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# County hatches plans to end homelessness within 10 years
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/county-hatches-plans-to-end-homelessness-within-10-years/
- Published: 2003-06-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:20:09.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*New committee to try and solve homeless problem*

There are more homeless people in Los Angeles County than there are residents of Santa Monica. Local officials want to change that.

Responding to a call by President George W. Bush to end homelessness in 10 years, a group of politicians and community leaders have formed “Bring L.A. Home.”

The committee, led by Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and other community leaders, announced its mission Thursday at a meeting on Skid Row.

Los Angeles County has the largest homeless population in the nation with more than 84,000 counted in 1990, when the most recent survey was taken. Santa Monica, where more than 1,400 homeless reside, has 84,404 residents, according to the 2000 Census.

New York has the second largest homeless population in the U.S., with roughly 60,000.

The new group aims to tackle chronic homelessness by boosting intervention offerings and launching a series of programs designed to deal with the underlying reasons behind homelessness, Bloom said.

604,“It gives one pause to think of that many people every night without a roof over their head,” Bloom said. “It’s a lot of people.”

> “It gives one pause to think of that many people every night without a roof over their head.” — – RICHARD BLOOM Santa Monica Mayor

Plans for tackling homelessness will be developed over the next 12 months. Bloom said Santa Monica will serve as a model because of its long history of dealing with transients.

“Santa Monica is largely considered to be providing leadership from a political and programmatic perspective to ending homelessness,” he said, adding that roughly 65 percent of the local homeless population suffers from substance abuse.

Santa Monica currently spends about $2 million each year on services for homeless people, Bloom said. The City of Los Angeles spends more than $14 million, most of which comes from the federal government, said Robin Conerly, deputy director of the L.A. Homeless Services Authority.

L.A. County also spends tens of millions on homeless services and special needs programs, such as mental health and social services, Conerly said.

Though the new group may seek additional governmental grants, its main objective is to focus the energy and resources that are already devoted to addressing homelessness, said Jose Quinonez, a planner at LAHSA.

Santa Monica City Councilman Kevin McKeown said he was glad to see a regional approach to the problem and that Santa Monica currently sets the standard for providing social services to homeless.

“We have long felt that our resources were not being matched by our neighbors,” McKeown said. “Clearly, one city can’t solve a regional or national problem.”

The new group will form a committee of politicians, government workers, homeless advocacy groups, businesses, religious leaders, labor representatives and homeless people. Its first meeting will be held in July or August.

Smaller meetings will then be held throughout the county to gather community input on the most efficient and effective way to deal with homelessness, Quinonez said.

“In one year we will release a plan that will take the region of L.A. County towards the goal of ending homelessness within the decade,” he said.

While the new group works to fulfill the president’s charge, Bloom said there will always be some people who simply choose to be homeless.

“We’re never going to end every social problem that exists,” Bloom said. “But as a regional and national community we have failed in the past to address homelessness.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 16, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/061603.pdf?ref=smdp.com)