City Set to Help Fund Sobering Center

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

March 21 -- While several Westside Cities are busy talking about backing the first-ever regional plan on homelessness, Santa Monica may become the first to pony up the cash.

The City Council Tuesday is set to consider putting up $10,000 to help lease a Venice-based psychiatric urgent care and sobering center which, backers say, would be instrumental in helping homeless individuals struggling with addiction and mental health problems.

The move may also help relieve some of the strain placed on Santa Monica hospitals and police, whose emergency rooms and jail cells are flooded every year with people who call the streets home. Yet any plan to be adopted would not come without a cost.

And while council members said the beachside city may be the first to chip in financially, it does not mean Santa Monicans should expect the City to carry the brunt of any regional plan’s financial load into the future.

“We are going to be in a partnership based on our ability and our size,” said Mayor Pam O’Connor. “We are a city of 80,000. We can’t carry the load for everyone.”

The item comes at a critical time. Santa Monica and four other city councils are mulling over whether to approve a draft-resolution supporting area-wide facilities to address and curb area homelessness.

Given that Santa Monica has lobbied surrounding cities to back such a plan for years, the achievement would be significant, City leaders said.

“The fact that we have a resolution going to all the bodies is an incredible success," said Council Member Kevin McKeown, who with former mayor Richard Bloom represents Santa Monica at the Westside Council of Governments.

The money would be only one-third of the money needed to lease the mental health and sobering facility at 10000 Venice Boulevard, across the street from Brotman Medical center.

The rest would come from the County under Proposition 63, an initiative approved by voters in November that increases funding for mental health treatment, according to the staff report.

Calling the move a "good-will gesture," O'Connor and other council member said other cities will share in the cost getting area centers started.

"We can do a piece, a fair share, but other cities and the County has to pitch in to do their bit to help with the solution,” said O'Connor.

“Someone has to be first with the money,” McKeown said. "Area (emergency services) are overburdened with calls in assisting the homeless... I think that’s good, safe, lets get off the dime money."

Last year, the homeless accounted for 836 arrests for public inebriation and 90 percent of the 478 "alcohol-related" paramedic calls, according to the City's Coordinated Plan for Homeless Services .

That level of treatment is costing local hospitals a considerable sum of money. UCLA Santa Monica officials have estimated it costs their facility close to $100,000 per week to provide alcohol-related treatment for homeless individuals.

Providing psychiatric services at the sobering center, City staff said, is an important component to help people get on their feet.

Indeed, a study conducted in February at five area hospitals shows that out of 100 individuals who were brought to emergency rooms for psychiatric evaluation or hospitalization, 34 percent were homeless.

Those numbers vaulted to 80 percent at financially ailing Santa Monica UCLA, which is expected to layoff workers by summer.

Council member Kevin McKeown hailed the plan, saying it was a big success to find a site outside of Santa Monica, and that it shows a willingness by surrounding communities to get involved.

"This is progress for Santa Monica, which until now has carried a disproportionate share of the problem,” McKeown said. “The commitment from the five Westside cities seems honest and sincere. We must proceed based on good faith."

In addition to the sobering center lease, the Council Tuesday is expected to continue to explore revising laws that affect the homeless, a politically sensitive issue in the traditionally liberal town.

“I don’t agree with all their recommendations,” said McKeown, who is seeking reelection in 2006. "We should not and cannot criminalize poverty. It’s appropriate to pass laws to protect residents from anti-social behavior. It’s much harder to support laws that discriminate on class or wealth.”

Revising the laws and funding the sobering facility, O'Connor said, is just one small step in Santa Monica's long struggle in dealing with homelessness.

“How you regulate behavior is always going to be problem we will struggle with," said O'Connor. "What it has to do with is not just about people are homeless. It’s how we regulate ourselves as social beings.”