Council Greenlights Bus Yard Expansion, Relocation of Homeless Facility

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

April 30 -- The City Council on Tuesday hopped on board expansion plans for the Big Blue Bus transit hub, which includes the repackaging and enlargement of a homeless drop-in center.

The $152 million project -- fully bankrolled with regional transportation funds -- includes revamping and relocating the Ocean Park Community Center’s drop-in facility from one end of the City-owned site to the other.

Currently housed in a building near the corner of 7th Street and Colorado Avenue, the facility would be moved adjacent to Samoshel, a 110-bed shelter run by the Salvation Army that faces the 10 Freeway.

The drop-in center would be relocated to a two-story, 10,550 square foot prefabricated modular facility that would also include Swashlock, a shower and locker facility that is currently next to Samoshel.

The council directed staff to consider providing access on Fifth Street to the new modular facility, which increases the square footage of the current access center from 3,500 to 8,700 square feet. The council’s only question was how well-built the modular facility would be.

The plan to keep the drop-in center at the bus yards was hatched after Pico residents mounted a vociferous campaign against a plan to relocate the facility to the new OPCC shelter that will be built near Olympic and Cloverfield boulevards.

Only one member of the public, Chuck Allord, spoke out against keeping the homeless drop-in center at the bus yards site. “Nobody wants those people here,” he said.

Salvation Army’s Executive Director for the site, Theodore Dues, disputed Allord’s position.

“The best way to get the homeless off the street,” said Dues, “is by moving them into the purview and support system of organizations like ours.”

Dues dismissed the notion that services actually attract homeless people, noting that Samoshel helps about 10 percent of the city’s homeless.

“If you get rid of the services, you don’t get rid of the homeless,” Dues said. “Like the bus expansion, we are doing this for the betterment of Santa Monica.”

All seven council members agreed that expanding municipal bus facilities to include new administration offices, repair stalls and additional parking is key to keeping bus services -- which have increased more than 50 percent since 1996 -- running smoothly.

Council members addressed only minor design changes to the plans worked out by City and transit officials.

Worried about turning the surrounding area into “industrial trucking type streets,” Council member Ken Genser opposed plans for three drive-through maintenance bays along 7th Street.

“We wouldn’t let a private company have those bays empty onto the street like that,” said Genser. He called it both an “aesthetic” and environmental” problem.

Council members Michael Feinstein and Herb Katz disagreed.

“While it is true we wouldn’t allow a private business to do that,” Feinstein said, “because it would be at the expense of the public, we are looking at trade offs about doing things in favor of the public, which is what public transportation is all about.”

Katz said that because only three bays are proposed, he would still back the plan.

Mayor Richard Bloom suggested that staff further study the problem to see if some compromise could be worked out.