Homeless Protest Proposal to Close Parks at Night

A proposal by Santa Monica City Councilman Kelly Olsen to close city parks from midnight until 5 a.m. is meeting with stiff opposition from homeless people, who say it is aimed at evicting them from the only place they have to sleep.

Olsen said the park closures are necessary to curb rampant drug dealing that led to 502 narcotics arrests last year in Palisades Park alone. Police routinely conduct sting operations in the park overlooking the ocean, but dealers and users return practically as soon as the heat is off.

“Right now at night it is extremely unsafe,” Olsen said at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

Olsen said he favored closing Palisades Park and perhaps others. Doing so would bring Santa Monica in line with other cities, he said. “We’re the only community in the region that I know of . . . that does not close their parks at night.”

It is already illegal in Santa Monica to sleep in the parks between midnight and 5 a.m., but police say this law is ineffective because violators, although they may be cited and later fined, are not required to leave the park.

Because Olsen’s proposal was considered after 1 a.m. and two council members had already gone home, a final vote on whether to move forward with the plan was delayed until next week.

Council members Robert T. Holbrook and Ken Genser voted yes with Olsen. Mayor Judy Abdo and Councilman Tony Vazquez voted no.

Before the council meeting, a group of homeless people and advocates gathered at City Hall to protest the park closure idea. Rabbi Allen Freehling from University Synagogue said parks are a “safe haven” for the homeless and should be maintained to “keep them out of harm’s way.”

When Olsen attempted to explain his position to the group, he met with hostility. “I’m very concerned about people and you obviously aren’t,” shouted Len Doucette, a homeless man. Doucette later told the council that the solution to the drug dealing problem was obvious: “Arrest the drug dealers and prosecute them.”

Olsen advised the group that there were other public places to sleep, namely the City Hall lawn.

Homeless advocate Shirley Leeds said that if the parks are closed the homeless will indeed congregate on the City Hall lawn to sleep. “We thank you for our alternative sleeping site if our public parks are cleared,” Leeds said later at the public hearing.

“Your characterizing this as an invitation is incorrect,” Olsen responded.

The police favor Olsen’s proposal. Shane Talbot, vice president of the Santa Monica Police Officers Assn., said closing the parks would “protect the citizens of the city, which includes the homeless.”

In an interview, Police Chief James T. Butts said he welcomes “any measure that will make it more effective to deal with drug dealers in our parks.” Butts said he favors closing all the parks late at night so that drug dealers wouldn’t just move their sales operation to another park.

He said this is already happening to an extent as drug dealers move over to Lincoln Park north of Wilshire during periods when police are concentrating on neighboring Palisades Park.

It is common in Santa Monica for any measure to generate controversy if it is perceived as a threat to the large amount of freedom homeless people have in the city. Olsen’s park closure plan appeared to strike an especially sensitive nerve because it coincided with an unconnected police action in Lincoln Park last week.

On Friday, police came to the park in the afternoon and warned members of a growing homeless enclave there to claim and keep their belongings with them or they would be confiscated later that day.

The park’s inhabitants were also advised that under a state law, using the parks as a domicile is illegal. Santa Monica has its own law against encampments in the parks, but it is not being enforced because of a legal challenge.

Butts said he ordered Friday’s action after numerous complaints and a personal tour of Lincoln Park that revealed unsanitary conditions. “It was deplorable,” Butts said.

The conditions included rotting food that had drawn rats and the strong stench of urine, police said.

Later, police came in and gathered up all the unclaimed property, after sorting through and throwing away the trash. The property collected at the park is being held for its owners to claim.

Although Butts said his officers did a sensitive job, homeless people and their advocates viewed the effort as an invasion. Stephen Jenkins, who works with the homeless at the Ocean Park Community Center, said the raid of the park was “a truly barbaric act.”

The council was urged not to follow other cities in enacting laws that harass the homeless for their plight. “Cities all over the United States are addicted to a quick fix of anti-homeless ordinances,” said Cherie Lebrun.