food to large groups of people without proper permits. Rusk said those laws will be enforced while other possibilities also will be examined. While City Hall looks ahead to the coming year, a handful of outside groups have also weighed in on the homeless issue in Santa Monica. Dr. Mike Gruning, president of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, asked council members at last week’s meeting to more forcibly police a handful of new laws designed to curb the homeless population downtown. Problems with homelessness are staying the same or getting worse, according to a recent survey of residents conducted by the chamber. The result, officials contend, is the cost of business continues to rise while employees and tourists are turned off from Santa Monica — and the overall quality of life continues to decline. In a report titled, “2003 Review of Santa Monica’s Homeless Services by Those Who Use Them,” a series of recommendations were made to City Hall on everything from ordinances to promotional campaigns. The recommendations included providing sensitivity training to all City Hall employees, giving each homeless person three meal tickets each day to eat at local restaurants and instituting a positive promotional campaign to introduce residents to the human face of homelessness. “The city’s medical community should produce a bilingual brochure or booklet, ‘Staying Healthy While Homeless,’ distributed to all homeless,” the report said. Rusk defended the 22 programs currently funded by City Hall and said enormous gains have been made in transitioning people from the street into jobs, shelter and permanent housing. Last year, 460 people were placed in permanent housing, while a total of 2,773 homeless people received services, she said. “If every community were to tackle the problem and do that piece then we’d really begin to address the problem,” Rusk said. “In the last 10, 12, 14 years we’ve become even more aware of just how important that is. And our participation... is really critical.” Julie Rusk *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 4, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110403.pdf?ref=smdp.com)