A Call for Support on Homeless Report

Over the past nine months I’ve attended Santa Monica Homeless Task Force meetings and watched 18 community representatives grapple with difficult solutions to homelessness. The process, their willingness to listen to each other and forge a consensus by recognizing shared goals and compromising on individual agendas, has most impressed me.

The task force efforts resulted in a comprehensive, coordinated plan of action, which represents a sea of change in Santa Monica’s homelessness policy, from emergency relief to constructive intervention. The plan consists of many interdependent elements, none of which can fairly or productively be considered or ratified in isolation.

I call upon our citizens and our City Council to embrace this Homeless Task Force Report, and act on its recommendations, as a whole.

KEVIN McKEOWN, Santa Monica