The Homeless Speak Out

By Jennafer Yellowhorse

You don't have to be a resident of Santa Monica to notice that wealthy beachside communities up and down the coast of California are campaigning to economically segregate the poor out of their areas.

Cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Santa Cruz, San Diego and all the others in between are all competing to be the first to find a piece of legislation that will be upheld by courts in eliminating homeless people in their communities.

In a three part series in The Lookout ("Part I: Feeding the Problem?" "Part II: The Cost of Free Meals" and "Part III: Food for Thought" ), Oliver Lukacs asserts that our City Council pleads in a manner befitting someone on a deserted island, that Santa Monica is the only city in California, in the United States, even the entire world, that has a homeless problem.

I am amazed at the blanket denial that City officials have in regards to the root causes of poverty in Santa Monica. Los Angeles recently closed nine health care clinics accessible to the poor. The elimination of SRO and other means of affordable housing, including rent control, has created a severe affordable housing shortage.

Unemployment rates, coupled with a lack of living wages in entry level jobs, have created a situation where you can be working two jobs and still not be able to afford housing in Los Angeles County. Poverty is a social problem that needs widespread social reforms.

Instead, Santa Monica is claiming that anyone who is homeless saw the poverty section of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce's tourist brochures, which must read that Santa Monica is the only city in California that serves brown bag lunches and that homeless people are traveling tens of thousands of miles coming from everywhere and anywhere to Santa Monica to get a tuna fish sandwich, some day old bread and a juice box. I often think that John Steinbeck would assume the same if he grew up in Santa Monica. It's okay to be a tourist in Santa Monica, not a transient.

In Mr. Lukacs articles and from the testimony of Santa Monica City Council members (especially those up for reelection) one could assume that every single homeless person is:

a) an alcoholic/drug addict
b) a social deviant and criminal
c) has never held a job or paid taxes in their lives
d) is resistant to social services that they have never applied for
e) chose a life of homelessness and dependency
f) has made it their "job" to flood the streets of Santa Monica with excrement and waste.

Santa Monica, according to politicians and Mr. Lukacs, has done all it can for the homeless and now wants to quit harboring people without money in their city.

If one were to look at the San Francisco hotel campaign -- which you can view on the Internet: on wewantchange.com -- you will find a glossy campaign created by a professional advertising agency that shows a seemingly married business man holding up a cardboard sign chiding the City of San Francisco: "I want to know why homelessness is still a problem after we have spent $200 million last year."

It is a question that everyone is asking, but really asking homeless people to be accountable for. No one is asking Social Service Agencies, or the "Continuum of Care" offered by Cities like Santa Monica, for accountability for the amount of money they are spending on homeless services without getting the end result desired -- getting people into housing. Santa Monica doesn't want homeless people coming from other areas to get meals and services, but by God Santa Monica agencies will send you to other cities to get housing and shelter.

Side by Side, a community partnership, and Making Change, our homeless newspaper, are two community homeless organizations in Santa Monica that are asking you to take a look at why we the homeless feel homelessness is not being resolved. We have authored reports to the City, stating from our perspective as homeless people, why social services aren't working for us. We state in plain English, and even in Spanish, why homeless people are not getting through the "Continuum" and why we are still on the streets.

City Officials, the business community and the right-wing anti-homeless contingent in Santa Monica all blanketly refuse to listen to us, acknowledge us, include us in meetings, or include us in their decision making process. Our comments, however, are duly noted in the city record, but they are not reflected in statements or decisions that are made, and community mediation has never been sought.

Our questions about reform and accountability certainly never have been answered. The council and the business community treat us as if we are an invisible neighborhood association of zombies. No body wants zombies in their back yard, or on their sidewalks. We have copies of our report at www.geocities.com/homelessm. You can read it, and then attend the next City Council discussion of the proposed ordinance to ban Outdoor Meal Distribution Programs and ask the questions the City refuses to acknowledge from poor people who live in this city.

On one hand, City Officials claim that other surrounding cities do not do enough to serve their homeless populations, and therefore "legions" of homeless people flood Santa Monica for brown bag lunches and services. Yet on the other hand, Santa Monica is chiding American Citizens who come "from the outside" (outside of where, America?) and serve the Santa Monica poor.

On the other hand, Santa Monica receives a great deal of money from Beverly Hills, Culver City and other cities that contribute to the City's Homeless Services coffer. If Santa Monica wants other cities to take care of their own homeless problem, why does Santa Monica accept money from other cities to take care of their poor? In memory of Mr. Holbrook's homeless analysis, does anyone see the double-handed nature of our council's behavior?

Can someone tell me how starvation will serve as a means to force people into the "Continuum of Care?" The only thing that will get more people into services is to identify why they weren't successful in getting help the first time they applied. Santa Monica refuses to even look at the fact that every single member of every food line has already applied for social services in the Continuum of Care and is not getting help. Is this a reason why Santa Monica is prompting this discussion separately from its Annual Review of the Coordinated Plan of Homeless Services?

