“Should the OPCC homeless shelter be moved to the city’s eastside? If not, where is the best place to put it?”
Here are your responses: (Editor’s note: The City Council approved the eastside homeless shelter location on Wednesday. However, it agreed to keep daytime services at the current OPCC location and only use the new shelter for overnight services and possibly affordable housing.) ■ “Once again, the people have been thwarted. It is my opinion that a compromise is no real solution. So much for the will of the people.” ■ “Absolutely not. What were they thinking? I think they need to do their research a little better. There’s definitely too many children in the area. Too many homes, people sleeping on their front porches as it is already. We have enough homeless in the area.” ■ “As a member of the Disabilities Commission, at our Aug. 4 meeting I was the only commission member voting to approve the OPCC proposed project. OPCC did its homework; they examined 23 other locations. Our commission since February had about 15 pages on the OPCC plan. The homeless, the mentally ill, people with dual diagnoses and veterans are the commission’s largest constituency. In my opinion, at our Aug. 4 meeting OPCC, its clients and the project deserved nothing less than the commission’s support.” ■ “No, I don’t think that the homeless shelter should be moved to the east-side. Why should you inundate the whole city with a bunch of homeless? You already have a whole mess in the downtown area of Santa Monica. Now you want to take this mess and move it to the eastside? I’m sure that had you proposed a homeless shelter over in the Montana area, it would never have been passed because it would have caused such an up-cry that the City Council would look really bad. The City Council has managed to inundate this whole city with homeless by their feeding programs and they don’t do anything to stop it. They make all these ordinances and do not enforce any of the ordinances regarding the homeless sleeping on the streets. I walked Wilshire Boulevard this morning and there were four people sleeping in one block between Fifth and Fourth streets. The police are not enforcing anything. Why would you inconvenience the residents on the eastside? This is reprehensible to move it from one mess to another mess.” ■ “There’s an underlying reason behind moving the homeless shelter to the eastside. The reason is to clean up the downtown area. This is not going to cut it. The people on the eastside don’t want this homeless shelter there. It would create a mess. The homeless urinate in the parks, everything in Palisades Park. Why subject the people on the eastside to the mess you have downtown? All it’s going to do is spread the homeless further east and you’re never going to get back to what Santa Monica used to be 20 to 30 years ago. It’s impossible. I don’t think this homeless shelter is going to help the homeless at all because there are a lot of drugs and illegal activity going on in Palisades Park especially.” ■ “Absolutely. Cloverfield Boulevard and Michigan Avenue would be a perfect place for a homeless shelter. In addition to that, the $74 million library project, which is just about completing its demolition phase, ought to include 5 to 10 percent employment of laborers who are extracted from the homeless population to help relieve Santa Monica’s homeless problem. Employment opportunities are the best way for these people to get off the street.” ■ “An excellent location to install a homeless shelter would be on the front lawn of the United States Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard and Westwood. Do not let that space go to waste!” ■ “Absolutely not. Not in a nice residential area. Absolutely not. I think a good use would be of the RAND Corp. site way away from residential areas. There are enough of them wandering around residential areas as it is. Why put a shelter in this area where they will be hanging even more. Absolutely not!” ■ “The proposed homeless shelter should be placed in the Montana area because our wonderful neighbors there should share the love. They always want to place their wonderful love for the homeless in the Pico area. Let’s also share it. Put it a little north of Montana. A one time fee, buy some wonderful land there, it’s more beautiful. And put the homeless people there. Let’s share it.” ■ “No. Ocean Park Community Center should stay out of residential areas. A stop has to be put on all these expansion plans and siphoning of taxpayer money to feed, house, clothe, and rehabilitate the country’s vagrant population, who by hook or by crook are beating a path to Santa Monica, the homeless utopia. Let the Ocean Park Community Center relocate to a vacated area, perhaps the old RAND Corp. property far from residential areas. They should really stop expanding because it is a never-ending cycle. The more they build, the more will come, the more money, the more feeding programs. It’s never going to stop. Santa Monica can’t care for the world’s homeless population.” ■ “Yes. The homeless shelter should be built on the eastside — the eastside of the United States in an upscale suburb of Washington, D.C., where the politicians and bureaucrats live because they are responsible for the degradation of America. One of the founders, maybe Jefferson, said something like, ‘If you ever allow a central bank to be established in this country, you’ll see your children’s children homeless in the streets.’ That’s the present day reality with the Federal Reserve.” ■ “Add homeless shelters to the school district and put the homeless in Malibu. They’ll be happy to get yet another subsidized service.” ■ “No. The homeless shelter should not be moved to the eastside. It should not be in Santa Monica at all. We’ve done enough for the homeless.” ■ “Yes. I think it should be moved. I think its the perfect site for it and I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there.” ■ “There should be a shelter in Santa Monica and I like the location of Cloverfield Boulevard and Michigan Avenue. I vote yes.” ■ “The homeless shelter should not be moved. We don’t want bigger shelters anywhere in the city. Keep it as is.” ■ “OPCC should not move. It has a new expanded home in the new bus yards. This has been approved and has been funded in the master plan. What is the sudden compulsion? If this agreement was so easy then what has changed? What is now so important to get OPCC to get an even bigger home? What arrangements are being made here behind the public’s back to do this?” ■ “The homeless shelter should not be moved to the Pico neighborhood. Give those residents a break. Cloverfield and the 10 Freeway connection is already congested and pedestrians who do not use crosswalks will cause terrible traffic jams. OPCC is not solving the homeless problem in Santa Monica. They are encouraging it and making it worse. Enough is enough. Put the homeless shelter in the police station.” ■ “No. The OPCC should not be allowed to relocate into any residential area. The escalation of these homeless vagrant services should stop. The situation is already out of hand. More and more of this type of person is jumping on the gravy train. Meanwhile the quality of life for Santa Monicans has deteriorated substantially. The area has become dirty, sickening, unsafe and very annoying. I realize that this is a security for the so-called do-gooders, but that issue has to be faced also.” ■ “I believe that its a bad idea to relocate the OPCC to the eastside of Santa Monica. This would be a lot more convenient for the homeless, because it would be closer to where they feed and closer to the police, since a large number of their calls are dedicated to transient populations anyway. They could be at the police station or the RAND center, which would keep them away from the residential areas. This would be better for everyone all around.” ■ “I don’t think we should have the homeless shelter anywhere in the city of Santa Monica. I think we should take the homeless and distribute them around the other cities — Culver City, Beverly Hills and Mar Vista. Put them all around and build one shelter in the middle, in between all those cities. Put it in Beverly Hills. Then those people can see what has been going on in Santa Monica.” ■ “I’m homeless myself and to relocate and spend more money on staffing, who by the way enjoy milking the clock, will do absolutely nothing to help solve our problem. I’ve come from zero and have been able to surface pretty much on my own. Thank you for Sam’s show. I have to thank you for that. Everything is catered to the few people who choose to live this vulgar lifestyle provided everything that is being given. There is a surrounding odor that envelops the OPCC and I’m sure that relocating would do nothing to lessen the problem. There are a few cats who are here on pursuit of a dream and are working hard to make that happen. I that know if I was a resident around the Cloverfield area, I wouldn’t want an establishment such as the OPCC to open up in my area. As a homeless person myself, I am going to have to favor against a new OPCC center. I see this as propaganda to promote more homelessness, not to mention, abuse of the system who don’t want to do a damn thing but receive hand outs. The money being used on a new and improved department should be used towards a housing fund for those individuals who believe and function in a clean environment and will jump-start best and will be able to give back to the community.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.