> ## 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.

# Charles Springer: You want people off the street? Give 'em a job
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/maria-rodriguez-santa-monica-malibu-pta-council-president-you-want-people-off-the-street-give-em-a-job/
- Published: 2003-12-01T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:17:15.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import, Homeless, Homelessness

*By Charles Springer*

How many more lives have to be lost due to murders, rapes, drug and alcohol overdoses and exposure before the homeless issue is truly addressed?

How long will it take before the homeless are truly considered human beings and not the dregs of society? From what I understand, the homeless population could not even vote until within the last few decades. I thought the “Jim Crow” attitude toward anyone died in the ’60s with the civil-rights movement. I guess I was wrong.

Since I have been homeless, there has been an attitude that we are invisible as long as nothing like last week’s death among us happens. Some of you do not even acknowledge our existence, yet you claim to know all about homelessness and make all kinds of stereotypical comments and references to homelessness. I hate to say this, but the face of homelessness has changed in the past two decades and if the white-collar jobs leave as fast as I think they will, the face of homelessness will change yet again.

Two weeks ago I had requested a summit with representatives from all walks of life in Santa Monica to solve this problem of homelessness once and for all. I had hoped that this 10-year plan to do something about homelessness was true and not just some more political lip service that we, as Americans, have heard for as long as I have been alive. With the tragic death of my street “big brother” and dear friend Bobby Capps last week and the deaths of many other homeless American human beings across the nation on a daily basis, I bring this to the table again.

I have received many letters about what could be done to stop this cycle from the homeless themselves. One letter sticks out in my mind, and I have mulled over it for the past few weeks. One homeless man wrote about the problems of illegal immigrants being hired for jobs that, supposedly, no one else wants to do. These jobs of which I speak are mostly in the construction industry as laborers. And there has been a lot of construction going on in this city. I feel that if anyone wants to work, he or she should be able to show up and ask for work. I have sent many people to these job sites to ask for day labor only to have them turned down. They then go by a few days later and see many illegals working a job that any American citizen would do if given a chance. These day-labor jobs would keep many of us from panhandling to support ourselves and might even result in some of us getting off the streets.

The most upside-down thing is the “day laborers” who stand between 11th Street and Colorado, and 11th Street and Olympic Boulevard have earned a portable toilet, meanwhile the American homeless can’t even get a job or a decent place to go to the bathroom. Maybe the street homeless who want to work should go and share the corner with these “day laborers” and see if they can get hired. I wonder how many of you would hire someone who wants to work if they were American and stood on this corner? And how about this new construction project in which the City Council will give jobs to the at-risk youth in the Pico neighborhood over the homeless? How about constructing this to include those who really need the jobs who want to work?

The point I am hoping to make is that this whole situation of homelessness is always an issue for this city. And the major complaint is that the city is doing the same thing and it’s not working. I have been giving suggestions since I have been writing this column for the past year. Some abstract, some not, but at least I am giving my input. At least I am not afraid to suggest anything new that is against the status quo — which we know isn’t working. (Charles Springer is a homeless free-lance writer and artist living and working in Santa Monica. He can be reached at Chaz\_59@yahoo.com).

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 1, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)