Santa Monica May Hire Consultant to Lobby for Homeless

Santa Monica, which already spends a third of its social service budget on the homeless, declines to prosecute them for nonviolent crimes and has entertained a proposal by one city councilman to let them camp on the City Hall lawn, will soon make another bid to take a leading role in rallying California cities to fight homelessness.

At the urging of Mayor Dennis Zane, the city has authorized spending $30,000 to retain a consultant to organize local governments’ support for action at the state and federal levels.

$30,000 Set Aside

“We don’t know that all of this is achievable because we don’t know if other communities, other mayors for example, will be interested in participating,” said Zane, “but we can find out.”

Zane proposed the action Aug. 1 after Gov. George Deukmejian in July vetoed $116 million in funding for state mental health clinics. Local health officials said the veto could force eight clinics in Los Angeles County to close. Health experts, noting that at least 30% of the homeless have a diagnosable mental disorder, say a shutdown of the clinics would hit the homeless especially hard.

With little debate, the city council set aside $30,000 to hire a lobbyist to work at the state and national levels to increase funding for homeless-related programs. But Zane’s request was vaguely worded and left details to be worked out by City Manager John Jalili.

Discussion between the two makes it clear that the mayor envisioned a homelessness consultant with a much broader role, akin to that of a political activist. Zane, who helped lead the movement for renters’ rights in Santa Monica, said he proposes “an organizer skilled in bringing people together to put presure on higher government,” he said.

Suggestion ‘Anecdotal’

“It’s politics, not electoral politics, but still politics,” the mayor said. “Cities need to organize politically” to ensure action.

Other council members backed the mayor’s plan in general but disagreed over some details.

“I’m strongly in favor of it, but what I’m not able to say is where you draw the line between political lobbying and building expertise,” said Councilman David Finkel. Finkel, an ally of the mayor, said he hoped the city could keep the issue of homelessness apolitical while gathering enough experience to redirect state priorities toward the issue.

For example, although Zane has suggested that an organizer might coordinate state mayoral delegations to the governor’s office or to Washington to pressure lawmakers, Finkel called such suggestions “anecdotal” and said the consultant’s principal focus should be on day-to-day functions such as negotiating with Los Angeles County on coordinating services.

Councilman Herb Katz, who differs with Zane on many issues, voted for the measure but said lobbying should be a small part of the effort and should be conducted just at the state level for local concerns.

“I would rather spend the money more at a local level to feed the homeless than just throw it at a consultant,” said Katz. “I’m not sure it’s going to make a dent in Sacramento.”

Social-service providers from other nearby communities applauded the Santa Monica commitment.

‘An Excellent Idea’

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” said Jodi Curlee, West Hollywood social services administrator. “It can only further the goals for regional coordination.”

But an official with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, who asked not to be named, was skeptical that the consultant could be very effective with lobbying as the main duty. “It just seems much to me (to expect that) a full-time person doing nothing but lobbying for the homeless” will succeed, given the scope of the problem and the extent of work already being done, he said.

A 1988 survey by the Southern California Assn. of Governments (SCAG) counted 45,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County. Zane has said repeatedly that homelessness ranked with drug-related crime among concerns at a National Conference of Mayors meeting in June.

Officials with the California League of Cities, SCAG and Los Angeles County all said the Santa Monica proposal was, as far as they could determine, unique in the state.

“There is a critical need today to provide a better solution to the homeless problem than we’ve been doing,” said Joe Carreras, senior planner for SCAG, “and if you don’t have any leadership, you don’t get the darn thing started.”