By Saul Cohen Santa Monica Holding out until the check clears Editor:
I’m what is considered an older — though I prefer “seasoned” — Santa Monica resident, and I’m saddened and disturbed to read about attacks on the elderly that I’ve seen in your paper recently.
On Monday, it was Bill Bauer’s column (“Elderly get shorted by housing policy,” June 25) about how people from outside Santa Monica are being given preference over elderly Santa Monica residents for housing that the city of Santa Monica pays for and builds. But this has been a problem for years, and the city continues to bury its head in the sand and refuses to do anything about the problem.
On Wednesday, it was the article about how the convalescent home on 14th (Street) near Broadway was closing down (“Developing problems,” June 27), forcing its elderly residents to move.
But the most egregious attack this week on elderly Santa Monica residents was in Thursday’s paper (“Landmarks prove a source of drama,” June 28). Shamefully, though not surprisingly, many people in Santa Monica are more concerned about preserving old houses that are falling apart than they are taking care of elderly residents who can’t find a home.
Spending time and considerable city resources to preserve a 102-year-old house on Ocean Avenue? Spending time and considerable resources to keep relocating an old shotgun house at a reported cost of several hundred thousand dollars?
Where is the outcry, because this surely points to a lack of common sense and common decency from those in our city.
The city’s housing policies will continue to harm the elderly, while the zeal for the city to spend considerable and precious resources to keep old buildings is disgraceful.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 30, 2007. Read the original PDF.