By Olin Ericksen and Jorge Casuso
Staff Writers

January 25 -- Two weeks after consultants presented an unprecedented report on Santa Monica's unique and daunting homeless problem, City Council members Tuesday began rolling up their sleeves.

After receiving added details to the 167-page report, the council unanimously directed staff to return with a game plan on how to follow-through with six general areas of recommendations aimed at helping to better tackle homelessness, both locally and regionally.

Staff will return with suggestions in coming weeks on expanding homeless housing, enlisting regional support, upgrading databases to better track homelessness, increasing public education, pursuing state legislation and, most importantly, finding the best way to form a community roundtable.

But it will be a daunting, if not impossible, task helping to get the estimated 2,800 homeless off the streets of a beachside oasis in a county that claims 10 percent of all those in the nation who are unhoused, council members warned.

"This is one of the most important issues in the region," said Mayor Richard Bloom, who served on the blue-ribbon panel that crafted Bring LA Home, a 10-year strategy to end homelessness in LA County.

"Every community is going to have to participate if we are going to find our way out of the abyss of 90,000 people,” Bloom said. “It is shameful. It is something we must address as a community. We absolutely are in this together and need to find collaborative solutions.”

But Council member Bob Holbrook warned that Santa Monica -- a city of 8.3 square miles in a vast metropolis -- faces the prospect of fostering a social services system that will lure an endless stream of homeless.

“If we manage to get the 2,800 (homeless living in Santa Monica) in housing, what do we do with the next 2,800?” Holbrook asked. “We should try to decide how many people we are going to help. What is that number? What is that goal?

“I feel very hopeless and helpless to deal with homelessness in Santa Monica.”

Council member Bobby Shriver disagreed, arguing that it was a lack of political will, not solutions, that keeps homelessness a burning national issue.

"These problems can be solved," he said. "It's not that we don't know what to do. This is not rocket science. A vaccine for AIDS is rocket science. This is a political problem."

Still, the enormity and severity of the problem, made many council members ponder where to start retooling the City's nearly two decade old service system and enlisting regional help.

"No matter where you choose to dig in a shovel, you find there is always more to dig into," said Council member Kevin McKeown, before making the successful motion to direct staff. "We need to identify areas where we are asking staff to dig deeper, and that's a matter of prioritizing."

Nearly 80 percent of the 1,900 homeless people tracked locally by service providers are known to suffer alcohol or drug addition, a notable fact for McKeown, who suggested increasing sober living and supportive housing services.

"What we face is a disproportionate number of homeless who have substance abuse," said McKeown. "They have somehow lost that control and ability to adapt.”

Shriver agreed and said he too believes housing -- particularly a national and local strategy to house the most hardened homeless, known as "Housing First" -- should be expanded locally.

Like Bloom and others on the council, Shriver said the City should push for regional solutions and state legislation, especially when it comes to increasing affordable housing and boosting supportive housing for the homeless.

"The fact there is no state mechanism forcing cities to shoulder their own housing, jumps right out at you," he said.

Martha Burt, who co-authored the report by the Washington D.C.-based Urban Institute, agreed that housing is the number one priority.

"If you cannot put them in housing first, then you can never begin to address their problems," she said. "Once you get them into that housing, you don't leave them alone."

Shriver also focused on other suggestions in the report, such as creating "Clean & Safe Teams" to oversee homelessness in the Downtown and boosting public education, especially to deter pan-handling.

The cleaning teams -- which could operate 24 hours, seven days a week -- would sweep and power-wash sidewalks, empty trash bins, pick up garbage and human waste and erase graffiti, according to the report.

The safety teams would patrol the Downtown on foot and bicycles, serving “as an extra set of ‘eyes and ears’ for law enforcement and property owners;” link the homeless with service providers and “prevent vandalism and other undesirable behavior,” consultants said.

The report also suggested ways to reduce panhandling by engaging businesses in “a serious and sustained anti-panhandling campaign.”

The campaign would focus on educating the public about where most panhandled money goes, how it enables the homeless to stay on the streets and what alternative modes of giving are available.

“Alternative giving opportunities would need to involve posters, flyers, and handouts explaining why giving to panhandlers does not help people leave homelessness,” the report stated.

With Santa Monica's homeless community court -- set to open February 2 -- designed to use a carrot-and-stick approach to encourage rehabilitation for homeless individuals who commit petty crimes, the council also explored the possibility of using the city’s jail.

While an average of only 12 to 15 people sleep in the 92 jail beds on any given day, the facility is not equipped, nor can it legally hold, anyone longer than 96 hours, according to police and the City Attorney.

“We detain an individual up to 96 hours, then must transfer them to the county facility,” said Deputy Chief Phil Sanchez.

Not only would the jail -- which is a Type I facility -- need to be physically changed to accommodate longer stays, the change would require the support of the County Sheriff.

Whatever recommendations the council chooses to implement, the City’s policies will be closely watched across the region, council members said.

“Santa Monica plays an extremely important role as a model for regional policy,” Mayor Bloom said. “We need to continue to be the catalyst for change.