Homeless court expected to be up and judging by November
CITY HALL — A Santa Monica Superior Court commissioner with a background in family law will preside over a community homeless court in November, city officials said.
One day per month, Commissioner Bobbi Tillmon will hear roughly 15 cases in the City Council Chambers at City Hall.
The plan, modeled after a homeless court in New York City, is to connect social service providers with chronically homeless individuals who have numerous offenses for such things as defecating in public, camping, public intoxication and other low-level, “quality-of-life” crimes, city officials said.
Only those charged with low-level offenses will be eligible for the court. Those homeless individuals charged with more serious, violent crimes will go through the standard judicial process.
The ultimate objective of the special court is to use the judicial system to move homeless men and women off the streets of Santa Monica and into supportive services and housing.
With the criminal court located at the Airport Courthouse near LAX, “many of the homeless people who are cited (by Santa Monica police officers) never get there,” said former Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman, City Hall’s homeless czar. “It also makes it more difficult for residents to get to court to testify, so we are hoping this homeless community court will make it easier for everyone, including the service providers, who will be better able to locate those who need assistance the most.”
Tillmon, who received her law degree from the University of Southern California, established a private practice with an emphasis in family law in 1979.
In December 1994, she was appointed as a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner assigned to the family law department in the West District, where she presides over matters involving dissolution of marriage, paternity, domestic violence and requests for temporary restraining orders.
Judge Bernard Kamins, who currently presides over the West District’s drug court and handles all arraignments for Santa Monica, was solicited by City Hall to head up the homeless court. In an interview with the Daily Press, however, he expressed reservations, fearing the court would take time away from his other duties.
Judge Linda Lefkowitz, who presides over the West District, had similar concerns, and instead recommended Tillmon.
“Judge Kamins spends a lot of time working with the drug court, and we have a pretty sizable arraignment court, so we all felt it was just too much for him to handle and it would distract him from something he is good at — connecting with those with drug-abuse issues,” Lefkowitz said.
“Judge Tillmon said she was really interested in heading up the homeless court and I felt she had a fresh attitude and more than 10 years of experience with underrepresented communities and heart-wrenching family issues,” Lefkowitz added. “She just felt like a good choice.”
An official start date for the court has not been set, according to Lefkowitz, but should be hearing cases at some point in November.
City officials tried to locate the homeless court in the Santa Monica Courthouse, however, there was no space available.
“We also found that those who are cited don’t like courtrooms because of the police presence, the handcuffs, so we felt the courthouse was not the ideal place for these people to get their lives together.”Lefkowitz said. “We’ll try it out for a while and see how it goes. We may move it somewhere else if needed.”
Tillmon said she is looking forward to serving on the homeless court, but would not comment further.
The court is funded by a $458,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who last week approved an $80 million plan to combat homelessness.
The plan includes $32 million for city and community programs, and $48 million for county programs. Of the $32 million, $11.6 million is earmarked for emergency and transitional shelters, affordable housing and on two new “safe havens” to serve homeless single adults with mental illness and substance abuse problems.
To get other communities involved in the effort to end homelessness, the county plan will dedicate $800,000 for an outreach campaign to “deal with adverse community reaction”to proposed homeless shelters and plans to locate centers throughout the county.
In related news, the Santa Monica City Council recently approved a plan to move two of the city’s largest outdoor homeless feeding programs indoors at a cost of $197,000.
Hand to Hand and Helping Other People Eat (HOPE) will both be relocated next to the existing OPCC Access Center on Colorado Boulevard and Seventh Street. The money will be used for minor modification to the space to provide areas for indoor queuing, supply storage, conference rooms for social services, food service and seating. The program will have a seating capacity of approximately 150 persons, according to a city staff report.
The facility will be available for the feeding programs until August 2007, when the building will be demolished to make room for the Big Blue Bus campus expansion. The council has asked for frequent updates on the program, particularly in its beginning weeks.
City officials have tried for years to move public feedings indoors so that the homeless could be linked with social service providers. There was also a concern about public safety.
The council went so far as to pass a law prohibiting public gatherings of 150 or more people without obtaining a permit. The law requires food distributors to obtain permits every 90 days from City Hall and the Los Angeles County Department of Health. Permits are restricted to three per group or individual.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.