Galanter, Venice Struggle to Cope as . . . : HOMELESS STRAIN TIES THAT BIND
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter enjoys a lot of good will in Venice. She has lived there for several years and has a reputation for being a tough fighter when it comes to community causes. She is also widely admired for the way she battled back from a brutal knife attack this year.
But now, just four months after she was elected with the overwhelming support of Venice residents, the bond of friendship between Galanter and the small beach community is being tested by the thorny issue of homelessness.
Some residents are appalled by the influx of homeless, especially along the beachfront where a mini-tent city on the sand has taken shape, and are demanding that Galanter get tough on transients. Others are calling for more overnight shelters and job training programs.
Yet Galanter contends that there is little she can do without the support of county, state and federal officials. In appearances before large, emotional and sometimes unruly crowds in Venice, such as the business-oriented Venice Action Committee last week, she has issued a weary plea for patience.
“There’s no question that everyone’s frustrations are legitimate and honest frustrations,” Galanter said. “But it is clear to me that this is something that cannot be solved by Venice or by the City of Los Angeles. The White House and the governor’s office should be getting some of the calls.”
Annoying Pleas for Patience
People who understand the complex inner workings of governmental social-service networks may understand Galanter’s point. But for many others, such as Venice restaurateur Pierre Denerome, pleas for patience are annoying.
Denerome owns the Lands End Restaurant at 323 Ocean Front Walk, which faces on the beach area where the largest concentration of homeless people are found. In the months since the homeless appeared, blocking his ocean view with their tents and shacks, Denerome claims that his business has dropped by 50%.
He has canceled his weekend brunches and dropped plans for opening a second-floor area that recently received $60,000 worth of renovations. He has also laid off some of his staff and started waiting on tables himself.
“My regular customers still come,” said Denerome, who has recently hired a private security guard to stand at his door at night. “But nobody just drops by anymore. The tourists just make a U-turn and go somewhere else.”
Overriding Issue
Venice has always been a contentious community, deeply divided over such issues as development and the character of the colorful area known as Ocean Front Walk. But the homeless issue has overshadowed those concerns, at least for the time being.
Jo Giese, a resident who has been extremely vocal about transients, called the homelessness situation in Venice “nightmarish.”
“Venice has become an encampment city,” Giese said. “I believe in compassion, but Galanter’s ideas aren’t working. Initially the homeless lived day-by-day. But now they are living on the beach brazenly. They have set up housekeeping because they know nothing is going to happen to them.”
Susan Chevalier, who owns a house near the beach, is one of the organizers of neighborhood efforts to rid the beach of the homeless. Chevalier said that Venice is gaining a reputation as a place where homeless people are welcome and claimed people frequently pass her house with shopping carts filled with plywood and other materials used to build beach shanties.
This past summer, as the homeless problem was becoming more severe, some residents circulated flyers that sarcastically branded Venice as a homeless retreat. “Venice Welcomes Transients!” said one flyer. “Many Ocean Views Available. Free Meals. Cocktails on the Sand. Few Enforceable Laws.”
No Improvements
Chevalier said she sympathizes with Galanter, but thinks that the councilwoman should be doing more to discourage the homeless influx.
“I haven’t seen any improvements,” Chevalier said. “The laws should be enforced. But we have been told so many different things. First we hear that there are going to be police sweeps. Then we hear that there is a problem with sweeps. . . . I would like to hear exactly what she (Galanter) plans to do.”
Galanter is not without ideas. The problem is that those ideas often generate as much controversy as the homeless issue itself.
At a recent press conference, Galanter called on churches to adopt homeless people and asked property owners to make low-income housing available. Galanter said that the response was favorable, yet many residents privately scoffed at her plea.
The councilwoman, with the help of the county, also opened a homeless processing station on the beach. Galanter’s office claims that 250 people have received counseling on employment and social service opportunities and that the number of homeless on the beach has recently dropped to about 100.
