By Dolores Quintana
A new report shows the city of Santa Monica is spending nearly $5 million on services to the homeless.
According to a new report, Overview of Homeless Outreach and Hygiene Services, commissioned by the Santa Monica City Council, the city has allocated $4,839,489 to serve the homeless out of a total budget of $707.8 million. dollars in fiscal year 2021-22. The 2020 Homeless Census showed that 907 people were considered homeless and 601 were vulnerable. The city’s accommodation capacity is “186 single beds, 67 family beds and 116 drug treatment beds”. from a report published in February 2021
City Council Member Phil Brock requested the report, saying, as quoted by The Santa Monica Lookout, “I’m not happy with what we’re doing. We spend millions of dollars and don’t see the results. We’ve been doing this over and over for so many years.” Brock also stated that he believes the number of homeless people in Santa Monica could be much larger than the official count and he said the city council hadn’t been about alternatives think.
Santa Monica City’s homeless teams are divided into generalist teams and multidisciplinary teams. These are the generalist teams:
West Coast Care is administered by the Santa Monica Fire Department. It is a “non-profit organization that provides proactive homeless services on the Santa Monica Pier and Beach. The team’s three outreach specialists engage people in their service area, providing basic necessities such as food, water and hygiene products, while providing information about Project Homecoming – the city’s family reunification program – and general social services.” This plan is for fiscal year 2021-2022 Estimated at $210,000.
The Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM) ambassadors are not a service intended solely to serve the homeless community, but “all ambassadors receive specialized training on de-escalation, engaging with people affected by homelessness, and providing referral information to local/regional social services agencies. DTSM’s Quality of Life (QOL) Ambassadors have enhanced skills/training and work with the city’s outreach teams and first responders to effectively engage people affected by homelessness while addressing disruptive and unsafe behaviors downtown This plan is budgeted at $1.3 million for Tongva, Palisades and Reed Park Ambassadors in fiscal year 2021-2022, with additional out-of-city funding of $2,365,434 for Hospitality Ambassadors and $1,119. $272 for Safety/Quality of Life Ambassadors.
These are the multidisciplinary teams:
The Homeless Multidisciplinary Street Team (HMST), operated by The People’s Concern, which “serves a discreet cohort of 25 chronically homeless individuals who have been identified as the largest users of local police and fire services. The HMST is staffed with licensed mental health professionals, property managers, drug specialists, licensed medical providers (nurses, physician assistants or physicians), psychiatrists and one colleague with lived experience.” This plan is budgeted at $600,000 for FY 2021-2022 .
Two C3 teams (“City + County + Community”) staffed “similar to HMST, C3 teams are proactively deployed to the city areas with the highest concentrations of vulnerable homelessness. One C3 team serves downtown Santa Monica (including Tongva, Palisades, and Reed Parks) and the second focuses on South Beach (including the pier, beach parking lots, and adjacent parks).” This plan is for the US$800,000 fiscal year 2021-2022 -dollars estimated.
The report also lists two other teams involved in city services:
SMPD Homeless Liaison Program (HLP) team that “led the Police Department’s engagement efforts with people living with homelessness, provided liaisons with social services, mental health assessment and enforcement of applicable laws for public health and safety purposes. Partnering with the LA County Department of Mental Health (DMH), two full-time mental health physicians work alongside chartered SMPD officers. One clinician is part of the HLP team, the other assists the patrol officers.” This plan is budgeted at $2.24 million in city funds, and the county pays for the DMH clinicians at no cost to the city.
The SMFD’s Community Response Unit (CRU), launched in September 2021, which “provides an alternative engagement to less urgent incidents with less severity, with a focus on serving those who are homeless, the elderly and other vulnerable populations. CRU members receive additional training on homelessness and behavioral health, and attend regular care coordination meetings with city departments and homeless service providers.” This plan costs: $589,489; ongoing staff: $479,643; Current supplies/equipment: $44,146; one-time consumables/equipment: $65,700 total.
One future program looming on the horizon is the Therapeutic Transport Van, which represents a partnership between the City Manager’s Office and the LA County Department of Mental Health. This service will be a “pilot of an alternative delivery model this fiscal year for mental health-related nonviolent calls.” That will be “staffed by behavioral health professionals, and people with lived experience will be deployed on calls that would be better served by connections to supportive resources than by the criminal justice system, providing a safer, more specialized response and freeing first responders to focus on public safety priorities.” “. The therapeutic trolley will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be available exclusively to the City of Santa Monica. Funding from the City of Santa Monica is $400,000 with additional non-city funding in amounts not disclosed at this time.
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