By Steve Howard Santa Monica
I am a member of the Housing Committee of Step up on Second and have been involved for the past three years in Daniel’s Place — Step Up’s affiliate for young adults suffering from mental illness. I write in response to the letter of Jeff Bender, published in your Sept. 12 issue, and to other speeches made by opponents of Step Up’s project to operate a transitional housing facility on Pearl Street in Santa Monica for young adults in treatment for mental illness.
The stated ground for opposing the Step Up project is the bizarre proposition that having young adults recovering from mental illness living in a house that children walk back and forth in front of somehow creates an increased safety risk for those children. Since this argument is always put forth as relating to children, and not adolescents or adults, I can only assume that the argument is really a code word for an unspoken belief that mentally ill people are likely to be pedophiles — a belief so unfounded in reality that even the opponents of Step Up’s project cannot bring themselves to say it out loud. The uncontested fact is that there is no evidence that mentally ill people in treatment are any more inclined to violence than the population at large.
Most of the opposition to Step Up’s project appears to come from an incredibly mean-spirited group of people, who vehemently heap abuse on the young people of Daniel’s Place. In point of fact, young adults recovering from mental illness must devote all of their resources to coping with an illness which they did not choose, instead of going to college, or finding work, or getting married, or having children or otherwise moving forward with normal lives.
Step Up’s project on Pearl Street is an important opportunity to help Daniel’s place members reclaim their lives and their independence. These brave young people deserve our support and encouragement, not the hysterical, unfounded condemnation heaped on them by opponents of Step Up’s Pearl Street project.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 28, 2006. Read the original PDF.