Providers, business leaders and homeless people speak out
(Editor’s note: This is the third article in an ongoing series addressing the homeless situation in Santa Monica. Future articles will look at what social services will be provided in the coming year and how effective the laws are that City Hall uses to control the local homeless population.) Homelessness — for years the most important and controversial issue for Santa Monica residents and businesses — was at the heart of an hour-long public hearing held late Tuesday in City Hall.
The meeting attracted business leaders, social service providers and homeless people. Some asked officials to do more to help those in need, while others criticized City Hall for not adequately policing the large transient population.
After asking a few targeted questions of the public and city staff, council members accepted a $1.8 million plan which will continue the social service programs, while improving some areas and encouraging other cities to dedicate more resources to the cause.
Julie Rusk, City Hall’s manager of human services, told council members she is proud of the work that’s been done to house homeless people over the last year. A total of 10 city-supported agencies placed 460 people into permanent housing, helped employ 682 people and helped a total of 2,700 people, Rusk said.
“This whole system is about getting people into housing,” she said, adding that the numbers are particularly strong because two-thirds of homeless people suffer PLAN, from page 1 from mental illness or substance abuse.
In her report to the City Council, Rusk acknowledged the concerns of residents, who have ranked homelessness as their top concern in random telephone polls for the past five years and have repeatedly brought up the issue in community outreach meetings.
“We continue to hear about the growing concern about the impact of homelessness and some anti-social behavior of homeless people on our streets,” she said, adding that Santa Monica’s emergency workers also are put to work by the vagrant population.
In 2002, a team of five Santa Monica Police Department officers dedicated to the homeless responded to 770 calls, she said. And between Oct. 1, 2002, and June 30, 2003, paramedics were called out 900 times for incidents related to homeless people. Police officers not part of the special homeless unit also spend much of their time responding to calls related to the homeless.
A handful of homeless people praised the council for its social service programs but asked it to be careful in how it handles the growing homeless population.
“When you’re dealing with homeless people, it’s better to ask the homeless what they need themselves,” said Charles Springer, homeless for nearly seven years, who works with a group of six or seven pushing vending carts on the Third Street Promenade. Springer suggested creating more opportunities for the working homeless and encouraging other cities to provide more services.
Nicholas Vrataric, executive director of the nonprofit CLARE Foundation and chair of the nonprofit Westside Hunger and Shelter Coalition, spoke to council members, thanking them for continued support and said his agency’s goals aren’t any different from those of local businesses — to get the homeless off the street.
Though City Hall recently passed three ordinances aimed at limiting the visibility of homelessness downtown, a handful of merchants appeared before the council to voice their concerns and asked that the laws be more strongly enforced.
One law requires groups that hand out food to large groups in area parks to obtain health and event permits so they can be regulated more closely. The second law makes it illegal to sleep in doorways downtown. The third law bans people from sleeping in the bluffs between Palisades Park and the Pacific Coast Highway below.
“The No. 1 issue that resonates with businesses is the homeless issue,” said Dr. Mike Gruning, chairman of the board of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce.
“They are frustrated by the increasing number of homeless. The continuum of care has a limited ability to help just a finite number of individuals. I think we need to start disincentivizing people from coming here.”
Sean Waldron, director of security at Casa Del Mar, a beachfront luxury hotel, agrees. He told council members that many hotel guests have decided not to return to Santa Monica because of the large homeless population.
“The homeless issue... has become an unbearable situation,” he said.
Police Chief James T. Butts Jr., who has been with the SMPD for 12 years, said officers are working vigilantly to enforce the new ordinances, regularly patrolling downtown and the parks, conducting weekly panhandling stings and issuing citations whenever possible. The bottom line, Butts said, is officers are limited by what the law allows.
“The deranged people are scary when they stand outside your business or your hotel,” he said. “But if illegal activity is not occurring, there’s nothing that we can do.”
“The deranged people are scary when they stand outside your business or your hotel... But if illegal activity is not occurring, there’s nothing that we can do.” — — POLICE CHIEF JAMES T. BUTTS JR. SMPD
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 30, 2003. Read the original PDF.