By Phil Harnage Santa Monica
(This letter was originally addressed to the Santa Monica City Council.) I was not able to attend the City Council meeting tonight (Sept. 26). I have a 10 year-old daughter who expects me to be home on weeknights to help her with her homework and tuck her into bed. It is on her behalf, and the behalf of many other children like her, that I am writing this letter to you.
I ask that you use your influence to dissuade Step Up On Second from establishing a proposed halfway house for 8-12 bipolar and schizophrenic young adults at 1826 Pearl St. Step Up On Second currently is in escrow to purchase this property, despite considerable community opposition. I feel this is not an appropriate location for the following reasons: • Young adults with these problems are unpredictable and prone to many problems to which children should not run the risk of being exposed. Step Up On Second maintains that these patients are not a danger to the community — as long as they stay on their treatment program. That’s a big “if,” and Step Up On Second admits there are no guarantees that these patients will not present a danger to the hundreds of elementary and middle school children who walk past this location on a daily basis. For most of these young kids, Pearl Street is their only route to and from John Adams Middle School, Grant Elementary School, the YWCA on 14th Street and Pico Boulevard, and the municipal swimming pool at SMC. • There are many other properties available on Pico or Ocean Park boulevards which would serve these young adults just as well and not impact our stable, child-centered residential community in the heart of Sunset Park.This halfway house will be a revolving door for Step Up’s ever-changing roster of clients,approximately 65 percent of whom come from outside Santa Monica,according to Step Up On Second’s own estimate. They will not be around long enough to become a part of our community.A commercial venture such as this simply does not belong in a residential neighborhood.
Legally, there may be nothing that the city can do about this situation. But it is disingenuous to say that councilmembers have no influence over the actions of a city-supported non-profit organization.Voters will be looking very carefully at your response, because this could happen to anyone living next to or near an R2-zoned property. As the law currently stands, any organization can locate a halfway house for the mentally ill, the homeless, recovering alcoholics or even sex offenders, on any R2-zoned property: • Without requesting any sort of variance. • Without requiring any sort of public hearing. • Without notifying nearby residents, even if living next-door. • By evicting current residents, even if in rent-controlled apartments on the properties. This is not right. Are you going to let it happen without any further discussion, just because it’s for a “good cause?”
We all have rights here.Yes, 8-12 mentally ill clients have a right to a place to live, even if most of them do not even come from Santa Monica. But so do the 2,500 school children — Santa Monica’s children — whose young lives could be irrevocably changed by one regrettable incident.
Step Up On Second does great work. I am not against the organization or its clients — my own sister is schizophrenic. I simply feel that this location is not an appropriate place to carry on Step Up’s good work.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 2, 2006. Read the original PDF.