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# Homelessness remains top concern in SM
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/homelessness-remains-top-concern-in-sm/
- Published: 2005-01-24T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:02:06.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*City to adopt new homelessness plan this week*

(Editor’s note: This is the final installment in a three-part series that also covered new strategies for dealing with homelessness in Santa Monica, and the cost and effectiveness of local social-service programs. The first two articles appeared in the Jan. 15 and Jan. 19 editions of the Daily Press.) CITY HALL — When city officials hammer out a plan this week for dealing with homelessness in Santa Monica over the next year, they’ll consider these facts: Santa Monica’s 2,000-strong transient population prompted thousands of calls for police and paramedics last year, and complaints about aggressive and unsightly vagrancy frequently landed on the desks of elected and appointed leaders at City Hall.

“In spite of the significant achievements made by homeless persons availing themselves of Santa Monica’s network of services, the impact of homelessness in Santa Monica remains a top community concern,” reads a report on homelessness delivered earlier this month to the Santa Monica City Council.

Quantifying the impacts of homelessness can be difficult. According to the report, 674 calls were made to a special homeless-liaison unit of the Santa Monica Police Department, and paramedics responded to 1,258 calls involving homeless persons from July of 2003 to July of 2004.

What’s less clear is how many times police not part of the special liaison unit interacted with local homeless residents, though SMPD Chief James T. Butts Jr. in the past has said that transients generate one-third of police calls. In 2002, there were more than 3,100 calls related to public intoxication alone.

Meanwhile, residents and merchants continue to complain primarily about transients congregating downtown; panhandling near restaurants; dominating public parks; using public restrooms as washrooms; roaming alleys and digging through trash cans; and sleeping in parking structures, alleys and public parks, particularly Memorial, Palisades and Reed parks, according to the report.

“Some homeless individuals do not abide by the laws and regulations that govern behavior in public spaces,” reads the homelessness report, which is prepared annually by city staffers. “The behavior of homeless people with significant mental health and substance abuse problems continues to cause fear, as well as concern for those less fortunate in the general population.”

Though City Hall plans to once again give social-service agencies more than $1.8 million to help fund various aid programs for the local homeless population in the next year, it also is proceeding on several new fronts.

One plan is to open a sobering center where public drunks could be taken rather than to jail or a hospital, thereby freeing up emergency resources and giving social-service providers rare access to entrenched homeless residents when they are not intoxicated.

Another concept discussed at a Jan. 11 public meeting on homelessness was the possibility of operating a special courtroom for homeless offenders, where transients would be given the opportunity to choose help rather than serve time in jail for misdemeanors considered “lifestyle” offenses, such as possessing a shopping cart illegally or sleeping in Santa Monica parks.

Additionally, City Hall might adopt a plan called “Streets or Services,” currently used on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Under that program, caregivers work with police to identify routine homeless offenders, who then are given a chance to avoid the court system altogether if they agree to accept help.

City staffers over the past several months also have developed a program to help the most entrenched homeless residents of Santa Monica. A dozen people who have been homeless for between five and 20 years were picked to participate in the program, which has succeeded in keeping eight of the participants off the streets through the efforts of police, city staffers, county mental-health workers and social-service providers, according to Julie Rusk, the city’s human services manager.

Perhaps most important to the city’s efforts to reduce homelessness in Santa Monica throughout the coming year is the attempt to get neighboring cities to share the burden. Officials said Santa Monica long has been a magnet for homelessness in Los Angeles.

To help reverse that trend, City Councilman Richard Bloom has played an active role in “Bring LA Home,” a panel of county officials and authorities working to end homelessness by 2013\. The group held a public meeting in Santa Monica last January and is expected to unveil a comprehensive plan later this year.

The City Council was scheduled to adopt a plan Tuesday for reducing homelessness as part of its annual budget priorities, Mayor Pam O’Connor said. Although public officials frequently have sparred publicly over homelessness in the past, many said they were hopeful this year’s changes would make a real difference in Santa Monica.

“I believe the impact of homelessness has become greater” in recent years, City Councilman Herb Katz said. “So far, I haven’t seen a heck of a lot of results. Yes, we’re feeding some. Yes, we’re helping some... but I think we have to look at it from a standpoint of, ‘Can we do better?’”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 24, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012405.pdf?ref=smdp.com)