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# Readers sound off on homeless question
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/readers-sound-off-on-homeless-question/
- Published: 2003-02-28T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:40:43.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless

*Q-LINE, from page 3*

This past Sunday, Q-line asked: “Has the homeless situation improved downtown? Is the law still necessary?” Here are your responses: ■ “Homeless human beings are prevalent in all areas of Santa Monica and that is fine with me. A homeless person has the right to be anywhere a homeless person wants to be providing it is a public common area and all are minding the law. I also realized that most homeless humans are being bullied and beaten down by two very tough men named Old John Barley Corn and Billy Booze. Two tough dudes to beat for those with addictive personalities.” ■ “No, I don’t think the homeless situation has improved downtown. This law that they passed is like all the rest of the laws the City Council passes. They are never enforced. I have noticed the decline of people sleeping on Wilshire Boulevard. But the Promenade still smells like a toilet although when they clean it up in the morning they use a bleach to get some of the smell out. As long as they feed these people and allow them to sleep on the street, they will never get rid of the homeless problem. It’s here to stay.” ■ “The homeless situation has not improved. All we have to do is go to 6th Street and Arizona. You can see them sleeping. I feel sorry for them. But the mess that they leave on the street is very dirty and smelly. Unless someone enforces this it will never change. They still lay around the same place they usually do. I think a solution would be perhaps to build something or use a building for them to sleep. Especially when it is raining and cold. We can also take donations and give them clothes. My goodness, all the money that is spent for feeding is not helping.” ■ “The vagrant situation downtown has actually become more pervasive and stubborn. There is still an abiding reluctance by a variety of city officials to act on and enforce existing laws. Cases in point: The Big Blue Bus system has a free shuttle service for the homeless because disease carrying vagrants who are stench bombs are not prevented from boarding because bus drivers quietly acknowledge that the city attorney does not stand by them in the event of an arrest. Another case in point: Vagrant camp sites are continuing to form at ATM access areas in front of downtown banks and the post office because as one police officer told us, “I didn’t sign up to be a garbage man.” Deputies on the Promenade still have to coaxed to do anything about aggressive and threatening behavior by vagrants and runaways who are homesteading on the Promenade. Sanitation people won’t cap the open buffet trash cans that serve up a plate like a stew of stale Krispy Kreme donuts, leftover coffee, etc. As long as the city looks away, the number of vagrants are only going to grow.” ■ “Is the homeless situation worse downtown? Of course it is! What Santa Monica typically does not enforce is the sign ordinance for example. That was passed years ago and is not enforced at all. The merchants, as much as they complain really don’t have a friend in the Bayside Corporation. Those are the landowners and property owners who are enjoying the highest rents and the highest property values in history of their ownership. They are not about to rock the boat. If this council wants to embark on a social service policy that is very generous even though these laws seem contrary to that...they are fake laws that are put on the books that were not meant to be enforced. The police, of course, who are the enforcement law have been told basically hands off. That is exactly what they are doing.” ■ “No it has not improved. It has increasingly gotten worse. Especially since the new apartment buildings on Sixth and Seventh Street. They are finding it very convenient to go into the lobbies and actually steal things. Not only that, I’ve lived in New York and elsewhere where there are homeless and Santa Monica’s homeless are belligerent, and forceful. It is not to be taken lightly. Someone needs to do something about it, PERIOD.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 28, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/022803.pdf?ref=smdp.com)