Community Court Date Nears

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

October 5 -- In a few weeks, on alternating Fridays, a look around City Hall may reveal more than the well-dressed crowd of City officials, developers and planners the public has come to expect.

On those days, the most downtrodden of Santa Monicans – the homeless – will likely be walking the halls on their way to an appointment for justice or rehabilitation, City officials announced last week.

Homeless individuals arrested for petty offenses will keep their date with the Honorable Bobbie Tillman -- who was appointed as the court’s only judge in early September -- in the very chambers where City Council members debate Santa Monica’s future, officials said.

Dubbed the “Homeless Community Courts” by former County Supervisor Ed Edelman -- who as Santa Monica’s homeless czar was its primary mover and shaker -- the makeshift court may be the first-of its kind in all of California. Bankrolled by a half million dollars from the County, it could serve as a model for several other West Coast cities battling homelessness.

“This would be a first step in the state,” Edelmen said in his biweekly report to council last week. “No other (state) jurisdiction has done this.”

Homeless courts are in other California cities, but many of those deal with offenders once they have been through the judicial system and are already seeking service, such as treatment for alcohol or drugs, Edelmen said.

“This court is going to take people at the front end, when they get in trouble to begin with,” he said, “not at the back end.”

After months of speculation, Edelmen also announced last week that Tillman had accepted the post as the court’s presiding judge nearly three weeks earlier.

Council member Richard Bloom, a member of the blue ribbon panel of Bring LA Home, a countywide initiative to end homelessness, said he was aware of Tillman’s reputation.

“She knows Santa Monica well and has been presiding in family law department for ten years,” said Bloom, who is executive director of Levitt and Quinn, a non-profit law firm dedicated to helping mostly low-wage earners navigate the family court system.

Tillman’s family law experience may give here a step up on the complicated issues surrounding homelessness, Bloom said.

“I think her background handling family law cases and a lot of domestic violence is ideal to this court,” Bloom said. “Being a judicial officer on a family law cases, one really learns the dynamics of substance abuse and mental illness.”

Locating the court in Santa Monica has been the plan since Edelmen and staff visited New York, whose court served as the model.

But City Hall wasn’t the first venue of choice for the court, City officials said.

“We tried to get it in the (Santa Monica) civil courthouse,” Edelman said. “That was our first attempt at our efforts.

“Unfortunately we were not able to get it there,” he said. “So it’s going to be right here, on alternate Fridays.”

Locating the court in Santa Monica is not without its critics, Edelmen acknowledged.

“Many people think that by having a court here, you are just providing more service,” he said.

However, Edelmen argued, locating the court in Santa Monica has practical advantages over the Los Angeles Airport Courthouse, which tries those cited for petty crimes in the beachside city.

“Homeless sometimes never get there because they have to go far,” he said. “By having the court in Santa Monica, we will relieve some of the situation.”

It may also make the court -- and those who run it -- more ingrained in the community.

“We shouldn’t be trying to bury this judicial process in the judicial ivory tower,” Edelman said. “They need to come out and see what’s happening in the community.

“It will be closer to the people, the judges will know what is going on in a more direct way,” he said. “This is the whole idea of a homeless community court. In the community, not somewhere far distant.”