But the transient population is so fluid that no one knows how long the numbers will stay that low. The Venice-Santa Monica area is still seen as the second worst spot for homelessness after downtown Los Angeles. The overall homeless population in Venice is estimated to be about 1,000 to 2,000.
The beach-area homeless, whose tents and lean-tos have created so much controversy, are the most visible of the group. However, officials say that there are also scores of homeless people living in parks, alleys and cars.
Galanter said she hopes to provide some relief by opening a 30-bed transient shelter and job center on Rose Avenue. But that plan has sparked protests from residents who claim that the center, as well as a Rose Avenue feeding program that is in the works, will turn their neighborhood into a Skid Row.
Galanter, who in general has adopted a compassionate stance toward the homeless, has decided that police sweeps and other law-enforcement measures are inappropriate.
Advocates for Transients
“I am not about to have these people carted off to some campground,” Galanter said. “There is nowhere to cart them to anyway.”
Jane Pirie, a longtime Venice resident, supports Galanter’s stance. In fact she wishes Galanter was even more compassionate toward the homeless.
Pirie is one of a growing number of people in the 40,000-member community who have been speaking out on behalf of transients lately. She said that she is starting an organization that will be dedicated to finding ways to help the homeless.
“The idea that there’s some kind of aesthetic affront to homelessness is decadent and contemptible,” Pirie said. “That great lonely stretch of beach has never been filled with anything. It’s nice to see people using it.”
Pirie and her colleagues have already developed a three-point plan for aiding the homeless, which they will deliver to Galanter and other officials. They favor more emergency shelters and social services, more transitional housing with job training and more low-income housing.
“It shouldn’t do anybody any harm to put a few beds here and there,” Pirie said. “I would be happy to see one of these places on my block, instead of another mini-mall. I don’t feel that Venice should become a mecca for the homeless. But I don’t think that we should just turn them away either.”
Carol Berman, a 30-year resident, is another supporter of the homeless. Berman calls transients “neighbors without walls” and strongly favors efforts to provide more housing.
Berman said that Venice has always been an urban beach.
“Some people seem to think that Venice is Malibu or Encino,” Berman said. “And now they wake up and find themselves at an urban beach that has always been a working-class place. People have to get together and accept the fact that these people (the homeless) are part of the population.”
Berman added that Galanter appears to be stuck between people like herself and those who deplore the presence of transients. She suggested that Galanter search for meaningful solutions instead of using a “Band-Aid” approach.
Mary Ann Hutchison, one of the chairs of the Venice Homeless Task Force, an arm of the Venice Town Council, also gave Galanter mixed reviews.
‘Not Expecting Miracles’
She said she respected Galanter’s efforts, but was disappointed when Galanter rejected the group’s idea for using the Venice Pavilion as a homeless service center and said that Galanter should also be working more closely with the community.
“Having lived in Venice for years and knowing about the problems, we are not expecting miracles,” Hutchison said. “But there are concerns that she hasn’t been that responsive in terms of connecting with the community.”
Galanter, who considers homelessness to be the No. 1 issue confronting her these days, said that she will continue to search for solutions.
She has called on the transients living on the beach to take down their encampments. She is also searching for funds that can be used to upgrade homeless services, is looking into ways to prohibit alcohol sales around the beach in the morning and has asked business leaders to donate a storefront to be used as a headquarters for social workers who deal with transients.
“I don’t believe that the beach is the proper home for anybody,” Galanter told the Venice Action Committee last week. “But these programs must be geared to getting people off of the streets and out of the condition of homelessness.”
Michael Dieden, the group’s founder, said residents should heed Galanter’s call because the councilwoman is their best hope.
“It is incumbent on us to work with Galanter to solve the problem,” Dieden said. “All this emotionalism we have been seeing won’t get us anywhere.”
Ken Schonlau, the founder of the CLARE Foundation in Santa Monica, who has been involved in social services on the Westside since the 1960s, said Galanter deserves credit at least for trying.
“I think that Galanter’s ideas about (churches) adopting the homeless and other things like that are excellent,” Schonlau said. “She is making a real good effort to solve a tremendously difficult situation.”
