Welcome Mat Wears Thin for Homeless in Santa Monica : Urban problems: Rise in crime by vagrants has even their allies exasperated. Support for tougher approach builds on City Council.

Two human-shaped forms swaddled in blankets lay at the front door of Santa Monica City Hall one recent foggy night, silhouetted against the light from within.

Nameless, faceless and homeless, the pair embodied the city’s nationwide reputation for hospitality to the down-and-out, a distinction epitomized by the daily feeding program on the lawn of City Hall.

They slept unaware that the boom is about to lowered in Santa Monica. The street people have apparently worn out their welcome, even in the seaside community that conservatives have dubbed “Soviet Monica” and “The People’s Republic.” Now, even defenders of the homeless are exasperated with the rise in homeless-related crimes and antisocial behavior.

“By God, it’s time they learn to live under our rules,” said moderate Santa Monica City Councilman Herb Katz at a recent meeting.

Tonight at City Hall, a task force set up by the City Council to devise a comprehensive policy for the homeless will hold a public forum to gather testimony from residents before making final recommendations to the council.

Since May, the 19-member Santa Monica Task Force on Homelessness has been grappling with the issue, seeking a way to satisfy the city’s socially conscious power structure, while addressing some residents’ concerns that their safety is being sacrificed on the altar of altruism.

Homelessness has been a political issue for years in the city, often flaring at election time or in reaction to an especially nasty crime involving a homeless person. In recent weeks, however, a consensus for change has emerged on the City Council.

“I think there’s a definite mandate from the public to address public safety issues and the discomfort the public has with the situation,” said Councilman Ken Genser. “The question is how do we make an intelligent response and not just say that because these people are disenfranchised you just sweep them under the rug.”

The co-chairman of the task force, Dan Kingsley, said he believes a change in policy that places more emphasis on public safety is overdue.

“Up to now, the law-abiding citizens of Santa Monica have suffered more than they should because we’re trying too hard to protect the homeless and criminal element under the guise of (helping them because) they’re homeless,” said Kingsley, vice president of the Santa Monica development firm Maguire Thomas Partners.

The task force has a wide range of residents’ opinion to chose from. Suggestions have run the gamut from offering different and better social services to “throwing the bums out.”

Feelings are high and tactics are getting dirty. Irate people are contemplating a camp-in protest to take back the city’s parks from vagrants. On Labor Day, unsigned leaflets were distributed to homeless people advising them that a free meal awaited them at the city’s liberal Democratic Club picnic. About 30 arrived to share watermelon and soft drinks with the folks who, for better or worse, are credited with the city’s homeless policies.

The liberal political establishment is mindful that four council seats, three of them held by people allied with the city’s current policies, are up for grabs next year.

“The 1992 elections will not have development issues, they’ll have homeless issues,” Kingsley predicted.

In the middle of the fight, as usual, is City Atty. Robert M. Myers, a lightning rod for criticism because of his stated reluctance to prosecute homeless people for certain nonviolent crimes. In recent weeks, he has been sending public messages over the city’s computer network declaring that if he is instructed by the council to write laws he believes threaten the civil rights of the homeless, he will refuse.

Myers dismissed as “absurd,” for example, one resident’s suggestion that the city check for outstanding arrest warrants before providing a homeless person with free food. Myers said that would be comparable to checking warrants on everyone who patronized a restaurant or checked out books from the public library.

Myers said he believes it is wrong to associate crime with homelessness. “There are specific individuals who present a public safety threat--some business people, some landlords, some homeowners, some homeless people, some gang members,” he said.

Santa Monica Police Department statistics make clear, however, that the incidence of crime among the homeless is extraordinarily high. The city’s homeless population is estimated at 1,500 to 3,000--less than 4% of the city total even if the higher figure is used. But police say that about 30% of the calls they receive involve problems related to the homeless.

In a recent 12-month period, the Police Department’s Homeless Enforcement Liaison Program identified 595 vagrants with prior felony arrests, including 262 for burglary and robbery, and 25 for manslaughter and murder. Seventy-one people had been arrested for sex-related offenses.

Beyond the crime statistics, tales abound of the intrusion of the homeless. One woman, for example, said she walked into the laundry room of her apartment building to find a naked, homeless man bathing in the sink.

As is usual in Santa Monica, political factions are organizing. The Chamber of Commerce is urging its members to speak out about homeless people who hurt business by panhandling aggressively, sleeping in doorways and urinating or defecating in public.

“We want to separate the good people from the bad people,” said chamber director Dave Paradis, adding that help should be made available to those who need and want it.

Myers, meanwhile, is working with a group that is organizing to “demand justice for the homeless.”

Myers’ most constant critic, conservative Leslie Dutton, is toiling to bring the views of her Citizens’ Protection League to the fore.

Myers last year survived an attempt by Dutton’s group to make his post an elected office, so that he would have to face the voters and defend his tolerant policies toward the homeless if he wished to keep his job.

The city attorney has long argued that it is useless to prosecute people for nonviolent misdemeanors such as non-aggressive panhandling because there is no jail space for minor offenders and no alternative sentencing program.

For years, such policies have had the strong support of the council majority. At the council’s Sept. 10 meeting, however, it was clear the tide had changed.

Members were especially critical of the city’s trademark feeding program on the City Hall lawn, run by a charity, which attracts about 300 a day for dinner.

Sentiment is strong that the feeding program should be tied to social services and, when feasible, work, rather than perpetuating the dependency cycle.

“They should contribute something to the community where they’re living for free,” said Katz, one of the four council members whose term expires next year.

At the Sept. 10 meeting, Katz proposed that the city seek stricter enforcement of laws against sleeping in parks. Over the past year the parks, especially Palisades Park on the bluffs overlooking the ocean, have seen a surge of violence and drug-related crime.

The council, to Katz’s surprise, unanimously adopted a version of his proposal calling on the police to vigorously enforce the law. Even more significant, however, was the discussion preceding the vote in which all seven council members expressed the view that major changes were needed in the city’s homeless policies.

No substantive changes are expected before the task force presents its report late this year, and it is still far from clear what those changes will be. Much depends on the extent of the public uproar and how the council majority’s 1960s-style social consciousness will be balanced with ‘90s-style reality.

“The debate going on in the community is emblematic of the debate that goes on within each of us,” Genser said.