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MONDAY, JULY 24, 2006
Homeless court can RECYCLE NOW! make a difference
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BY ED EDELMAN
Stories like this one from San Diego are unfolding in cities across the country: Jack received three illegal lodging tickets for sleeping under a bridge. He sought services and transitional housing at St. Vincent de Paul Village. As he progressed through his case plan, it became clear that those tickets were a barrier to employment. After completing his rehabilitation program, Jack appeared before Homeless Court, where the outstanding charges were dismissed based on his rehabilitation strides. He is now night shift supervisor for a major downtown hotel, earning $18 an hour. We will soon see more success stories like Jack’s in Santa Monica. The county of Los Angeles, at Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s request and with the unanimous support of the Board of Supervisors, has made available $500,000 to establish a Homeless Community Court with enhanced services for Santa Monica. These funds will allow Santa Monica to more effectively deal with the chronic homeless already living on the streets in Santa Monica by applying a unique problem-solving approach now being utilized with great success in Midtown Manhattan. The police and prosecutors already know the chronically homeless in Santa Monica who will come before or be treated by the court. The court will use a “carrot and stick” approach. The purpose of the Santa Monica Homeless Community Court is to link homeless offenders committing “quality of life” crimes in Santa Monica — like sleeping in parks and doorways, being intoxicated in public, among other minor offenses — to services and/or appropriate sentence by a judge. Appearance in court thus becomes an opportunity to break the cycle of homeless-
(Ed Edelman is the special representative for homeless initiatives for the city of Santa Monica.)
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ness rather than a perfunctory visit to the courthouse or the typical revolving door from streets, jail, to streets again, often without meaningful connection to therapeutic services. Presently, most homeless offenders cited for quality of life crimes by the Santa Monica Police Department do not appear to answer their citations. The citations require them to appear at the criminal courts building near LAX, many miles from Santa Monica. Lacking transportation and, in many cases, organizational skills, most of these homeless offenders never make it to court to receive an appropriate sentence or referral to services which could help them change their lives. The establishment of a community court in Santa Monica to hear these cases is an important and logical step in the process of addressing homelessness. A judge with specific knowledge about this population and with back-up support of trained personnel to recommend treatment and/or other referrals can produce life-altering interventions. The very fact that repeat offenders must appear before the same judge will make these offenders more accountable for their behavior and reduce the revolving door problem plaguing the system. Police, prosecutors, public defenders, service providers and the judge will work together to effectively assist the offender to overcome obstacles to their getting off the streets. Anyone participating in this program must complete the court-mandated rehabilitation or risk jail time. Any receipt of services through the Homeless Community Court would be conditioned upon compliance with the court’s requirements. I saw firsthand the effectiveness of this type of court in Midtown Manhattan earlier in the year and am convinced that it will be of enormous value in Santa Monica. I believe it will become a model to be established in other areas of the region.
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