> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Homeless services: If we build it, they will come - URL: https://www.smdp.com/homeless-services-if-we-build-it-they-will-come/ - Published: 2004-01-16T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T03:33:41.000Z - Author: Bill Bauer - Tags: Opinion, Ocean Park, #archive-import, Homeless I was recently challenged by the head of Santa Monica’s largest homeless services provider because I accused it of giving free handouts to vagrants with no questions asked. John Maceri, executive director of Ocean Park Community Center’s Access Center, responded to my allegation last month and characterized my column as being whiny, spreading misinformation and spewing venom. “Anyone can receive basic services for years on end with no questions asked,” I argued. Maceri disagreed, countering that OPCC’s clients are required to register and are tracked through the system. But that’s not what happened on Dec. 17, or the days to follow. One of my friends went to OPCC’s Access Center, signed in under three different names on unsupervised clipboards and received three sack lunches. He was given a toothbrush, clothing and bus tokens and asked to come back later and talk to a counselor. He volunteered that he had no identification and was told how to replace it. He was even offered a voucher to pay for it. He was advised about services including a mailbox and was given a voucher for clothing. The barber was unavailable so a haircut would come later. My friend revisited the Access Center on Jan. 6, was handed a clipboard by a volunteer and he signed in as “John Maceri.” No one reviewed his sign-in. He received another sack lunch and was invited to return for counseling as if he’d never been there. There are transients who’ve been on our streets for 10, 15, 20 years or longer — most of whom have been enabled by OPCC’s Access Center and outreach programs such as OPCC’s “Night” Light program that provides hot soup, condoms, socks and toothbrushes to homeless youth “no questions asked.” Some services do get people off the streets. I’ve always been supportive of life changing programs that require clients to stay off drugs and alcohol, go to school, look for work and try to get back into productive society as a condition of receiving continuing benefits. That includes OPCC’s Sojourn for Battered Women and Turning Point Transitional Housing, as well as programs offered by other providers. Over the last 20 years, the number of homeless here on a daily basis has doubled, despite hundreds of millions of our dollars spent on services. And the vast majority of those receiving services are from out of town and out of state, here for help they can’t get “at home.” Santa Monica is a magnet because of 22 city-supported programs by 10 different service providers and free food handouts in the parks —- something not available in Manhattan Beach, Inglewood, Redondo Beach, El Segundo and most other communities. It’s why they don’t have 1,100 to 1,400 transients nightly to deal with and we do. Maceri criticized other communities for their inaction. Yet, when agencies such as the Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency tried to channel funds to other municipalities in 2000, city officials wrote LAHSA to “continue funding proven programs (in Santa Monica).” How can other communities “do their fair share” when Santa Monica sucks up resources? When it comes to “spreading misinformation,” homeless service providers themselves frequently color the facts and propagandize to sell their viewpoint and acquire funding. While doing community outreach for $7.4 million in city funding for OPCC’s proposed expanded shelter and drop-in center on Cloverfield Boulevard, Maceri described his clients as “homeless” to a Chamber of Commerce group, as “disabled persons” to the Disabilities Commission and then as “homeless” to the Social Services Commission within one week. Statements were made at many public meetings that OPCC had contacted Cloverfield neighbors, including Crossroads School and the Bergamot Station arts complex and that they were “OK with the project,” only to be refuted when they said they hadn’t been contacted, nor was the project “OK” with them. Going back a few years, OPCC was the source of widely publicized information that there were hundreds of homeless “youth” in Santa Monica (OPCC describes “youth” as anyone under 25 years of age). A White Paper commissioned by the city’s own Social Services Commission found only 40 to 60 “youth” in Santa Monica over the year. It turns out OPCC was counting youth from all over the Westside —- of which only a handful were 17 or under. There’s a tendency for service providers to get defensive when criticized. Maybe that’s why Maceri dismisses me as “not an authority on the subject.” While he knows nothing about me or what I know, it still doesn’t take a genius to see that something’s terribly wrong here. I’m not laying all the blame on OPCC for the mess because the buck really stops at the City Council dais. Anyone who lives, works or visits in Santa Monica would probably agree with me that our “continuum of care” system is not working and needs to be changed. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer). *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 16, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/011604.pdf?ref=smdp.com)