If anyone cares to do the research, the information is all on a Computerized Case Management System administered by the City of Santa Monica, so the numbers are there, but no one is asking for the statistics or even relevant information from staff. The answers that staff give aren't even relevant to the true nature of the homeless situation.

When will Santa Monica do a survey of meals provided by City funded agencies to determine if those meals actually prevent starvation or meet FDA requirements? Why didn't Mr. Lukacs do a spot survey of the Meal Program Participants and ask if they had applied for services at any Santa Monica-funded social service agencies? What is their status, why are they still on the streets? It is because that information would have been useless for Mr. Lukacs' goal of creating apathy and fear by dramatizing the popular propaganda demonizing the poor.

Why doesn't Mr. Lukacs ponder what many Santa Monicans are pondering; "Why is a non-profit organization allowed to propose, lobby or otherwise institute legislation as often as the Bayside District Corporation?" Why are groups like the Bayside District Corporation or the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce allowed to make decisions about how our City treats its poor without involving people who are poor and homeless?

Or why is the City of Santa Monica, allowed to create and institute legislation without the direct steering and language of the poor and homeless who are affected by the legislation? Why are our legislators entrusted with enacting legislation without even speaking with the poor? Why isn't community mediation a viable alternative?

Just last year, the City attempted to ban vehicular camping. This initiative was led, not by the Bayside District Corporation, but by the Santa Monica Police Department, another City entity that has no business legally authoring legislation. This effort failed, because the homeless had time to make our case to the public. More time in fact than we are being given for the discussion of the Outdoor Meal Distribution Programs. The public was informed and voiced their concern to have alternatives to legislation to deal with homelessness in Santa Monica.

Santa Monica tried before to curb the usage of the parks by Outdoor Meal Distribution Programs by limiting groups to 150 people, requiring permits with fees to deter volunteer groups and by restricting access to the parks by limiting use by one group or person to twice a month. Because this ordinance was struck down, we believe that the City Attorney's office will find a new way to seek the same, if not more stringent, goals. A decision to curb, limit or ban Outdoor Meal Distribution programs threatens to abridge our right to assemble and use public space and could abridge our freedom of speech.

President Bush has called for community and religious programs to find solutions to poverty and has a campaign to encourage the public to get out and do something. Santa Monica has no initiative to encourage community-based solutions to homelessness. They choose a far less complicated approach -- to punish homeless people.

On their own, without being asked, and without government funding, many church groups, children and concerned community members take individual action to alleviate poverty in our community. Instead of encouraging or congratulating our residents, the Santa Monica right wing is targeting them with this negative campaign.

We have residents who go unrecognized by our City Council and are apparently invisible to City Staff, who live and work in Santa Monica who not only work, but are dedicated to our outdoor meal distribution programs.

This, in effect, says: you have a right to spend money on Santa Monica Businesses, just not the Santa Monica homeless.

This initiative to limit the distribution of food to poor people in Santa Monica will create more crime. How do you think starvation will affect the hundreds of chronically homeless people who have mental illness?

If Santa Monica homeless people are the incredible deviants, social misfits and are the criminal element that you are all so desperately afraid of, whose criminal activity is ever increasing according to City Officials, why doesn't the Santa Monica media, like The Lookout, publish homeless crime statistics in its criminal report section?

Perhaps if the public were informed of exactly how many crimes are committed, what types of crimes are committed during what times of the year, we could all have a better idea of a factual basis for accusing the homeless and perhaps get an idea of how to curb homeless behavior.

Unfortunately, the only way anyone is going to curb homeless behavior is to interact with homeless people, and Santa Monica has chosen the Santa Monica Police Department as its welcome wagon to homeless people and prisons as its shelters. Homeless activists have called upon the Santa Monica City Council to direct City staff to answer the question of the true nature of criminal activity by homeless people, and the statistical reports still haven't arrived, for the many years we've asked for them.

I wonder why the Santa Monica City Council chooses to direct the discussion of restricting outdoor meal distribution programs separate from its Annual Review of the Coordinated Plan and before the upcoming elections? The fact that Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights and SMART have endorsed candidates who state that impoverished people do not belong in our community shows that they can sell you on a pseudo-progressive agenda, and sell out the truly poor.

Endorsing candidates who are interested in using the legal system to eliminate the poor in their city is in direct contrast to fair housing law, living wage initiatives and the values that these laws traditionally stand for.

These council incumbents are campaigning against the poor and representing to you, the reader, that our community members who work at the Outdoor Meal Distribution Programs do not exist and, even worse, go unnoticed for their work on our community programs. If City funded Agencies were truly doing their job, the outdoor meal programs simply wouldn't exist.

Exactly who are these outsiders that Mr. Lukacs and the Santa Monica City Council are campaigning against?

There is a very dedicated woman, who tirelessly works to help people and serves meals at our program, who happens to be a member of a local women's art gallery. She has spent an enormous amount of time and her personal resources to ensure that people not only get food on Wednesdays in Palisades Park but also brings donated clothes from the many people she knows and works with and distributes to people who need them so badly. She walks away empty handed, without even the bags she brought the clothes in.

