By Wade Gasque Santa Monica
I am writing this letter in regards to the June 20 City Council budget meeting. The article in the paper last Thursday by Kevin Herrera (SMDP, June 29, page 1), did not address the fact that there were members of Santa Monicans for Sensible Priorities (SM4SP) who came before the City Council and voiced their concern regarding the chronic homeless problem Santa Monica is facing. SM4SP discussed their personal experiences, concerns that homelessness has escalated to near uncontrollable proportions, and resolutions that SM4SP has in mind to help mend our city.
SM4SP feels the portion of the budget intended to directly affect the homeless is being spent inefficiently. SM4SP feels the budget needs to be focused more towards: ■ Increasing the funding to make it worth while for police and medical personnel to enforce current vagrancy laws. Currently, the city has only four specialized officers responsible for enforcing and counteracting homelessness in Santa Monica which is unacceptable considering the sheer numbers of homeless persons in Santa Monica. ■ Applying restrictions to the funding of social service organizations and city service organizations which run the feeding programs. This will decrease the incentive for more homeless to come to the city because there will be fewer free handouts. ■ Engage the business community to fund and establish housing for the homeless by providing tax breaks to the investors and allocating city funds to renovate unused housing for the homeless.
When I reviewed the article by Kevin Herrera, I did not see a specific amount of money that our City Council was planning to put aside to help resolve the homeless problem. Of the current $442.6 million budget there was no direct indication that any of the money would be spent on resolving the homeless issue. Furthermore, there was no discussion about how much money was already being spent on the homeless issue. In 2005 the city allocated only $2.2 million in funds. This money is clearly not being spent the right way considering the homeless problem is rising and only 40 percent of the total homeless population is being aided with city programs.
Santa Monica needs to allocate a set amount of the 2006-07 city budget towards developing beneficial programs that both begin to resolve homelessness and ease the minds of the city residents. The City Council needs to help take back the city from the homeless. When is the City Council going to listen to its citizens and open their eyes to what is going on in their own community?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.