Homeless Efforts Show Progress, Council Told

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

June 16 -- Outreach efforts by police and improved relations between City Hall and homeless services providers are helping curb Santa Monica’s homeless problem, City officials told the City Council Tuesday night.

In addition, Santa Monica “Homeless Czar” Ed Edelman will help select the next head of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) – the County umbrella for homeless services Edelman helped establish decades ago during his tenure as a County supervisor, City Manager Lamont Ewell told the council.

And while the council seemed happy with recent City staff and police activities, six council members voiced especially strong, if somewhat defensive, support for Edelman, whose one-year position with the City was criticized in a recent letter in the local press.

“He’s been doing a very good job,” said Council member Bobby Shriver, who wants Edelman’s $200,000-a-year contract extended four months. “It’s been a good investment,”

“People have questioned what he is doing,” Shriver said. But the regional projects Edelman is working on – including community courts which will more readily link homeless offenders with job training and detox programs – are tough long-term projects that “will take longer than another four months” to get going, he said.

“The City manager’s decision to continue this position is an excellent one,” Shriver said.

Edelman’s recent appointment to a six-member panel that will select LAHSA’s next executive director is seen as an opportunity for Santa Monica to have a greater voice in crafting regional homeless solutions.

LAHSA administers, funds and oversees homeless services countywide. If Edelman gets his way, the new director will likely oversee a major overhaul of the agency which has been rocked in recent years by poor accounting practices.

Also, Edelman will meet with court officials next week to keep working on options for establishing community courts for the homeless, Ewell said.

Closer to home, Ewell said that he and Edelman have “made some progress” meeting with groups that have been feeding homeless in the parks, but that it has been an “elongated process because we had to develop some level of trust, given the past history of the relationships.”

Working locally on the frontlines, Police Captain Mark Smiley reported that Santa Monica police have focused on “public safety and quality-of-life crimes” in recent homeless outreach efforts.

“We have never worked so closely with our service providers as we are now,” said Smiley, who acknowledged that the relationship was not always so good.

The department’s year-old Serial Inebriate Outreach Program (SIOP) has made 842 arrests for public intoxication, mostly homeless persons, Smiley said.

Of those arrested, 234 were referred to the CLARE foundation, which offers detox services; 27 were released from the jail to the custody of the CLARE and another 75 sought help from the agency on their own after being let out.

“Part of our problem is to reach the service-reluctant population who are most in need,” Smiley said. “Our goal is to work with the service providers as much as possible to connect the needy with those services.”

The police currently have six full-time officers devoted to homeless outreach, Smiley said. The Homeless Liaison Project (HELP) team works closely with services, often reuniting homeless persons with family members, Smiley said.

In addition, the City is beefing up security in its parks, Smiley said. A year ago the City boosted the ranks of its 12 park rangers to 16. By the end of July, four more rangers will be added to bring their number to 20, Smiley said.

Council members applauded the police efforts but asked for more hard numbers from service providers to better sell their constituents on the ideas.

Council member Kevin McKeown said the City was on the right track, targeting anti-social behavior and alcohol-and-drug abuse, while not making “being poor” a crime.

“This whole sensitivity your department is exhibiting is what I think the community has always wanted,” McKeown told Smiley.