Now, if Santa Monica funds Social Service agencies that all claim to distribute clothing to the poor, why would the poor be desperate enough to seek food and clothing at these Outdoor Meal Distribution Programs? Perhaps it's because the poor are not getting enough food or clothing at social service agencies and have to go to outsiders for help.

There is another woman, whose outdoor meal distribution program has nothing but volunteer children from Santa Monica schools, whose parents accompany them to these gatherings and volunteer on a regular basis to provide food to people who live in Santa Monica on her streets. There is another woman who has a program that is a school for children who live on the streets.

There is another woman who is a retired attorney and is a former commissioner for the Commission on Older Americans who attends our Side by Side meetings and has done a great amount of work. She talks with homeless people about their situation and strives to do things to make them feel better about themselves and also refers them to many ways that they can get help, through work and other social contacts.

There is a man, who is a holocaust survivor who tirelessly gleans food from restaurants, bakeries and major grocery outlets to ensure that homeless people constantly have access to a higher standard and quality of food, other than dumpsters that people would be relegated to if restrictions on meal programs were in place.

There is a Rabbi from a Santa Monica Synagogue who brings food to the poor with his congregation. There is also Father Dollar who gives a dollar to every person in our food lines. And let's not forget the Santa Monica business woman and her staff of employees who own the only independent bookstore in Santa Monica who facilitate meetings and work with homeless people on the Promenade with compassion and real solutions. There are other Santa Monicans who are not on this list and are not being recognized by our anti-homeless contingent. Are all of these individuals not members of our community?

Let's talk about some of the "outsiders." There is a woman who lives just a few blocks away in Venice who has provided a meal program for almost ten years, has attended community meetings, has devised and implemented coastal and community clean-ups almost exclusively in Santa Monica locations. She has organized projects to help Santa Monica poor residents improve their dilapidated sub-standard affordable housing. There is a man from Topanga Canyon who has committed to bringing food to the parks on a weekly basis and works to get donations to improve the quality of food offered to the poor. Are you saying that they are "outsiders?"

If you speak with the City's Homeless Services Coordinator, Joel Schwartz, who regularly attends Side by Side meetings and knows all of us by name, you won't even know that we exist. Why doesn't the City want you, the voter, to know who we are? Why don't they ever report to you, the public, what issues homeless people represent as their reasons for not getting through the Continuum?

For homeless people, the Continuum is much like Deep Space 9, somewhere far away that we can't even get to and isn't even based in reality. Why would you the voter, choose someone as your representative when they only represent half the truth on important community discussions?

So we find our council members and incumbents acting as if homeless people are these nameless faceless parasites that need to be dealt with like aliens; as if we are less than human and as if we are not their equals. Why isn't anyone treating us as if we too are citizens, voters and community members? Why are we talked about as "they" or "those people?"

Why don't we see Holbrook, O'Connor, Bloom, Genser, Katz or any council hopefuls coming out to the Outdoor Meal Distribution Programs and asking homeless citizens for our personal opinions on the Social Services that are offered in the Continuum of Care? Why don't you hear the homeless perspective reflected in their discussions of homeless issues in our community? Why is the viewpoint of Santa Monica businesses the only viewpoint recognized?

Isn't our government supposed to represent the interests of all its citizens? Why is it that your voice in government as a housed person means more than my voice as a homeless person? Is this our patriotic American system based on Justice, Freedom and Equality? Why do we need to seek Brown Bag Justice in America?

Do we not have the freedom to accept a meal from another human being -- regardless of how you judge our economic or political situation? Is Economic Segregation and Discrimination a fair practice for once liberal Santa Monica? Do we make laws that compromise our American Constitution if we choose a more conservative approach to homeless politics?

Why don't you, who is reading this, come and see for yourself what this food program issue is all about and attend one of these programs and then come to the City Council meeting on September 24th and speak about it. Have a lunch, come and speak with your constituents. We are constituents, aren't we? We are residing in Santa Monica, aren't we?

We believe that a positive and effective alternative to legislation exists. In no way does denying food address the issue of homeless people and their behavior. In fact the measures employed by the Public Safety Initiative and subsequent legislation and policies that have eliminated life-sustaining programs have created more desperation, more crime.

I say, why vote for these candidates whose focus is utilizing stereotypes and negativity to scare you into voting for them? A candidate with a narrow-minded, anti-homeless agenda will approach your community and your problems with the same ineffective ideas that will leave problems unsolved -- that will only grow in intensity; just like homelessness does.

Instead, listen to the candidates and vote for the ones that have a vision, solutions, and positive ways of dealing with our community's toughest problems. Look for the Candidates who are not bogged down by a posture of attacking, but have the voice of calm resolution, whose actions are based on the principles of equality and justice for all. Those are the people who should lead Santa Monica; those are the people with whom we should be doing business.

Jennafer Yellowhorse is a former Social Services Commissioner and a long time homeless community activist in Santa Monica. She has worked for Santa Monica social service agencies as a peer counselor and case worker and administrates Making Change, a newspaper for the homeless.