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?
