The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce brought leaders in their respective fields together on Thursday for the first Santa Monica Chamber Policy Conference discussing hot topics like homelessness.
Held at the RAND Corporation, the event featured several panels tackling topics of homelessness, safety and economic recovery. Chamber President and CEO Judy Kruger said that the topics and panels for the conference were "based on input from businesses and their experiences and concerns over the past year."
"While businesses don’t enact policy - only local, state and federal governments do - the business community wanted to hear the complexity of issues facing Santa Monica in facts, figures, research and with a 360 approach," Kruger noted.
Kicking off the conference was a keynote address from Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, the youngest woman ever elected to the board. Horvath commended Santa Monica for being one of the most biking and pedestrian-friendly cities she’s seen, but said that there is "still so much work to do" to maintain a livable community. The work begins at handling the homelessness issue, she stated, with more area-wide accountability required in terms of both delivering results and smarter spending of resources.
Recently appointed as Chair of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Horvath added that addressing mental health concerns is paramount in taking on the crisis. Working with the LA County Department of Mental Health, she stated that a behavioral health van will have an "imminent" arrival in Santa Monica after the hiring of a dedicated clinician to increase direct mental health contact.
In a post-panel lunchtime address in the RAND atrium, Santa Monica Mayor Gleam Davis also addressed the homelessness issue, stating the city wants to address things in a meaningful way that isn’t just "the shuffle of homeless people." Davis added that actions taken to tackle the crisis will also incorporate the city’s commitment to inclusivity.
"We believe that everyone, regardless of where you come from, who you love, what you look like, what your level of education is … you are welcome in Santa Monica … we want to build a Santa Monica for all," Davis said.
A panel on homelessness was one of three dedicated groupings during the conference. The discussion panel consisted of Santa Monica College Public Policy Institute Co-Director Shari Davis, RAND Corporation economist Dr. Jason W. Ward and UCLA Lewis Center researcher Shane Phillips. The trio dove into the factors behind how homelessness occurs, including the factor of affordable housing in the area. Phillips used teachings from his book "The Affordable City" to explain why housing costs can be the difference between the "potentially homeless" becoming just that. Davis added that the city remains committed to its four pillars of fighting homelessness: affordability, behavioral health, safe public spaces and the regional addressing of the problem.
An adjacent topic to homelessness was safety, with the safety panel bringing together Milken Institute Senior Advisor Matt Horton, Aikido Labs Head of Safety Net Programs Dr. Karthik Murali, Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Erika Aklufi and Livable Communities Initiative Co-Founder Lindsay Sturman. Horton noted that safety is also connected to the struggle with affordable housing, pointing to low housing development rates, as well as the demographic disparities in homelessness that negatively impact the area’s African-American population.
"When we think about safety, and about accountability, governance, I want us also to really think about this from our city’s public health kind of dynamic, that can give us more accountability (and) gives the community more input," Horton said.
The final panel topic was economic recovery, updating the city’s efforts to come back after the COVID-19 pandemic, something RAND Corporation senior researcher Dr. Jonathan W. Welburn likened to "the ice age" when it came to early shutdowns of businesses and local spaces. The panel also included Kruger, who said some businesses remain struggling post-pandemic, as well as Horton and Santa Monica City Manager David White.
In his remarks, White said that the city is rebounding due to new business opportunities in categories like restaurants and gyms, but also because of a business-friendly slate of policies.
"There’s a reason why businesses want to bring innovation to Santa Monica," White stated. "We’re intentionally doing all that we can to welcome them, adapting to the market … (revamping) zoning codes, a streamline permitting process and a more flexible and open-minded vision for land use in our city." He added that approximately 800 new residential housing units are currently under construction, and that the city is taking steps to "reaffirm our commitment to affordable housing" by developing plans for housing on city-owned land.
The conference adds to the Chamber’s annual fundraising event schedule, covering some of the organization’s annual revenue, with Kruger saying the goal of the conference is to "provide (an) exceptional (event) while creating a means for meeting the Chamber’s expenses."
