By Michael Stone Santa Monica
Am I the only one to notice? The City Council recently approved a homeless shelter on Cloverfield Boulevard that has a total purchase and construction budget of approximately $11.3 million ($9.2 million City of Santa Monica, $0.4 million, LA County, $0.9 million state of California, and $0.8 million private funds, SMDP, Aug. 14, page 1). The new shelter will now have a sole purpose to provide beds for 55 homeless individuals per night. The math works out to $205,000 per bed.
A reasonable alternative would be to build a hotel for the homeless. Let us assume that the homeless would be willing to stay two to a room. This would allow $410,000 to be spent per room on the new homeless hotel. Let us plan a hotel with 129 rooms which would house 258 homeless a night. That number of rooms times $410,000 per room gives us a construction budget of $53 million.
“Hotel Casa Del Mar (which coincidentally has 129 rooms and suites), once the grandest of the opulent Santa Monica beach clubs and hotels, re-emerged in October 1999 true to its storied past as one of the most luxurious hotels on the West Coast. More than $50 million was spent to restore the historic landmark to its former grandeur and create an elegant and sophisticated European lodging experience on the sands of Santa Monica Bay,” the hotel’s Web site states.
Regardless of what one thinks about how Santa Monica should provide for the homeless, the plan approved by the Santa Monica City Council appears overly costly when viewed on a per bed/homeless person served. Unless the City Council and OPCC intend for the new shelter to provide an “elegant and sophisticated European lodging experience” for the homeless, either much less should be spent or more services should be provided. Or perhaps the city should just purchase a floor of the Hotel Casa del Mar and turn it into a homeless shelter.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 19, 2003. Read the original PDF.