By MY WRITE BY BILL BAUER
The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP) have laid one big rotten egg.
I’m highly offended that Santa Monica was No. 9 in their “Meanest Cities Toward the Homeless” rankings, which were released earlier this week.
The list is in “Dream Denied: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities,” available online at www.national-homeless.org. The Washington, D.C.- based NCH and NLCHP are both private, nonprofit, national homeless advocacy organizations. Their report is riddled with misinformation, propaganda and outright falsehoods.
When it comes to Santa Monica, “Dream Denied” criticizes Mayor Bob Holbrook’s suggestion that groups distributing food in the parks may be subject to fines to cover clean-up costs. The report also takes issue with city efforts to limit public food hand-outs by linking them with established service providers and moving them indoors.
However, why shouldn’t organizations that use the parks and leave a mess share the cost of keeping the parks clean? Being critical of controlling and linking food hand-outs to services as a way to get people off the streets is typical of extremist homeless rights advocates who think that intervention of a “street person” lifestyle is bad, inhumane and probably unconstitutional.
The report took issue with the election of City Councilman Bobby Shriver, who they suggest is behind “the single biggest push in the nation to pass a massive wave of new anti-homeless laws.” This is just not true — either in relation to Shriver himself or the nonexistent “massive wave of anti-homeless laws” attributed to the city.
The report is critical of the city for closing down public showers at Memorial Park gym “because of the growth of sports activities at the park.” Conveniently, the report doesn’t mention the public showers at SWASHLOCK near the SAMOSHEL shelter on Olympic Boulevard that now have extended hours of operation because of the Memorial Park closing.
The report criticizes Santa Monica Police for proposing “transporting intoxicants to a new sobering center in Culver City — five miles out of town.” Considering the center never opened for operation, this statement is irrelevant and typical of the report’s shoot-from-the-hip, anti-rehabilitation style.
“Dreams Denied” claims proposed city ordinances would “sweep homeless individuals from all freeway sides and ramps.” Freeways are under Caltrans jurisdiction, not Santa Monica, and already have pedestrian prohibitions. So much for accurate research.
The report’s authors mention “a notorious law that literally bans giving a cookie to any member of the public without a ‘city’ permit.” Some local statutes regulate the distribution of food to the public, but implying they’re used to harass the homeless is typical of inflammatory and sensationalistic statements throughout the 161-page document. I remembered a news article written by one Margaret Brown posted March 24, 2005, on www.indymedia.org. Call it deja-vu, but much of the verbiage about Santa Monica in “Dream Denied” came from Brown’s piece.
Brown’s article was rife with misinformation — the nonexistent Culver City sobering center was one — and dated information. She even complained about the Veteran’s Administration. Using hysterical innuendo — the shab-biest of journalistic tricks — she wailed that proposed programs for homeless vets at the VA would be “under military control.”
The uncredited use of Brown’s article by the NHC and NLCHP as the basis for factual research is unfortunate. However, using text generated by what appears to be written by a paranoid, nonprofessional who seemed to be repeating every hysterical rumor heard on the streets and presenting it as fact is par for the course for strident pro-homeless advocates.
Unfortunately the kind of opinionated, highly charged presentation in “Dream Denied,” complete with cover color photo of cops rousting a sleeping homeless person, has done much to malign the good work this city, its agencies and citizens have accomplished over the years on behalf of the homeless. If anything, the anger of people reacting to this kind of shoddy reportage works against garnering sympathy for the homeless.
I’ll have more to say about this, the NCH, the NLCHP and the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness in a future column. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, the “Meanest Cities” list should be accorded the same credibility as “Mr. Blackwell’s Ten Best and Worst Dressed for 2006.” I’d be embarrassed to put my name on this garbage. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 23, 2006. Read the original PDF.