Steering the Needy in a New Direction

Bobby Shriver, who walks fast and talks faster, is pacing the largely abandoned grounds of the Veterans Administration above Wilshire Boulevard. The Santa Monica City Council member has just led me through a cluster of mostly empty buildings toward the back of the property, where it abuts Brentwood, and something is bothering him.

“Twenty years,” he says. “Twenty years! Homeless people have been sleeping on the beach and on skid row, and they’re veterans.”

Wanna know why they’re sleeping under the stars while VA buildings that could house them sit empty?

Shriver’s got the answer. It’s because all you have to do, in Brentwood or anywhere else, is mention the words “homeless project” and people get nervous.

“That’s seen as a loser,” he says, stopping for a moment and looking back toward the buildings we’ve just toured. In his mind’s eye, he sees a ceremony to celebrate a deal that gets veterans off the streets and brings them here to put their lives back together.

“You could make a great photo here. Antonio, Zev and maybe even Arnold,” he said, referring to L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa, county Supervisor Yaroslavsky and Shriver’s brother-in-law, Gov. Schwarzenegger. “The nurses over here, the doctors over there, and here’s the vets -- vets who’ve honored their country. Now you’ve got a winner.”

Right now it’s anybody’s guess whether we’ll ever see that photo. The fate of the buildings is up in the air, despite support from Santa Monica City Hall. The VA hasn’t decided what to do with the property, if anything, and some Brentwood residents have a “there-goes-the-neighborhood” attitude.

I’m beginning to think there’s only one way to get such projects off the ground, and the recent decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could help my cause. In a ruling that could have wide-reaching implications, the court said the Los Angeles Police Department can’t arrest people for sleeping on the street if there aren’t enough beds available at service agencies.

So let’s get a good skid row outfit like the Los Angeles Catholic Worker to start busing people to different locales for the evening. True enough, about 90,000 homeless people are scattered about the county, but they tend to confine themselves to parks or out-of-the-way places.

With the 9th Circuit ruling, now is the time to move them into sidewalk encampments in places like Brentwood, particularly in areas bordering the VA. With summer just around the bend, why shouldn’t these folks enjoy balmy evenings in some of the finer ZIP Codes?

Let’s load up the buses, as well, for other communities that have thrown fits about taking on their share of the duty in helping those who happen to be war-ravaged, mentally ill, flat broke or otherwise adrift. I’m talking about Burbank, Sylmar, West Covina, Castaic, Santa Clarita and Hollywood.

Hollywood?

I know. That’s the last place you’d expect a problem. But L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti gave me a tour of the area around Hollywood and Gower recently, concerned about critics of a planned supportive housing project for up to 60 people.

It’s hard to see how anyone could object to moving 60 people off the boulevards and into beds.

But you only have to look to the local press to find out.

“Can Hollywood Be Saved?” asked a headline in the Beachwood Voice.

Fran Reichenbach, who edits the Voice and wrote the article, worries that Hollywood is being turned into another skid row. She told me she thinks the project would be too loosely operated, with no requirements that tenants take advantage of on-site services.

When I pointed out that precise details haven’t been worked out yet, Reichenbach revealed her inner NIMBY. Even if it was the ideal program by her standards, she’s giving it thumbs down because she thinks Hollywood already has more than its share of social service agencies.

It’s true that Hollywood has more agencies up and running than most other communities. But as a popular destination -- the area draws youngsters from across the country -- it also has a bigger homeless population.

There’s a more important point, though. In Hollywood and beyond, there isn’t enough affordable housing to get everyone off the pavement, especially those who need more help than just a roof. There’s a growing consensus that supportive housing is the most cost-effective way to rehabilitate those now running up huge public tabs because of police, paramedic and hospital runs.

“We need a lot more solutions like this one,” said Roberta Morris, a writer who lives less than a mile from the proposed site and likes the idea of scattering such projects rather than concentrating them in one place, as on skid row.

“There’s no place in Hollywood where you can get a set of keys to your own apartment and have the support around you to actually end your homelessness,” said Sarah Phelps, associate director of L.A. Voice. The Hollywood-based conglomerate of church leaders and other organizers is backing the Gower proposal.

“We recognize the problem is not going to go away, and we do no one any good if we just foist it on the next neighborhood down the road.”

Back at the VA, Bobby Shriver had one more stop on our itinerary. Just a few hundred yards from the idle buildings he’d like to put to use, we ducked into a once-dilapidated barracks that has undergone a conversion.

New Directions is a temporary home to about 100 formerly homeless vets, all of whom move through detox and rehab and then brush up on job skills before going back out. The energy level was so high in the building you could feel it. The floors shone and the halls hummed with activity as men scurried to classes and did their chores.

Case manager Dale Adams, a vet who graduated from the program six years ago, told Shriver about the upcoming monthly Winners Circle banquet. It’s an ongoing celebration of the many men who hit rock bottom, picked themselves up and passed through here on the way to something better.

“We think of them as winners,” Adams said, “because they are.”

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Reach the columnist at steve.lopez@latimes.com and read previous columns at www.latimes.com/lopez.