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# City’s approach to homeless working
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/citys-approach-to-homeless-working-editor/
- Published: 2003-11-25T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:16:14.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pacific Palisades, #archive-import, Homeless

*By Elissa Royal Santa Monica*

A year ago, I flew out to Santa Monica from the East Coast. For three weeks, I apartment-hunted between Washington Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, from Ocean Avenue down to 20th Street.

Despite having been warned, I was stunned (mostly heartsick, sometimes repulsed, and occasionally amused) by the dozens of homeless people I encountered on the Palisades and on Wilshire Boulevard, between Ocean Avenue and 14th Street.

Five months ago, when I moved here, I was relieved to see a marked reduction in the number of homeless, as well as the number of pretending-to-be-homeless panhandlers on Wilshire Boulevard.

Not to say that the problem is resolved — hardly. But clearly, progress has been made. The appropriate city and social service agencies and their employees in the field should be applauded, encouraged and funded.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 25, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)