Question on homelessness:
(from Santa Monica Daily Press questionnaire):

How would you define the 'homeless problem'? What do you plan to do about it and how would you specifically improve the
quality of life for residents affected by it?

Homelessness is a societal tragedy and failure, affecting both unhoused and housed. 

Homelessness results primarily from a lack of mental health care, affordable housing and stable living wage jobs, together with insufficient support for our veterans and other missing social safety nets.

While a small number may choose to live on the street, the overwhelming number who are homeless want to live a better life, and will pursue it if given a fighting chance.

I am proud of Santa Monica’s history of compassion on this issue.  We’ve been successful helping hundreds of people every year to get off the street and back into productive lives.  Through City and independent funding, we support a continuum of care that coordinates various social service agencies, from shelters and transitional housing to skills training and job placement.

At the same time, residents are rightfully frustrated, that despite these best efforts, the scale of the problem persists.  This brings the quality of life down, particularly in our parks and other public spaces. While we work to help people off the street, we must also ensure that inappropriate behavior in our public spaces is not tolerated.

The next step is to more actively involve other cities and the County, so that Santa Monica doesn’t have to continue to shoulder such a disproportionate part of the burden.  

When I was Mayor, I helped establish the Westside Council of Governments, creating an appropriate place for some of this discussion to occur. Countywide, I support recommendations of the just concluded “Bring LA Home” task force, including establishing a countywide ‘homelessness trust fund’, to be funded by all cities, the county and private interests, to jumpstart a regionalization of services.  I also support Proposition 63 this November, which would begin to re-establish funding in California for mental health care.

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