Many makeshift homes dismantled
INTERSTATE 10 — Police on Tuesday arrested 12 homeless individuals during the first of what is expected to become routine sweeps of illegal encampments along this stretch of freeway.
At about 6:45 a.m., as commuters on their way to work sped past the embankments on both sides of Interstate 10, Santa Monica Police and outreach workers were combing the steep terrain — littered with garbage hidden within the thick brush — searching for homeless people.
What officers found on the roughly two-mile stretch of freeway were less-than-desirable living conditions, as well as health and safety concerns. Human feces and the stench of urine permeated the area. Discarded food was strewn along the walkways, and garbage was piled up at various spots. Syringes and crack pipes lay next to empty beer cases. At one location near the Lincoln Boulevard off-ramp, a car battery was used to provide electricity.
Roused from their nesting spots included a woman six months pregnant, a 63-year-old stroke victim and a man who was listed as an endangered missing person, meaning he has a mental or psychological problem and his family has been looking for him. Some were found sleeping naked underneath their bags; others were high on drugs and alcohol as they watched the cars whiz by.
Several people were taken into custody or cited with misdemeanors either because they were pedestrians along the freeway, which is against state law, or were illegally camping, which is against city law. Others were in violation of probation or parole. Some had outstanding warrants, and others were in possession of illegal drugs.
One commonality among all of them was the hard truth that the only place they knew as home would be gone by the end of the day. Caltrans workers were expected to dismantle the makeshift homes and clear the embankments of the garbage and debris after the sweep was concluded.
About 20 SMPD officers, some of whom work with the Homeless Liaison Program (HLP) — an outreach team that makes contact with homeless people throughout the city — directed the individuals they encountered to the appropriate social service providers.
“This is the way we find them, and we get them to people who can help them,” said SMPD. Lt. Al Venegas.
Some people are in need of medical attention, like the 63-year-old stroke victim who has been squatting with her 53-year-old boyfriend near the 20th Street off-ramp for two years. She suffered a stroke in 2001, is bound to a wheelchair and has refused help thus far. SMPD Sgt. Larry Horn explained that the woman is more likely than her boyfriend to receive help from various social service providers because she is a female and is in need of medical attention. Because of that, she hasn’t sought assistance because the couple will be separated.
Several officers spent a majority of Tuesday following up with the couple, assisting them with services that are available to them. Other officers spent hours checking personal property into safekeeping. They will be able to collect their personal property after they go through the system or get the related services to which they are linked.
“The chief (James T. Butts Jr.) will use the appropriate resources to assist people down on their luck, and it gives us the ability to touch people we might not see,” said SMPD Capt. Mark Smiley. “There are 1,900 people identified as homeless in Santa Monica, and we need to put these people into the services they need.”
As SMPD conducts more sweeps, it hopes to involve many more local social service providers, including the local Red Cross chapter, the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration, St. Joseph’s Center, Ocean Park Community Center and Step Up on Second.
“It’s a long-term effort on everybody’s part,” Smiley said, adding that the effort made by the SMPD is not only to get criminals off the street but also to get homeless people the help they truly need.
But it’s convincing them that they need help that’s the tricky part, said Ronald Bass, a volunteer with the West LA VA hospital, who was on hand Tuesday as part of an outreach team. He said often times the individuals he comes into contact with believe they’ve either used up what resources they can get at the VA or that they can’t be helped at all. Others just don’t want to play by the rules.
“They say, ‘I do what I want when I want,’” said Bass, who has been volunteering on the outreach team for two years. Today, he will help the SMPD with its sweep along the Palisades Bluff, another popular squatting area for the homeless. “I keep trying to come back and make a connection with them.”
Another VA volunteer, Chauncey Goodloe, said the pregnant woman he found at the off-ramp near Lincoln Boulevard told him she had been addicted to crystal meth and pot but that she kicked the habit when she learned she was pregnant. She had been in the hospital on Monday night because of contractions. A man who was camping near her was arrested for possession of ecstasy. He was booked on a felony charge.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 22, 2006. Read the original PDF.