> ## 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. # Homeward bound: Plan to snuff out homelessness stalls - URL: https://www.smdp.com/homeward-bound-plan-to-snuff-out-homelessness-stalls/ - Published: 2004-09-24T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T05:09:14.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Community, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness *Many critical of homeless plan* *By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer* HOLLYWOOD — An ambitious county-wide effort to end homelessness within the decade hit a major snag Thursday as officials dragged their feet hashing out everything from the wording of the plan’s draft to whether the entire effort is even feasible in the first place. The goal of Bring Los Angeles Home (BLAH) is to formulate a comprehensive plan that would refashion the county’s homeless services to include an additional 70,000 emergency shelter beds, 40,000 units of affordable housing and a regional housing trust fund. The model is similar to that of dozens of other cities taking on the daunting task, which was spurred by the Bush Administration’s goal to rid the nation of its homeless population. Most of Thursday’s speakers at the Mear Center lambasted the 50-member panel’s draft for being too vague and taking a blanket approach to the homelessness situation. At present, there are as many homeless people in all of Los Angeles County as there are residents of Santa Monica, according to a county analysis. Of the 80,000 people living life on the streets at any given time of the year in LA County, a meager 2 percent live in Santa Monica. GOALS ■ Decrease the number of people on streets and in shelters. ■ Improve the health of homeless children, youth and adults. ■ Preserve and increase the supply of affordable housing. ■ Increase the incomes of homeless and at-risk through employment. ■ Reduce and prevent homelessness by integrating, redesigning and implementing the service delivery system. ■ Increase community resources to implement the plan. ■ Increase coordination of municipal lobbying efforts at state and federal levels. GUIDING PRINCIPALS ■ Prevent homeless. ■ Maintain existing capacities to serve homeless and build new capacities where needed. ■ Address the structural causes of homelessness. ■ Ensure rapid return to housing for people who become homeless. ■ Bring alienated homeless residents back into mainstream of society. ■ Call on all communities to partner fairly in finding and sitting homeless services and affordable housing. See BLAH, page 7 Bring LA Home officials have held 17 community meetings and 11 focus groups over the past year, garnering more than 300 suggestions for ending homelessness. Panel members gathered Thursday in Hollywood to review those suggestions and discuss whether the draft is ready for public review. In the end, they decided to allow the document to be released in the next two weeks with the hope that its publication will attract additional input. The final plan was supposed to be completed in July, but was delayed. Officials are now hoping for a December finish. “Ending homelessness in the next 10 years is a big idea,” said Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, who is also on the panel. “One has to assume that with 300 recommendations, many of them will be generally recognized as needing to be adopted. The idea now is to move the process forward, taking into account all the comments today and all the comments that follow.” Others criticized the draft report. “Much of this is goals and principles many people agree with, but they’re unrealistic,” said Carol Schatz, president and CEO of the Central City Association. “It’s great to say that we should reduce the number of people on the streets and in shelters, but we need to add a few things to this list or it’s going to be a long and ignored study. > “We have many services, but we need to figure out ways that there can be social services in all parts of the county, not just downtown.” — said Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn, a member of the panel > “Most important is the regional approach to this,” “It will sit on a shelf if the goals aren’t refined.” Leonard Schneiderman, a Santa Monica resident who serves on the Los Angeles County Commission for Public Social Services, questioned whether a plan to end homelessness can be successful unless “it is based upon a steady stream of mainstream programs.” “For example, we can’t have a situation in welfare reform where there are children living in poverty or a reform system that pushes people back into the community unprepared for success,” he said. Bloom brought up the question of where the funds for the project will come from, an issue not widely addressed by the panel. Santa Monica currently spends about $2 million each year on services for homeless people. The city of Los Angeles spends more than $14 million, most of which comes from the federal government, according to Robin Conerly, deputy director of the LA Homeless Services Authority. LA County reportedly spends tens of millions of dollars on homeless services and special needs programs. “How we use existing funding is important,” Hahn said. “We can’t wait for funding from Sacramento, so I hope that as we fine tune this plan, we look to using existing funds as well as we can as we wait for more.” Other issues broached during Thursday’s discussion involved prevention, mental health, substance abuse, affordable housing and different forms of homelessness — for example, there tends to be a large number of homeless with mental health problems downtown, while Hollywood has a high number of runaway youth. The panel consists of more than 50 leaders of government, faith-based organizations, social services, advocacy groups, entertainment companies, law enforcement and business organizations, as well as a number of individuals who have experienced homelessness firsthand. On any given night, there are approximately 84,000 people living on the streets in Los Angeles County, and more than 236,000 are homeless at some point during the course of a single year. That means that approximately one person in 100 in Los Angeles County goes to sleep without a home every night. If consolidated into a single community, those 84,000 would comprise the 17th largest municipality in the county. “Although some people say the idea of a plan like this — that addresses these types of concerns — is grandiose, some thought putting a man on the moon was grandiose,” one audience member told the panel. “It’s a matter of all of us working together.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 24, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092404.pdf?ref=smdp.com)