SANTA MONICA : Homeless Project ‘Dream’ Becomes Reality

What began as a battle royal between some church activists and a group of affluent Santa Monica residents opposed to nearby apartments for homeless families and the elderly has ended happily.

Project organizers from the First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica fought a petition drive, a neighborhood appeal to the City Council, a citywide backlash against the homeless and a series of contentious neighborhood meetings to establish the project on two church-owned parking lots near 11th Street and Washington Avenue. Groundbreaking on the 22-unit apartment complex for temporarily homeless families was held Thursday and construction is expected to begin later this summer.

“We couldn’t have picked a worse time” to propose the project, recalled Melissa Sweeney, community liaison for the effort.

City Planning Commissioner Lou Moench, who owns a Montana Avenue pub, remembers the first meeting in 1990 when 60 out of 100 people “were there to do anything they could to stop it.”

By the end of the tortured negotiations for the shelter and a planned senior apartment complex, neighbors were generally supportive of the projects, even donating money.

The Rev. Donald Shelby, pastor of First United Methodist, said he and his congregation were never deterred.

“If you have a dream, and it’s well-founded, and you believe in it, then you can persevere,” Shelby said.

Late Thursday afternoon, about 200 people looked on as church and community leaders buried the hatchet--and their shovels--at a ceremony to celebrate the beginning of the homeless shelter, to be called the Family Place.

The church organized a nonprofit, nondenominational agency, Upward Bound, to shepherd the project through to completion.

The Family Place will house as many as 21 homeless families for up to one year. The families will be able to place their children in local schools and use child-care services and job counseling offered by local community agencies.

Participants in the Family Place program will be interviewed and screened for drug and alcohol problems, required to pay a modest amount of rent, and will be expected to observe curfews and visitation rules. Officially considered “transitional” housing, the 14,820-square-foot, two-story building would become the only shelter of its kind in Santa Monica. Sweeney estimated the Family Place will open within 18 months.

Eventually, Upward Bound plans to develop 69 affordable apartment units for seniors, with each unit’s rent ranging from $300 to $500 a month. Construction would begin in 1996 or 1997.

To date, the 2,100-member church raised $3.2 million in contributions from its congregation, corporate and foundation grants, and individual gifts. It also secured a $6.1-million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the senior housing.