City Leaders Debate New Direction In Battling Homelessness

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

May 11 -- Just as several Westside cities appear on the verge of coming together for the first time to combat homelessness, how best to get people off the street is fast turning into a divisive issue for Santa Monica City Council members.

Two council members -- former mayor Richard Bloom and newly elected Council member Bobby Shriver -- each say they have a vision on how get the homeless back on their feet and save area emergency systems hundreds of thousands dollars each year.

But while Bloom said he wants to work within two regional plans delicately crafted over several years to bring surrounding communities on board, Shriver says the area needs a more direct approach.

Shriver -- who last week got the backing of three other council members to establish a full-time homeless liaison position within City Hall -- said Santa Monica should fill the position will a well-known personality to gain the backing of other cities who may be reluctant to increase homeless facilities and services in their own backyards.

“I have never seen anything difficult happen without one person being in charge,” Shriver said in an interview last week.

Shriver, a Kennedy descendent and brother-in-law to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said he has always used big names to bring change.

In 2002, Shriver went to Washington D.C. with U2 lead singer Bono to secure millions of dollars in funding for AIDS relief for Africa from both Democrats and Republicans, including the staunchest fiscal conservatives.

The centerpiece of his plan, Shriver said, entails Santa Monica paying up to $200,000 to attract big name politicos or businessmen -- such as Leon Panetta, former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, or former Disney CEO Michael Eisner -- for the liaison position.

“I’m envisioning a regional person, going around and getting other regional cities on board,” said Shriver. “Right now, Santa Monica would be paying their salary, but it would be working towards a regional solution.”

While Bloom said he admired Shriver’s “dive-headlong” attitude, the approach, he said, could threaten years of coalition building and backfire.

“I think if Santa Monica is perceived to have shifted to a heavy handed approach, other cities may be more cautious to receive this,” said Bloom, a blue-ribbon panel member of Bring LA Home, a regional initiative aimed at ending homelessness in Los Angeles in the next ten years.

On June 1, bring LA home will be unveiling the first steps for the regional plan, Bloom said.

“The first step will be a blueprint for reducing chronic homeless population by half in 18 months,” said Bloom, noting that statistics from a February homeless count for Los Angeles and Santa Monica should be released this month.

The push for a homeless liaison in Santa Monica also comes at a time when Beverly Hills, Culver City, West Los Angeles and western sections of Los Angeles have a draft resolution before their city council’s to work together to end homelessness by establishing regional facilities throughout the Westside -- a first nearly ten years after forming the Westside Council of Governments (WCOG)

Culver City -- which has historically blocked any attempt to place an item on homelessness on the WCOG agenda -- became the second city Monday night to approve the “fiscally inert” resolution in a unanimous vote.

Santa Monica was the first when the council approved it in early March.

“It’s a major step for all of the Westside cities, who have never before sat down to address the issue of homelessness regionally,” Bloom said.

The success is all the more reason to move “forward cautiously and carefully” with neighboring cities,” he said. “It’s important to not have it perceived that we are imposing service programs on our neighbors, as opposed to working collaboratively with them.”

The resolution, though not funded, could set the framework to choose locations for future mental health facilities and a center for chronic alcoholics.

Those facilities, say emergency personnel and hospital officials, are needed now to drive down costs associated with providing help to the homeless, a cost projected in the hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

But Shriver, who attended his first Westside Council of Governments meeting as an elected Santa Monica official in February, was skeptical of the resolution’s effectiveness.

“The resolution doesn’t bind them to do anything,” Shriver said, referring to other Westside cities. “It doesn’t mean anything. I think its great if they do approve it, but it’s not going to change anything.”

The only way to truly bring change, Shriver said, is to charge someone with the job and pay them handsomely to attract a well-known personality.

“Richard (Bloom) says we can’t do it that way because we have eighty-six different cities, and we can’t do this alone,” Shriver said. “But the fact is that we need to take the lead or else no one will.”

Both Shriver and Bloom cited the recent failure to establish a mental health facility and a “sobering center” for chronic alcoholics near Brotman Medical Center to bolster their different approaches.

“The setback on the sobering center is an example of how other areas are concerned that Santa Monica is somehow trying to unload our homeless population onto them,” said Bloom. “I think the issue is a extremely sensitive one for the surrounding communities, and we need to be aware of that.”

The proposed site for the project -- which Santa Monica had cut a $10,000 check to help lease -- was rejected after officials learned it was zoned in Los Angeles, and not Culver City, and within 600 feet of a school, a violation of Los Angeles zoning codes, according to Santa Monica City officials.

Community members, area police, and Los Angeles City Council member Cindy Miscikowski all protested the site from the beginning, and ultimately blocked the lease.

The $10,000 check was returned to Santa Monica, the only City to help fund the site lease, with a short note explaining the reasons for the decision.

Shriver said a homeless liaison of stature would know how to build a relationship over time with politicians, including Cindy Miscikowski, to bring the cities on board with future facility sites.

“Would Culver City or Beverly hills get on with Leon Panetta? My bet is yes,” Shriver said.

In the meantime, Shriver echoed a council suggestion to use Santa Monica’s police holding facility as a possible site for the sobering center, which is no longer expected by some to be paired with the mental health clinic, as County health experts have strongly suggested.

“Since the jail is sitting there empty, perhaps on a interim basis, we could do that, Shriver said. “I’d like to hear what the police and others think about that before we move on it, but I’d be for it.”

Though the homeless liaison position has been approved by the council, Bloom believes there is still time to shape its role.

“The position is unfunded at this point,” said Bloom. “It’s certain that staff will need more feedback from council and where in the city structure the person fits in.”

Bloom, who said he had lunch with Shriver this week to discuss their differing views, called for unity on the issue.

“We need to be unified no matter how we handle it,” said Bloom. “A fractious approach will only harm what we are trying.”

Shriver, elected last November, also called for unity, adding that his approach to help the homeless is evolving, but that now is the time to act after years of preparation.

“Due to Kevin (Council member Kevin McKeown) and Richard’s work with the (WCOG) and Bring Home L.A., there is a plan, but we need a leader to take get in there and shake things up,’ said Shriver.

“This is the best plan I could come up with in working within five months of being elected,” he said. “But no one’s been able to get a damn thing done in fifteen years."