Arguably, this year could be considered a make or break in terms of tackling the homeless crisis. Here in Santa Monica, it’s impossible to not see some evidence of it and while external factors like the weather and volume of tourists absolutely have an effect, retail outlet occupation and the perception of public safety have unquestionably suffered, while crime and vandalism have increased, or at the very least, not decreased.
As such, the results of this year’s count, which will be made available in approximately three month’s time, are going to carry more weight than ever before. Results released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) for the 2023 count showed that homelessness increased by about 9% countywide and by 45% in the Santa Monica area.
"I don't know that it's gotten better or worse. I see less [homeless] people on the Promenade, but … it's kind of tough to say, but I will say in the last 90 days, I do feel like there has been less in the downtown areas for sure," Mayor Pro Tempore Lana Negrete told the Daily Press.
"As you know, everybody likes to say how complicated this problem is. And it is complex, because there are different issues we're dealing with. [For instance] we’re dealing with people who are unseen homeless, sharing a bedroom or sleeping in their cars. We call them homeless because they don’t have their own home address and it’s hard to make a living in a city where rent and food and health care are expensive," said Negrete.
"Then there's the issue that people are really talking about, which is what's in our face. Those are the unhoused individuals that are literally on the streets … experiencing drug addiction problems [or] maybe alcohol addiction as well as mental health issues," she said.
"So while we say it's so complex and hard to deal with, we are not going to build our way out of homelessness. Housing these people is not going to solve the problem. And I actually think you cannot house them first without giving them the help first, but it has to be in some sort of facility. It’s inhumane and unethical to leave them out there," Negrete said.
Not only are three Council seats up for reelection, namely those of Mayor Phil Brock and Councilmembers Gleam Davis, Christine Parra and Oscar de la Torre, but Proposition 1 is also on the ballot and Dianne Feinstein’s senate seat is up for grabs too. And of course then there’s the presidential election. Consequently, California’s homelessness crisis will be a hot topic of debate, certainly at a city, county and state level.
"The homeless situation down here is still awful. I had to call security four times in less than an hour only a day ago, because there was a guy yelling and screaming at everyone," said Sonia Cain, Manager of The Britannia, adding, "Everybody left the patio because they couldn’t deal with it. He got removed, but then he came back again, shouting and screaming. And this is a daily thing.
"I have to have security in the daytime as well, because it's that bad down here … [Legion] come straight away when you call them and it definitely helps having them because the police don't do anything. You never see a police car around here," she said.
And while it does indeed feel that conditions along the Promenade have improved, some specific pockets of downtown are still very much trouble zones, possibly because of their proximity to food — and alcohol — sources, but that remains a theory.
Not long ago, customers and staff at Blue Plate Taco on Ocean Avenue had to go through a thoroughly unpleasant experience when a man carrying a half empty bottle of vodka insulted and threatened employees and set a small fire before walking away.
"I think it's getting a little bit better than last year, just because there's more police presence, they hired a private security company and they're enforcing more city ordinances," Luis Vega, General Manager of Blue Plate Taco told the Daily Press. "So I have seen a little bit of an improvement, but certainly not enough to say, ‘uh, wow, it's gone.’"
"We had another window smashed a month ago," said Dympna Madeley, Manager of Ye Olde King’s Head and the adjacent British-themed gift shop. "They stole one of the iPads that we use for DoorDash and it's all on camera. The woman spent ages trying to climb in through the window. And then someone smashed two windows in the middle of the day. She just threw something through the window and of course we have to pay to get it fixed."
Madeley said that the homeless population who have been around for a long time tend to show more respect. "They’re much more neighborly," she said, "They’ll say ‘hello’ and ‘good morning’ whereas all the new ones coming in on the train, they don’t know what to do and what not to do."
In a statement to the Daily Press, City Manager David White, said, "We can’t predict the numbers that this year’s count will produce, but we know that homelessness is a complex and ongoing issue … This year’s homeless count will be a different experience for us in Santa Monica, as we’re transitioning to the county leading the effort rather than handling it in-house … We’re looking forward to understanding the results from LAHSA later this year to inform the city’s comprehensive strategic plan for addressing homelessness, currently in development."
"I feel hopeful that we're going to see either a steady state or decrease in homelessness," Councilmember Caroline Torosis said. "I think that we've really put an all hands on deck approach to this and invested not only the money that we get from the state, federal and county level, but then our own general fund money into solving this crisis. And so I feel really hopeful that we're going to see some reward for the work that we've been doing."
"This didn't happen overnight so it's not going to be solved overnight. But at the same time, we use, I think, made visible progress. And that's what you want to see visible progress," she said, adding, "I think things are turning our corner. We just launched our therapeutic transport and we obviously adopted several initiatives last year, which I don't think we've really given them time to see their full potential."
