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# Community not offering a ‘Step Up’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/community-not-offering-a-step-up-editor/
- Published: 2006-10-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T21:40:40.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Ursula Fox Santa Monica*

On Oct. 12, I said the following at the town hall meeting at Grant Elementary School: “Those of us who don’t have a mental disorder are only a few chemicals and electric impulses away from needing help. Not because we are virtuous, but just lucky. We might want to examine our motivations before we make decisions about the Step Up transitional housing issue. If our motivation is the ‘safety of children,’ it is quite possible that their safety is more threatened by their family or the family’s friends than by the mentally ill who are in treatment. If we don’t want to tolerate human beings with mental disorders, but who are being treated, do we then want systems in which all persons once diagnosed and before having committed a crime are removed from our midst? Systems like that have existed. We usually condemn them. If, on the other hand, our motivation is the ‘loss of property value,’ we should get real figures and measure them against our Judeo-Christian values we so often quote.”

After listening to many who oppose Step Up’s presence on Pearl (Street), I came away with the following impressions: None of the opponents were without legitimate concerns; all who opposed spoke of their compassion for the mentally ill and of their admiration for the work Step Up does, but no one offered anything but “just not here... elsewhere.”

However, compassion without action is utterly meaningless. Would it be possible for the opponents, proponents, Step Up, local real estate brokers and City Council to quickly create a task force that would help identify and purchase a location in which Step Up would be welcome? Step Up could then sell the Pearl property. If the entire community cannot find that place, we might as well give up our romance with “community.”

We seem to be ill at ease with disease. We seem to think that our generosity ought to be rationed lest we become too generous.

The meeting was informative, civilized and extremely saddening.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 16, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101606.pdf?ref=smdp.com)