The Santa Monica Daily Press provided candidates with three opportunities to address readers this year. Candidates were asked to fill out a short form survey, provide responses to written questions and invited into the Daily Press office for a one on-one interview about their candidacy. Candidates were given three questions and allowed to answer any or all of them as they saw fit.
The vast majority of Santa Monica’s homeless population were made homeless somewhere else and traveled to Santa Monica. What is the city’s role and responsibility in addressing homelessness, given the regional nature of the problem and the disproportional impact the crisis has on Santa Monica?
Santa Monica faces a homelessness crisis that we did not cause and cannot fully control. Thousands of unhoused people, an estimated 6,000 annually, pass through our city, staying for about two weeks. They arrive by plane, train, bus, car, or on foot from Venice and other parts of Los Angeles. This influx, driven by high rents, mental illness, drug abuse, and even a romanticized idea of reaching Route 66's end, strains our resources.
The resulting chaos on our streets causes great stress to our residents, our business community, and visitors to our city. Many, not all, of these homeless individuals, severely tax our police and fire resources, and we offer approximately $10 million each year to local non-profits to mitigate some of the effects of homelessness in our community. These effects are profound — we see drug use on our streets, in our parks, and in the alleys. Grand theft and shoplifting fund their hard drug habits and impact our businesses and residents constantly. Syringes, glass pipes, and other paraphernalia litter our streets and parks, potentially harming innocent residents.
We witness littering, human waste, and a lack of regard for others in the behavior of many of the homeless individuals. For some, there is a legitimate need for aid and resources, but many of these homeless people on our streets will not accept help when it is offered, preferring to live wild on the beaches, streets, and doorways of our city.
The municipal government of Santa Monica has long asserted that compassion toward those in need requires unlimited acceptance, and we’ve done so for 40 years. However, this approach has worsened homelessness in our town. We must shift to a model of compassion with accountability. Everyone, housed or unhoused, must be held responsible for their actions. Our residents and businesses demand both accountability and a safe, clean environment. We are failing our residents by not enforcing this. We must practice tough love toward those in need of housing, rehab, or mental health counseling. That’s compassionate accountability.
We fail those on our streets long-term by ignoring their dire situations under the guise of compassion. In reality, this is neglect. We need different strategies. As a member of the US Mayors Homelessness Task Force, I’ve successfully advocated for homeless, disabled veterans to receive federal housing without preconditions. About 94-110 unhoused veterans in Santa Monica can now access housing. I’ve also pushed for federal mental health teams and easier access to Section 8 housing.
All the above will only make a small dent in this daunting problem without further steps to embolden accountability and discourage individuals who seek to come to Santa Monica for assistance or, in many cases, to be left alone on Santa Monica’s beaches, parks, or streets. The state government must take steps to discourage sleeping and lying in the public right of way; our city government must enforce anti-drug-use laws, and loitering and camping rules must be enforced. We need to incentivize travel vouchers for those who thought being unhoused in Santa Monica would be a great lifestyle choice to encourage them to return to their hometowns and get their lives together.
Using our actions on Santa Monica City Council combined with the State, County, Metro, Courts, municipal laws, and emergency services, we can and must discourage the homeless migration we continue to see entering our city.
The city's economy continues to lag and a recent study said Santa Monica was among the most expensive places to operate a business. What will you do to address the City’s economic challenges and increase local revenues?
The city must continue to encourage diversification in our economic structure and help ensure that a setback in one economic sector does not adversely affect our entire economy. More specifically, incentives to spur medical research, to encourage Santa Monica as a model for tech, to ease the way for pioneering new incubator businesses and collaboration, and to relax regulations for jumpstarting new retail and restaurant ventures in Santa Monica are a necessity. Most importantly, businesses will not choose to settle in our beautiful community unless they can be assured of a safe environment to work, create, and play. It is crucial that an environment of safety be created and maintained across the board in Santa Monica. Hotels and general tourism are down due to a lack of both perceived and real safety issues. Tourism is a major factor in our economy, and the time to sit pat is over. If our town is not safe, ALL of the various industries in our city will continue to suffer. To make sure Santa Monica prospers and that all residents and businesses have a fair chance to thrive, we must make the safety of all our foremost priority.
Every candidate who spoke to the Daily Press brought up Public Safety as a top priority. What has driven this subject to the forefront of local politics and what are you going to do to make residents feel safe in their public spaces?
Our city is crime-ridden, and the fear of attack by mentally disturbed individuals is rampant both downtown and in our neighborhoods. We must allay the fears of our residents and small businesses by taking decisive action to create an umbrella of safety in Santa Monica.
As an incumbent mayor and city council member, I’ve emphasized the need for more police and support personnel. I’ve consistently fought for funding to grow our police department and bring mental health and social worker support teams to our streets. However, I’ve struggled to gain full city council support to prioritize safety in Santa Monica. An unsafe city robs people of the joy of living here.
We must increase our police force to the recommended 278 officers (currently at 214, with an authorized limit of 232). Tech upgrades, like license plate readers, drones, and cameras, are vital to modern policing. We should also raise the number of civilian public safety officers to 32 to patrol parks, and consider hiring private security teams to make an immediate impact. Traffic units are needed to curb violations, and strict enforcement of municipal laws, including loitering and public sleeping, is necessary to address homelessness while expanding temporary housing. Accountability is key, and I’ve endorsed Nathan Hochman for Los Angeles District Attorney and Proposition 36.
