The 1994 Public Safety Act, section 2.69.010(f), states that the city is to: “Prevent an increase, and, wherever feasible, reduce city overall expenditures relating to homeless services.”
The City Council passed this ordinance on Sept. 13, 1994. Ken Genser and Bob Holbrook, who were both on the council at the time, voted “yes.”
This week, the City Council, led by Councilmen Ken Genser, Kevin McKeown and Mayor Richard Bloom, wholeheartedly endorsed and approved staff recommendations that the city fully fund Ocean Park Community Center's acquisition of 1751 Cloverfield for relocation and expansion of its homeless services.
It was a done deal from the start. The cash-strapped city will pony up $9.2 million in housing and transit funds for OPCC to purchase the property — for their Daybreak shelter only.
Council instructed staff to find a way for the Access drop-in center to remain on or near its present locale on bus property at Seventh Street and Colorado Avenue — likely necessitating millions more for OPCC in the future.
Pico activists are mollified because without Access's estimated 250 daily clients at 1751 Cloverfield, their neighborhood won't become Skid Row.
Supporters and detractors accused each other of peddling lies and misinformation. Bloom, Genser and McKeown were especially critical of Pico neighbors, accusing them of waging a malicious, distortion-filled smear campaign while ignoring half-truths and misstatements promulgated by OPCC, project supporters and even the city itself.
I got a kick out of the OPCC director, who told the council how he personally talked to nearby Bergamot Station art gallery owners.
“When they heard the truth, they understood what we were doing,” he said, implying support. Later, Bergamot Station’s tenant manager presented a petition to the council, signed by 36 gallery owners decidedly against the project.
Oops! The same held true at Crossroads School. OPCC implied Crossroads was okay with the project. Not true.
Assistant Head Master Bob Riddle said the school heard about it from a parent and its only contact from OPCC was a phone message. The school has serious concerns because of the shelter’s proximity to Crossroad's campus.
Typical of rhetoric I heard at City Hall on Tuesday night was a letter to the Daily Press from Chris Knauf (Aug. 13, 2003). Knauf, a Disabilities Commission member implied that I was “putting spin on” and “wrong” when I wrote that his commission “voted not to support OPCC's project.” For the record, they voted not to support the project at its intended site by a 10 to 1 vote! Knauf continued, “One-thousand beds are needed every night and currently only 35 are provided by OPCC.” Wrong. There are already hundreds of homeless beds here at Samoshel, Sunlight Mission and others. Knauf and others accuse me of misinformation and “anti-homeless hysteria.” Fine guys, but get your facts straight first.
During public input, a prickly Genser demanded that Chuck Allord — who is against the project — tell him, “How many of OPCC's clients are criminals?”
I think Genser was baiting Allord because Genser knows this information is not available and client records are confidential.
Attorney Mat Millen later responded to Genser with police department statistics stating that in 2000 and 2001, there were 300 calls for service for the two blocks adjacent to OPCC's current location, most of which, Millen said “...involved serious crimes such as assaults and robberies.”
Bottom line: The city just gave away nearly $10 million to a private, non-profit whose services provide no benefit to residents and whose clients cost us tens of millions more for police, fire and other expenses, annually — all while ignoring critical community needs, such as schools and parks.
Bloom, Genser and McKeown's response: “How can housing money be diverted to education?”
Nobody I know has suggested using housing money for schools.
Earlier this year, the same council members stalled and procrastinated on a school bailout, thereby forcing another school parcel tax on us — AND they still shortchanged our kids in the end. Meanwhile, they stand on their collective head to accommodate the world's vagrants and transients.
Between “requests” by staff for commission endorsements and City TV's refusal to air Citizens for a Safer Santa Monica's “No Skid Row” video, the machine has done everything it can to limit debate, control, spin and legitimize what is and always has been a done deal, and a spurious one at that. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.