Westside Cities Approve Homeless Resolution

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

February 18 -- If Thursday’s meeting of the Westside Council of Governments was any indication, Santa Monica may be getting some help from its neighbors when it comes to tackling the area’s homeless problem.

The council -- which includes City officials from Santa Monica, Culver City, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood -- unanimously approved a draft resolution to develop a regional homeless plan, perhaps the most formal agreement on this issue yet between Westside cities.

The draft calls for Westside cities to join forces to secure sites and funding for a variety of homeless services that include a year-round emergency shelter, temporary and permanent housing, job training, detoxification and mental health care.

“It’s a positive first step,” said City Council member Richard Bloom, who for two years has worked closely with civic leaders and homeless providers from across L.A County. “The fact that we can move this resolution forward is indicative that we’re working together.”

“Santa Monica will continue to lead but we will no longer carry the burden alone,” said Council member Kevin McKeown, who along with Bloom, council member Bobby Shriver and City staff, represented Santa Monica at the meeting.

But there’s still much work to be done. The members must now take the draft back to their city councils and staff for input and approval, and the broad policy must be slowly hammered out into specific strategies. Finally, sites and funding must be found to run the programs.

One site the council is looking at is the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration property, “a significant, yet underutilized, regional resource with great potential in addressing the region’s homeless problem,” according to the draft.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky -- who was at Thursday’s meeting at City Hall in Culver City -- supported the idea of using the VA site, but cautioned members that negotiations would be tricky.

The VA is federal property that exclusively serves veterans, and the County won’t help fund a homeless program for vets-only, Yaroslovsky said.

“If we can’t do it, we’ll have to find another place,” said Yaroslavsky, who suggested that the cities might end up looking at industrial sites for an alternative.

Yaroslavsky also told the council that the County has for the first time approved $2.5 million to fund year-round homeless shelters ($500,000 for each of its five districts). Previously, the County had only funded winter shelters.

Later in the meeting, Bobby Shriver made a motion to amend the draft, suggesting that it might be more palatable to the VA if two of its clauses added the word “veterans” after the word “homeless.”

“Who’s going to fund it (the programs)?” asked Yaroslavsky.

Some council members worried that Shriver’s rewording of the draft might lead people to believe that the cities want a veterans-only shelter. Others said that the draft is a general statement of policy and not a document that will be used in negotiating a deal with the VA.

No one seconded Shriver’s motion. The resolution, which had already been through several drafts, passed without any amendments.