Laws Aimed at Homeless Approved

Santa Monica, a city known for its compassion toward homeless people but long troubled by the problems they bring, passed two controversial laws Tuesday night aimed at limiting their presence.

“The public is scared and tired and just generally want it stopped,” Councilman Herb Katz said.

The first ordinance, passed by a 5-2 vote after emotional debate among council members, seeks to limit free outdoor meals by requiring groups serving 150 or more people to adhere to community event laws and county health standards. The second ordinance, passed unanimously, makes it illegal to sit or lie in doorways downtown or along Main Street between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. if the business owner posts a sign to that effect.

The area affected by the second ordinance will be defined by the city staff.

Santa Monica has long embraced liberal policies to help the needy. As many as 30 charity groups have migrated to the seaside community to serve free meals, primarily at three downtown-area parks, Palisades, Memorial and Reed, attracting as many as 300 homeless at a time.

But pressure has been building to rethink the policy, as business owners, residents and tourists increasingly have complained about homeless people panhandling, congregating in parks and urinating in public.

Two weeks ago, the City Council postponed its vote on the proposed ordinances after hearing nearly four hours of testimony from more than 130 people, many of them homeless. The testimony ran until nearly 1 a.m., when the council decided to return in two weeks to vote.

Homeless activists said Tuesday afternoon that they suspected the voting would not go their way on the free-food measure. Nor were they optimistic about the other proposal, known as the doorway ordinance.

Advocates held a prayer vigil in front of Santa Monica City Hall before the council meeting began, lamenting the prospect that the council would soon “criminalize charity.” One homeless activist carried a sign reading “Welcome to Skid Row Monica.”

Mayor Michael Feinstein spoke vehemently against the proposal to limit free meals. He invoked the notion of karma, saying: “While we take more of the burden [of caring for homeless people], we should remember that this city made the conscious decision in the 1980s to become more cosmopolitan.... We make a lot of money here.

“I can’t support using the wrong tools to achieve what we need,” Feinstein added.

Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown joined Feinstein in opposing that ordinance.

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Although the ordinances were introduced to the council by city staff, they sprang from a committee organized by Bayside District Corp., a city-funded group that manages the downtown area.

“We cannot forget the fact that residents have listed this as their No. 1 concern for the last three years,” said Kathleen Rawson, Bayside’s executive director.

The organization says it is not trying to rid the city of homeless people but to encourage them to hook up with city-funded social services, from showers and lockers to job training or treatment for mental disorders and substance abuse.

Instead of seeking services, Rawson said, people come to Santa Monica simply for the free food, which a variety of groups serve in Palisades and other parks. Many of the food providers are church groups from outside Santa Monica, including Manhattan Beach, Westchester and West Los Angeles.

The expectation is that many of the groups will not go to the trouble of securing the required permits to serve their brown bag meals to large groups. But Feinstein said he expects groups to get around the new rules by offering food to smaller numbers. He said he also anticipates a court challenge.

Feinstein and other council members noted that the city’s social service agencies do not have the space or funding to accommodate all of the homeless people who gravitate to Santa Monica. The city, with a population of 88,000, estimates that on any given day 1,000 transients take to its streets and shelters.

Not all merchants will object to letting the homeless roost overnight, one council member predicted.

“There are people who probably don’t mind,” said Ken Genser, who has served on the council for 14 years. Still, he said, “I recognize there are indeed problems, such as people acting in inappropriate ways or defecating.”Whether Santa Monica will have enough police officers to enforce the ordinances, and to what extent the city will prosecute offenders, remain issues.

“The real question is enforcement,” said John Maceri, executive director of the Ocean Park Community Center, which provides transitional housing for homeless people.

Moira LaMountain, an activist for the homeless, said she’s confident that something good will come of the city’s grappling with the problem. .

“When it’s all said and done, the laws will be overturned for unconstitutionality,” she said. “The city will be forced to come to grips with the issues.” Perhaps, she said, Santa Monica will invest in a soup kitchen.

The vote to limit free meals in the parks does not signal that the city is becoming less compassionate, said Councilman Richard Bloom, who was one of the first to back the measures.

“I really do hope this leads to a better day where we are working together,” he said.

After the measures passed, council members began contemplating whether the city might open more all-night bathrooms. Previously, the city has been forced to close many facilities because it could not afford to maintain them around the clock.