Here are your responses to this week’s Q-Line question: “Is Santa Monica making itself a magnet for more and more homeless people or are we simply doing our fair share for society at large?” ■ “Yes, Santa Monica is becoming a magnet or has become a magnet for the homeless population. The city is spending more money on the homeless than they are on other services in the city. That includes giving money to the schools, which should be their first priority.” ■ “Santa Monica has absolutely become a magnet for the homeless and it is absolutely disgusting. It is time for the city to put its foot down and drive these people out of town.” ■ “Maybe if the rents in Santa Monica weren’t so high, due to the greedy landlords who can never get enough, the homeless people might be able to afford a place to live.” ■ “Yes, I think Santa Monica is making itself a big magnet for more and more homeless. I do not approve of all the programs that are being offered to the homeless.” ■ “Homeless people are found in every city of this nation. It is right for Santa Monica to help those in need. Our climate is really the magnet, which attracts homeless or otherwise. Let’s continue to be caring and compassionate.” ■ “Spending enough, is not necessarily doing enough. The city proposed spending $9.2 million on a 55-bed shelter, which amounts to $167,000 per bed but it leaves unsheltered and still on the street over 1,000 homeless individuals. Spending $167,000 on the lucky 3.9 percent of the city’s homeless is certainly spending enough but it does not do enough to deal with this city’s homeless problem. Ask yourself, what is behind this wasteful spending plan.” ■ “My thinking is that yes, Santa Monica is making itself a magnet for homeless people. The word is out, not just in the United States but in the world that Santa Monica is it. It’s an utopian society that’s been offered to the homeless. The homeless have an ability to have free clothing, free food and on top of that, a place to sleep at night. How can you beat that kind of a deal?” ■ “Yes, Santa Monica is making itself a magnet for the homeless. One sees some of the same homeless on the streets that have been here for years. City Council and City Hall personnel live in areas where they are not harassed by the homeless nor do they have to clean up the messes the homeless leave. Why can’t these people be hospitalized? Why should tourists and hard working citizens be punished by these homeless people?” ■ “This is a case of if you fund it,they will come. The homeless situation is out of control in Santa Monica. Palisades Park is getting to be almost as bad as it was in the early ‘90s. During the daytime, there are homeless sleeping with their possessions strewn all over the place. There’s trash all around now. The Promenade is becoming a place where panhandlers are getting more aggressive. I personally have seen three incidents of homeless people aggressively approaching our residents. I think the situation is totally out of control.” ■ “Santa Monica has made itself a magnet for the homeless. A man told me that in Santa Monica everything was free for him. Free food, free showers, free shelter, he didn’t have to spend any of his money. That’s what kind of reputation Santa Monica has. People from all over the country head to Santa Monica for free hand-outs. Transients from other cities are driven here and left at the border of Santa Monica. Santa Monica is going to become like a boat that is picking up people and saving them, but after a while the boat becomes too full and the boat starts sinking. This will happen to Santa Monica if we keep taking care of the country’s transients.” ■ “We need to do more, we need to build more housing for the homeless. In the recent New York blackout, they found that the reason nobody rioted was because of the housing system.” ■ “I have lived in Santa Monica for 27 years, honestly I do not know if we are doing our fair share. It breaks my heart to see more and more people pushing carts, wearing filthy clothes and looking somewhat dazed and disoriented. I don’t know what the answer is and I would be really interested to hear the experts’ opinion on this issue.” ■ “I have been a Santa Monica resident for over 36 years and it is very demoralizing to see the homeless situation in the state it is now. I would like to help the homeless if they could show some sort of proof of residency in the city of Santa Monica. I think Santa Monica does more than its share to help its residents. The more attractive we make it here, why wouldn’t people leave other cities to come here?” ■ “It’s really disappointing that the school system had to ask for more money from the voters and yet they have enough money for homeless and that’s not right. We need to realize our priorities, and that is the residents and citizens first and the homeless if we have enough funds left over. “ ■ “I don’t see why Santa Monica residents should be spending their tax money to take care of all of the indigent and homeless and mentally ill people in the county of Los Angeles. The new shelter that was proposed at Michigan and Cloverfield was supposed to service 270 transients and homeless people a day. Anytime that we feed them and shelter them and take care of them, we invite them into our community.” ■ “Santa Monica is absolutely making itself a magnet for the homeless and others desiring free social services, just look at the results. If creating funding and supporting these programs worked, we would see less homeless, not more. Yet the more money we provide them, the more homeless we attract. Contrary to popular belief, the agencies receiving funding do not wish to break the cycle and help people get on their feet. It would put them out of a job. The big bucks, like the $9.2 million spent on the OPCC demonstrates how much money is involved. While there may be a few tragic circumstances that lead to temporary homelessness, most of the homeless familiar to Santa Monicans are the ones who have made a lifestyle choice to be homeless and continue to be homeless year after year.” ■ “Yes, Santa Monica is making itself a magnet for more and more homeless people. What can we do about it? For starters, we can enforce the no smoking law in our public parks. There’s a whole mess of homeless people in the park who do nothing but smoke and litter in the park all day long while the rangers just walk right by them and don’t do a thing about it. Maybe the rangers can’t write tickets, but they are connected to people who can. It’s a $250 fine for violating this law, let’s enforce it.” ■ “My whole family has been in Santa Monica for 28 years. We see a lot of people lying on the street and we still have people lying in our grass and in our neighbor’s grass. We do see a lot of people who are transient or alcoholics or drug addicts. I am really getting tired of it. I wish I had a solution for it. ■ “Yes, Santa Monica has definitely made itself a magnet for attracting more and more indigent and vagrant type people. The situation at present is way out of hand. The city is turning into a slum, the sidewalks are filthy and walking around town smells like walking in a latrine. Spend the money on the taxpaying citizens.” ■ “The vagrant population in Santa Monica is so far out of control that I don’t think there is any solution. We can thank our city officials for permitting this dreadful situation to come about. We can find millions for the vagrants but can’t even find the means to complete a simple renovation project at Reed Park in the restroom area, which began last March some time, Something is wrong here.” ■ “I happen to be a homeless person, I have been homeless for the last year. Yes, Santa Monica does attract the homeless but I am not your typical homeless person. I have worked very, very hard recycling. We have a van now, we are trying to start a handyman service, we have gained a lot of respect from people in the community. I also work for a doctor part time. The services help a lot of people and for people like me, yes it does work. There are a lot of people that make a bad name for those of us who are trying really hard. I really appreciate what Santa Monica has done for us and I hope that they can help other people like us.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 29, 2003. Read the original PDF.