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# Letter: Criticism of Ocean Park Community Center's homeless Access Center
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/david-pisarra-send-comments-to-editor-smdp-com-whats-the-point-opcc-attracts-the-homeless-editor/
- Published: 2007-09-04T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:46:16.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pico, #archive-import, Homeless

*By Mathew Millen Santa Monica*

John Maceri’s reply (page 4, Aug. 29) to Bill Bauer’s (page 4, Aug. 27) article regarding the Ocean Park Community Center’s (OPCC) new portal for the Westside’s homeless is an exercise in obfuscation and is replete with glaring omissions. What all Santa Monica (SM) residents understand is that the homeless wandering our streets, alleys and parks did not become homeless in Santa Monica by virtue of being evicted from a SM apartment or losing a SM home to foreclosure and ending up on the streets.

Santa Monica is overrun with homeless because to quote a famous movie line “if you build it they will come.” A mailing by OPCC seeks to raise $19 million to “expand several programs assisting homeless individuals and families.” The mailer also provides the new Access Center at Fifth Street and Olympic Boulevard “will be the primary entry point into the homeless services system on the Westside.” This certainly looks like: 1.) OPCC will be expanding thus attracting more homeless here; 2.) it will be a portal for the homeless on the Westside.

Mr. John Maceri has been nicknamed Mr. Nimby (Not In My Back Yard ) Maceri by many Pico Neighborhood residents because he lives in Northridge. He won’t buy a condo or home on 16th Street near the OPCC’s 55-bed homeless shelter there. Two year ago, instead of developing a 55-bed homeless shelter in Northridge where he lives, he and the Santa Monica for Renters’ Rights-controlled City Council saddled the Pico Neighborhood with yet another 55-bed homeless shelter on Cloverfield Blvd. Thanks to SMRR and OPCC, the Pico Neighborhood has more shelter beds for the homeless, mentally ill, drug addicts and alcoholics than the rest of the city combined.

Mr. Maceri wouldn’t go into Culver City or West Los Angeles to develop another shelter either, where he could build a shelter for half the cost as here in Santa Monica, and serve two or three times the number of clients. OPCC and Maceri are here not because of the number of homeless, but because of the generosity extended to OPCC by the SMRR-controlled City Council. Myriad SMRR-funded homeless related programs attracts clients from out of town to Santa Monica so he can say, “Look how many people we help.”

When Mr. Maceri says, “If we don’t want people living on our streets, then we need to provide adequate housing and supportive services.” he omitted that he doesn’t live here. He omitted disclosing the overwhelming number of people living on the streets of SM came here from someplace else.

SM will never solve its homeless problem until SMRR and or OPCC stop obtaining grants and funds for homeless services that should be going to the cities that are sending their homeless here. Mr. Ed Edelman, our Homeless Czar, should be taking our city staff and grant writers to Compton, Lynwood, South Gate, Bell, Bell Gardens, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Beverly Hills, Culver City, etc. to assist those cities in obtaining money for homeless services so people can remain in their hometowns when they became homeless. If this does not happen, SMRR and OPCC will continue to create a magnet for the homeless to come here.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 4, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/090407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)