Community court to handle quality of life
CITY HALL — Adding another weapon in its fight to end homelessness, City Hall will create a community court in which the down-and-out will be able to resolve their legal problems while accessing services to help them climb out of a life of poverty and addiction.
Elected officials are expected to unveil the pilot program Monday morning on the steps of City Hall, according to Kate Vernez, assistant to the City Manager for government relations.
“This is a ground-breaking milestone for the community because it will provide another tool in the Continuum of Care to assist the homeless and end the revolving door of our criminal justice system,”Vernez said.“We will have to continue working very closely with judges, prosecutors, public defenders and homeless providers to construct the most effective program. That’s the next phase.”
There is hope to have the court up and running by the end of the month. While a location has yet to be selected, Judge Bernard Kamins, who currently runs the drug court at the LAX Courthouse, has volunteered to oversee operations of the community court, which will operate for a half-day once a month.
The court will handle those cases involving quality of life crimes, such as public intoxication, camping and public defecation, according to Vernez. The community court is expected to compliment City Hall’s current roster of homeless services, while simultaneously saving money by ridding the system of repeat offenders.
City officials conservatively estimate that the annual cost of providing police, paramedic and city jail services to chronically homeless individuals can run as high as $8,000 per person, along with substantially greater costs to the county in additional jail, court and hospital expenses.
Former Los Angeles County Supervisor and homeless czar Ed Edelman and Vernez have been working closely with Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and homeless service providers for the last six months to develop the pilot program, modeled after community courts in New York City, which elected officials visited this winter.
The court became a reality on Monday, when county supervisors approved $500,000 to help run the program for one year. City Hall will commit $1.2 million in services and permanent housing.
“I can’t say enough good things about Supervisor Yaroslavsky and the rest of the board of supervisors for funding this,” said Councilman Richard Bloom, who represents City Hall on homeless issues.“They could have spent the money on any number of things, but for them to budget this the way they did shows they’re prioritizing the homeless problem.
“We’ve been working hard to make sure everyone in the region makes it a priority.”
Bloom, an attorney, said allocating a judge, clerk and other resources “is really a big deal,” given that the judicial system is already overworked and understaffed.
Judge Linda K. Lefkowitz, supervising justice of the Superior Court, West District, characterized the court as “innovative” and said it was “long overdue.”
“Very few courts have the luxury of bringing in social services,” Lefkowitz said. “Usually people come in, they are sentenced to jail, community service or pay a fine, and then in a few weeks, they’re right back in front of a judge. Here we are aimed primarily at rehabilitation.”
With local jails underfunded and overflowing with detainees, many of those convicted of minor offenses never spend a day in jail.
“When that happens, (the homeless) are just redistributed downtown or at the airport,” Lefkowitz said.“We’re just moving people around, and all you accomplish is maybe getting people off the street for one night.”
Lefkowitz said a 100 percent success rate is unrealistic, “but every time you help one person, they have the potential to tell other people and maybe they’ll get help too.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 1, 2006. Read the original PDF.