My Time as Santa Monica's Special Representative for Homeless Initiatives

By Ed Edelman

This month marks the end of my two years as Santa Monica’s Special Representative for Homeless Initiatives. I came out of semi-retirement to take this position because I believe that a regional approach to addressing homelessness is necessary. Even though my job was created by Santa Monica, my work has been focused both locally and regionally.

Santa Monica has been doing a good job on homelessness, but it can’t do it alone. My collaborations with elected officials, community and business leaders, faith-based representatives, and non-profit providers have led to key local and regional successes in priority areas.

When I came on board I was asked by the City Council and the City Manager to facilitate bringing the major meal programs, groups that were feeding on the lawn of City Hall and in other public places, indoors. Beginning in March 2006 the City Manager, City staff and I worked diligently with the organizations who feed homeless persons in Santa Monica’s public parks to encourage relocation of meals to an indoor space, adjacent to social services. We believed that indoor meal programs would be a way to link homeless people to the services that could help end their homelessness and free up public spaces.

After a series of meetings, two of the largest food providers agreed to move to an interim City-owned location. These two providers have since moved from that interim location to the new OPCC Access Center. Meals that used to be served on the lawn of City Hall and in Palisades Park are now served inside a social service agency.

In February 2006 I participated in a trip to New York City with City staff, Councilmember Richard Bloom and Los Angeles officials who work on homelessness. I was impressed with New York’s community courts, where neighborhood-focused courts address local problems. Problem-solving courts, such as community courts, strive to create new relationships using pending criminal sanctions to compel compliance with treatment and decrease the “revolving door” of the judicial system.

Another type of problem-solving court is a homeless court. One of the first homeless courts began in 1999 to help homeless individuals resolve outstanding misdemeanor criminal warrants. As many of the quality of life crimes that occur in Santa Monica are committed by homeless people, I began to envision a new type of court in Santa Monica, one that would deal with quality of life crimes and link people committing those crimes to needed services. Quality of life crimes such as camping or sleeping in doorways are typically a symptom of a greater problem, a need for housing or shelter, along with services to combat substance abuse, mental health, and medical problems. The overcrowded judicial system doesn’t have the resources to effectively address these kinds of crimes.

I was moved to establish a problem-solving court in Santa Monica after hearing the complaints of the judges at the LAX Courthouse who were assigned Santa Monica’s quality of life cases. Offenders, many of whom were homeless, often didn’t show up for their court date. The LAX Courthouse, which is located near the Los Angeles International Airport, was too far away. In order to facilitate people addressing their citation and give the court an opportunity to link people to services, we needed a court in the area where the offense was committed.

The initial plan was to locate a homeless community court at the Santa Monica Courthouse. When that didn’t work out, I looked for an available space in City Hall. The new Santa Monica Homeless Community Court, which blends the homeless court and community court models, meets once a month in the Santa Monica City Council chambers. It uses the criminal justice system to promote participation in treatment in exchange for reducing or eliminating criminal sanctions.

Participants who successfully participate in case management may have their outstanding citations or warrants dismissed. This project is a collaboration between the City of Santa Monica, Los Angeles Superior Court, the Public Defenders Office and homeless services providers. The Court is proving to be an innovative and successful new way to address homelessness in Santa Monica.

My role in establishing Santa Monica’s Homeless Community Court allowed me to convene a day-long conference to explore how courts and local communities can collaborate to address homelessness. Participants included over 150 judges, attorneys, service providers, representatives from city and county governments and homeless and community court project representatives from California and New York. Justice Ronald M. George opened day.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky provided an enlightening keynote luncheon address on local efforts and the process involved in establishing the Homeless Court in Santa Monica. Panelists Assemblymember Mike Feuer, Senator Gilbert Cedillo, Senator Darrell Steinberg, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom and Santa Monica City Councilmember Bobby Shriver discussed their take on innovative solutions to homelessness. The conference, which was held at RAND and funded by the California Endowment, raised the consciousness of politicians and people working in the court system and the value of using courts to link homeless people to services.

Many of my efforts have been focused on creating regional solutions to addressing homelessness. I was involved in the search for a new Executive Director of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). LAHSA is a City and County joint powers authority that I created with Mayor Tom Bradley when I was a Los Angeles County Supervisor. Today LAHSA, under the direction of Rebecca Isaacs, is a stronger voice in Los Angeles and has begun offering local service providers access to best practices and technical assistance, along with funding for programs and services.

I have testified to the County Board of Supervisors on the public policy issues of the County’s new Homeless Prevention Initiative and advocated behind the scenes regarding individual homeless projects like Union Rescue Mission’s Hope Gardens, a supportive housing program in Sylmar where 225 abandoned women and children will get away from the streets of Skid Row.

I have encouraged increased collaboration between the County and City of Los Angeles which has resulted in, among other things, the launch of “Project 50”, a new strategy based on an approach used by Common Ground in New York. The project will house people in Skid Row who have been on the streets the longest, are the “anchors” of the homeless community and are a great cost to our society, both economically and socially. I firmly believe, and studies have shown, that it is more cost effective to provide housing and services to chronically homeless people than to pay for their repeated interactions with paramedics, emergency rooms, police, and the courts while they continue to live on the streets.

Toward the end of my term I facilitated a meeting between a diverse group of stakeholders to talk about next steps in Santa Monica’s approach to addressing homelessness. There was strong consensus that keeping the residents of Santa Monica informed about local and regional efforts underway to address homelessness is a top priority. This newsletter, which I expect to be a long-term effort, is a way to keep people informed, increase understanding about homelessness, facilitate a community-wide response and provide a forum for an exchange of information and ideas. I encourage you to contribute your thoughts or suggestions to humanservices.mailbox@smgov.net.

While my role has been called everything from a "liaison" position to even Santa Monica's "czar" on homeless, I essentially have had no formal political power. I haven’t had the power of a public office, but I had my power of persuasion. My accomplishments represent my efforts to negotiate, arbitrate and often work behind the scenes with the support of the City Council. I sincerely thank the dedicated, hard-working City staff who assisted me. As I leave this position I charge you - Santa Monica residents, business and property owners, community leaders and others – to continue to raise the issue and be part of the solution.