Street Kids: Reaction to Drop-In Center Plan

We on the east side of West Hollywood have had a long, hard battle in curbing street prostitution (Westside, July 20). Now, after some success, and after finally getting our city to support us in the battle, the Gay and Lesbian Center intends to undercut us with a “drop-in center” for young hustlers. This will provide them with showers, laundry services, food, apparently penicillin and rubbers, and other support services. Presumably, they can then save their money for important things such as drugs.

The center is fronted as “saving” kids from prostitution, but we on the east side have learned the bitter way what common sense tells most people--that it encourages prostitution by subsidizing it and sending the tacit message that it’s OK.

We have endured this squalid behavior on our streets, the filth, the violence among the prostitutes and against the general public, the fear of the elderly to venture out, petty crime and even outright murder, all in the name of “compassion.” No more. I applaud Ruth Williams’ vow to fight.

We are tired of being martyrs to liberal “compassion.” The city learned the hard way what we could do and that we could not confine ourselves to just one issue, but we would choose any way we could to fight them. The center does not need this battle and should not risk it. I suggest they take the $170,000 and give it to AIDS hospices.

ROBERT DAVIS

West Hollywood

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I have lived in West Hollywood’s east end for five years, about two blocks from the proposed site of the Gay and Lesbian Youth Services Drop-In Center (Westside, July 20). This project, in its proposed location, seems ill-advised and ill-planned for a number of reasons.

West Hollywood, east of Fairfax, has fought a long and difficult battle to rid itself of crime and criminal enticements, and the past year has seen a major improvement in the neighborhood.

The issues surrounding the proposed center and its 7506 Santa Monica Blvd. location appear to hinge primarily on the fact that the center’s staff has made a unilateral decision, jumped the gun and leased a space. The Gay and Lesbian Center youth program director, Darrel Cummings, has naively referred to the situation as a “misunderstanding,” but I suspect he knows better.

The group did not discuss the proposal with the city, yet as the recipients of about $400,000 a year in public funds from West Hollywood, they clearly know the ropes when it comes to new projects and municipal governments.

Cummings has been quoted as saying, “We were unaware that renting a space required that kind of interaction” with neighbors and the city, something that indicates to me that he is NOT the person who ought to be in charge of any community projects that involve neighborhoods and city governments.

Further clouding and politicizing the issue is the playing of the ever-popular trump card which, in this case, is the “gay” card. The issue for businesses and residents of the area is not, however, about homophobia or gay and lesbian youth but about neighborhood crime prevention. There is no gay-bashing intended here, and everyone knows it. It’s the same cheap shot as the “race card” and is insulting to everyone involved. Everyone.

Due to the combined efforts of citizens and the sheriff, the prostitution and drug problems afflicting the east end have been vastly improved, and this simply means there is not a walk-in/drop-in clientele in this area that would even be served by this center.

Mr. Cummings has said, “We need to be there when they get off the bus,” and further states, “We plan on having the drop-in center to catch these kids at points of entry, not when they are 25 and on the street for years.”

The “bus” does not stop in West Hollywood, and we have worked assiduously to make sure it is not a “point of entry.” Because of this these youths would, by necessity, have to be physically brought here to use the center, and the very problems they are seeking to avoid would quickly follow them like rats. This would effectively undo all the efforts made to reduce the number of pedophiles, johns, drug addicts and dealers in the immediate area. Why not open this center in an area where the youths actually hang out?

Another valid concern is opportunistic young hustlers with no intention of doing anything but cleaning up and hitting the corner who will be thrilled to have a “drop-in” facility offering showers, laundry facilities and hot food at their disposal. This presents another very real concern since it would impact area crime, reintroduce problems that are all but gone, divert the COPS program funds back to those problems and attract peripheral crime to the area in the form of predators such as dope dealers, gang members and pimps. While most social workers will promise (then dearly hope) that all they’ll attract is the good and the scared, this is usually not the case.

I cannot see any benefit, logistically or socially, to this location, and I’m sorry a five-year lease was signed prematurely. It seems to me that the Gay and Lesbian Center must have known there would be strenuous opposition or they would have announced their intentions first, and I think they will find this opposition VERY strenuous and very tenacious indeed. Our community has fought too hard and long for the quiet enjoyment of this neighborhood and it would be a mistake to think we have any intention of relinquishing an inch of the ground we have recovered because of a piece of paper signed in haste. We won’t.

CHLOE ROSS

West Hollywood

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The Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center’s planned youth facility at 7605 Santa Monica Blvd. should be a welcome vehicle for the welfare of teen-agers. To criticize it out of fear that it will attract street prostitutes to the area is an alarmist reaction.

Street prostitution can best be eliminated by the Sheriff’s Department and local Neighborhood Watch groups. Indeed it has gone down in the eastern end of West Hollywood during the course of the last year. This does not mean those living in the area should seek to deny vital services to kids at risk to choose a prostitute lifestyle. It is unfair to assume many of the youths using the facility will be prostitutes. They will often be kids in distress and in need of help.

Such modest help for young people should not be stopped.

MICHAEL L. STEMPEL

West Hollywood