By Jorge Casuso

September 14, 1999 -- Aside from voting, Steve Kraves has never considered himself a political activist. But seemingly overnight, a low-key plan by the city to relocate a homeless center to his small neighborhood near downtown has stirred Kraves and his angry neighbors into action.

"What the hell are they trying to do?" said Kraves, who has been circulating letters opposing the relocation of the Ocean Park Community Center's drop in facility to Ninth Street and Broadway. "How can they do that? I don't understand it?"

Kraves is one of dozens of outraged residents and business owners who are fighting to preserve the small pocket of apartment buildings and storefronts near Mittel's Art and Frame Center, which the city is buying to relocate Santa Monica's largest homeless facility.

Suddenly galvanized by the long dormant, but highly volatile, homeless issue, residents have been canvassing the streets, gathering signatures on petitions and writing angry letters they plan to present to the City Council Tuesday night.

"It's not a nice place," said Jeff Mirkin, referring to the current OPCC facility by the city bus yard near Seventh Street and Colorado. "They're mentally unstable, they're drugged, drunk, they attack people. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old kid. What am I going to do? Are they (the city) gonna to put a fence in front of my house? They going to post a cop? It reduces property values, the quality of life. What gives them the right to do this to thousands of people?

"Who decides that the homeless come before those who pay taxes and have homes?" said Mirkin, who lives near the proposed site and has not only been stirred into action but is angry enough to contemplate a run for the council. "It's utterly ridiculous. It's a bunch of people sitting in a smokeless back room."

City officials say they have been working for months to find a suitable site for the facility - which houses 14 mentally ill homeless women and serves about 130 homeless clients a day, most of them single men. But they deny allegations that the council has been working furtively behind the scenes, noting that discussions about property transactions are normally conducted in closed session. The public process, they say, will begin Tuesday night, when the council discusses the issue at the request of residents of the area.

"Everybody's a neighbor to somebody," said Mayor Pam O'Connor. "Whenever you get a new neighbor, there's uncertainty. Is there a better spot? Maybe. Is it available now? I don't know. Should we have a knee jerk reaction? I don't think we should. We should have OPCC talk to neighbors. OPCC should be given a shot. They do have a good track record, a proven one."

"There's no way that a city can relocate a social service without controversy," said Councilman Kevin McKeown. "Staff felt there were absolutely no more options. Obviously, we'd all love a spot that impacted nobody, but there are no such spots."

McKeown, however, added that staff is looking at a potential alternative that recently has become available.

"I think the council has better choices," said Councilman Ken Genser, who said he may have to excuse himself from any council discussion due to a work-related conflict of interest. "But I think it's a very important service to this community, and I think the city should do what's necessary for it to remain in this community. We need to find a place for it."

Although residents hope to derail the relocation of the homeless facility, their new-found activism may have flared too late to block the purchase of the property at 820 Broadway. With city officials wrapping up negotiations to buy the site with nearly $3 million in transportation funds, the residents' pleas likely will do little to sway the council, which is expected to green-light the purchase next month. And city staff already has released an environmental analysis, which found that relocating the center will not have a major impact on the neighborhood.

"We've been in negotiations with the property owner for several months," said Jeff Mathieu, the city's director of resource management. "We're near an agreement. The reality is that the use is not being determined. We are acquiring it (the property). OPCC has got to satisfy and work with the neighbors so it is a good fit.

"At this time, it is not contemplated OPCC would come up with something the residents would oppose," Mathieu said. "We all have a high expectation based on past experience that OPCC will design programs that are compatible to the neighborhood and will become an integral fabric of the entire neighborhood."

But residents say there is nothing compatible between their neighborhood, which already is trying to cope with the noise and traffic from a new nightclub, and a homeless facility. They fear that relocating the center will only lead to a flood of homeless clients invading their streets and forcing down property values.

"People are appalled," said Carissa Drucker, who placed the item on the council agenda along with her husband, Jeff Mirkin. "Why would anyone want to live in a place that attracts derelict people. This is a perfectly balanced neighborhood, the kind of neighborhood you want to create with mixed use. You have small businesses with foot traffic. Many people walk.

"Why do we constantly pander to the homeless and to tourists," said Drucker, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1986. "What happens to those people in the middle?"

More than 60 neighbors have signed a letter asking the city to conduct a full environmental impact report before relocating the facility, which must move out of its current location at 1616 Seventh Street by next summer.

"Where will they sleep?," the letter reads. "Where will they relieve themselves? Where will they entertain themselves? How will they support themselves? These are critical unanswered and unaddressed questions. I believe the answer to these questions will show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the proposed project will have a significant impact on the neighborhood."

John Maceri, the new director of OPCC, said that he has heard all the arguments before.

"It's absolutely deja vu," said Maceri, who worked to open a center for those afflicted with HIV and AIDS in West Hollywood a decade ago. "I'm going back ten years hearing the same objections from people. People have their minds made up that it's going to be terrible, it's going to be horrible…. This is not going to be easy."

Maceri said that OPCC, which has operated in the city for 35 years, is trying to address many of the neighbors' concerns, which were expressed during a meeting with a dozen nearby residents, most of whom live next door to the proposed site. The new center will have 24-hour security seven days a week and its 10,000 square feet of space will accommodate more clients indoors, Maceri said. The facility also will change its policy from a first-come-first-serve basis that often has clients waiting outside. In addition, OPCC is working with the landlord next door to put a security gate on his building.

"The negative reaction is unfounded," Maceri said. "People have a concept we will set up banquet tables and seating (outdoors). I think there's a lot of hysteria which has a lot to do with their personal feelings for homeless folks…. What's unfortunate is people aren't willing to hear how we are going to manage this."

Mirkin, who says he has already been attacked with a knife and has had his hammock occupied by transients who already hang out in the neighborhood, has little patience for discussing a situation he says is unmanageable.

"I went to take a picture (at the current facility) and had a rock thrown at me," Mirklin said. "I was spit at, three people asked me for money and one tried the locks on my car door. There's 38 people sleeping on the street by the bus depot. Is that gonna change? Nothing's gonna change."