Person Power Needed to Tackle Homelessness and “Vote de la Torre Out”

May 12, 2005

Dear Editor:

Santa Monica has enough problems with homelessness. Let's not manufacture another problem where none exists. In your May 11 story, "City Leaders Debate New Direction in Battling Homelessness," Council member Richard Bloom worries that Santa Monica's hiring a "homeless liaison" will undermine nascent regional efforts to alleviate homelessness.

The only problem I can see with hiring a "homeless liaison" is that nobody can ever spell liaison. Plus that person would be more than a liaison, because his or her job would be to deal with chronic homelessness in Santa Monica. Some efforts would be regional; some would be local.

This homeless initiative secretary, or whatever the position ends up being called, would help any new regional program get off the ground. It won't matter whether the program originates with Bring LA Home, the Westside Council of Governments, or Santa Monica City Hall. What both Santa Monica and the region need is a whole lot more person-power assigned to the problem -- both in terms of a powerful person and a powerful position.

Santa Monica City staff members who currently handle issues of homelessness are dedicated, knowledgeable, and competent. But they are not superhuman. On the same day that the Council approved the homeless liaison position, City staff submitted a report detailing everything they do to alleviate the effects of homelessness in Santa Monica. After reading it, I needed a nap.

The present City staffing -- with only one lower-level employee assigned full time to homeless issues -- cannot possibly do what they're doing already AND research and implement new initiatives. Neighboring cities can certainly understand that, and they have already agreed that new homeless initiatives should be regional.

If Santa Monica wants to provide the person-power to make some of these initiatives happen, there is no threat, no heavy handedness. Just a public servant who can work with everyone in the region and get something DONE to help chronically homeless people get off the streets and into housing. Who would stand in the way of that?

Jean Sedillos
Santa Monica

May 11, 2005

Dear Editor:

I am dumbfounded by the current letter-writing campaign that is practically nominating Oscar de la Torre for sainthood. Have the defenders of Oscar not read the police report of his behavior on the day he brought two former (perhaps current -- we don't really know) Latino gang members onto the Samohi campus at lunchtime, just days after racially motivated fights had occurred there?

Sergeant Joaquin Vega writes that he repeatedly asked de la Torre to leave the campus because his and his friends' presence there could cause a riot. After several refusals, Vega reports,

“I told de la Torre that if he didn’t leave I was going to have to place him under arrest. He said, ‘You can’t arrest me!’ de la Torre turned and put his hands defiantly behind his back as if he was getting handcuffed, then started laughing. I told him I would arrest him and that he was endangering the students. I once again ordered him off campus.”

Here we have a school board member -- in front of hundreds of high school students -- defiantly mocking a police officer who is trying to protect students. And not only is he a school board member -- his neighborhood center, including his salary, is funded by the City of Santa Monica!

I do not know how this could have happened, but I do know Oscar de la Torre should be voted out of office and not supported with our tax dollars.

Juan Lopez
Santa Monica