A Lightning Rod for Anger Over Homeless : A hearing over a plan to expand a treatment center embodies nearly all the aspects of the city’s continuing wrangle over what should be done with its unruly homeless population.

How much carrot and how much stick?

In the coming weeks, Santa Monica will attempt to put together a comprehensive policy for dealing with its large, unruly and desperately poor homeless population. It is a defining moment for a city whose commitment to helping those in need is unmatched almost anywhere in the country.

In this special report, three articles examine various aspects of the homelessness problem:

* A meeting of the planning commission

shows how the issue seems to permeate almost every aspect of city government. A simple proposal for an expansion by one social service agency erupts into an all-night wrangle.

* A Q&A; with social worker Vivian Rothstein explores in depth the nature of the problem and outlines some possible solutions.

* A visit to an unusual restaurant just across the city border in Venice offers a glimpse of the good things that can happen when the homeless find a brief respite from the streets.

Terry Ritz said the animals in the bushes were his only friends until his life was saved by treatment at Step Up on Second, a Santa Monica day center for the mentally ill.

Daryl Michaels said his life is being ruined by daily encounters with people who hang around outside Step Up on Second. He and other business people reported a daily dose of harassed customers, drug dealing, drinking, car vandalism and assaults. The parking lot reeks of urine; people urinate and vomit on cars.

The forum for the two men was a Planning Commission hearing Wednesday night at which about 40 people waited patiently until midnight for a turn to speak about a proposed addition of 36 single rooms at the center to house recovering mentally ill people. Because of the number of speakers, the hearing was continued until 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Step Up on Second is an outpatient day center in downtown Santa Monica that provides counseling, vocational training and showers for mentally ill people, as well as a place to sleep during the day.

At the outset of the hearing, city officials stressed that the planning commissioners had no jurisdiction over the public safety issues that most speakers raised. Nonetheless, the session embodied nearly all the aspects of Santa Monica’s continuing wrangle over what should be done with its unruly homeless population.

In a month, the City Council will receive the long-awaited recommendations of the Task Force on Homelessness and will attempt to devise a broad-based citywide strategy for dealing with the issue. In the meantime, the strategy’s possible elements are being debated in coffee shops, supermarket lines and on street corners throughout the city.

A few hours before the Planning Commission hearing, a group of about 150 people took a “sunset stroll” through crime-plagued Palisades Park. Participants carried signs such as “4 Murders in 8 Weeks,” and were asked to sign “I am reclaiming Palisades Park” letters that will be sent to the City Council.

One of the march organizers, Deputy Dist. Atty. Katherine Mader, said she had practically grown up in the park. She sponsored two benches dedicated to her parents and grandparents, but said she is afraid to visit the benches because of crime.

“All we want is to be able to bring our kids to the park,” said Mader, who lives in Santa Monica Canyon and works at the Santa Monica courthouse.

As the group strolled north with a brilliant orange sunset in the background, a homeless man, who said he lived in the park, asked a marcher, “What am I supposed to do?”

“Get a job,” was the reply from marcher Dennis Conlan.

A few marchers wore T-shirts sold by resident Herbert Balter. The shirts say “Greetings From Santa Monica, Skid Row by the Sea,” and depict a beach scene in which two scruffy-looking men are lying under a palm tree. One of them is saying, “Thank you, Bob Myers,” a reference to the city attorney, who to many symbolizes the city’s reluctance to deal with its transient problem.

Myers’ view, that it is wrong to criminalize poverty, won support last week from the board of directors of the Ocean Park Community Center. A letter sent to Santa Monica Mayor Judy Abdo--who works at the community center--asks the City Council to temporarily rescind the law banning sleeping in the park between midnight and 5 a.m.

“We believe that criminalization of homelessness is neither a satisfactory nor just answer to the severe national and regional problem we all must confront locally,” said the letter signed by Sheila James Kuehl, chairwoman of the center’s board of directors.

Acting on a Sept. 10 request from the City Council, police have been enforcing the law against overnight sleeping in the park, with Police Chief James Butts saying strongly in a recent report that enforcement is necessary to clean up the crime in the park.

The Police Department had a much different assessment of the proposed Step Up on Second expansion. A report from Butts to the Planning Commission said police had found no significant crime problem in the area.

The Step Up on Second expansion was before the Planning Commission because of an appeal filed by the Citizens Protection Alliance, which is headed by Leslie Dutton, a resident who has vigorously campaigned for a crackdown on the homeless.

Planning Director Paul Berlant explained that the expansion project adheres to the criteria set out in the zoning laws for the downtown area. The only way for the commission to reject it, he said, would be on grounds such as landscaping, parking, refuse collection or design.

Those who object to the project can appeal by making a claim that the facility is not living up to the conditions set out in its city permit to operate as a social service agency, Berlant said. Their chances of success for that appeal may be hurt by the Police Department’s assertion that there is no significant crime problem in the area.

Dutton criticized Berlant’s interpretation of the law, saying that it essentially foreclosed public debate on the expansion.

“The citizens of Santa Monica will be outraged when they find out they have no input in the process,” she said.

If Berlant’s ruling was aimed at shutting off the complaints, however, it didn’t work.

“I cannot believe the police chief is saying no significant increase in crime,” said Peter von Soelen, a tenant of the commercial building next door to the center.

Michaels, who operates a hearing aid store nearby, complained that Step Up on Second was attracting a more dangerous clientele lately.

“The ilk has changed,” he said. “This is not a mentally ill place anymore. It’s a drug and alcohol place.”

The executive director of Step Up, Susan Dempsay, said people who are high on drugs and alcohol are not allowed inside the facility. But neighbors say that they loiter outside and, sometimes, clients of the facility “fall off the wagon” and join the parking lot crew.

Mindful of the emotionally charged atmosphere, supporters of Step Up on Second took pains to separate their expansion from the community’s anger over the homeless problem, which spilled out in testimony.

“Look at this application for what it is--desperately needed affordable housing,” said Step Up Board of Directors President Dan Kingsley.