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?
I support a regional approach to safely house people experiencing homelessness. I will advocate to fund and reduce red tape for supportive housing. As a relatively small city, expecting to solve this problem ourselves is unrealistic. We must work to ensure that neighboring cities work with us and do their fair share. The homelessness crisis did not happen overnight and we’re not going to get out of it overnight.
We can be a model for neighboring communities by demonstrating that making real progress is possible– Santa Monica’s homeless count showed a 6% reduction in homelessness from 2023 to 2024. We need to prevent local residents from falling into homelessness by expanding programs like the "Preserving Our Diversity" program. We need to advocate for less red tape to get people experiencing homelessness into housing at all levels of government as well as to build more housing overall.
Additionally, we can continue trying innovative pilot programs like SMC’s upcoming training program for people to work in homeless services, which may help reduce turnover, decrease costs, and address a largely unmentioned challenge we face in getting people off our streets.
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?
Our lagging economy is the result of several causes including the high cost to opening and running a business in Santa Monica, and effects from the pandemic such as reduced tourism and fewer office workers. Some of the issues are outside of Santa Monica’s control, such as challenges for international visitors trying to get visas to visit the US. Some of the challenges can be addressed through local action such as addressing higher numbers of commercial vacancies by identifying solutions that meet Santa Monica’s needs, which could include incentives for property owners, a commercial vacancy tax, or other solutions tailored to our community.
We should support tourism-related business as a backbone of our local economy but as we learned from the pandemic, we must not be so reliant on one industry alone. We must explore what other types of businesses fit in with our Santa Monica culture and work aggressively to attract them. Thinking outside the box, which includes looking at 21st century industries, will help us reclaim our mantle as the forward-thinking, innovative City we once were. There is also a symbiotic relationship between public safety and thriving businesses– we can address our public safety issues which will help get people out to our local businesses and strengthen city revenues.
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?
It’s not just about feeling safe, it’s about actually being safe in public spaces. I will work to enact data-driven policies that help prevent crime and make residents, workers, and visitors safer in our city. We need to collaboratively work with our first responders to improve processes, policies and practices, and make sure they have the right 21st century tools and technologies to keep us safe. We must adequately fund staffing levels so that first responders can perform the jobs they are trained to do — prevent crime and help protect our city.
We should support programs like SMPD’s Homeless Liaison Program and multi-disciplinary street teams staffed by professionals, such as mental health specialists, case workers, and medical personnel, to free up police to respond to violent crimes and make our neighborhoods safer. I will encourage and provide support for neighborhood watch programs and community policing, which allow neighbors to build trust among themselves and actively work with police to make their community safer. Studies have shown that communities with neighborhood watch programs experience a 16% reduction in crime.
We must not forget that public safety includes safety on our streets — making sure that people are safe no matter what form of transportation they use. Supporting our Vision Zero goals is part of addressing public safety.
