Homeless Issue Dominates Public Safety Committee Meeting

[Editor’s Note: The original version of this article contained an error and mis-identified the speaker of comments in opposition to “parklets” as Erlinda Romo of the Pasadena Playhouse District Association. That is an error. The actual speaker was Denise Mourges. In fact, Romo is a leading proponent in favor of parklets. We regret this error and apologize to Ms. Romo for having made the mistake in identification. The corrected story appears below.]

 

Demonstrating how powerful and divisive the issue has become, the Pasadena City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting Monday evening became an animated discussion on the homeless crisis in the city, as the committee met to discuss “Homelessness and Aggravated Panhandling” in the city.

“We need a sense of urgency, we need an action plan to deal with the problem,” said Councilmember Steve Madison, whose district suffered a homeless-on-homeless stabbing earlier this year. The committee, headed by Councilmember John J. Kennedy, agreed to ask the City Manager to provide a recommendation for an action plan in the next 30 days.

In an overview on the subject, Will Rivera of the Pasadena City Attorney’s office reported that, while the the numbers of homeless are down, their needs and visibility are up.

Rivera compared the laws of other local cities in comparison to Pasadena, saying that Pasadena’s laws were less restrictive than others, for example, No camping or lodging allowed in any park, library, or other municipal building, no obstructing free passage on street, alley, sidewalk or crosswalk, and no overnight Camping or Parking in the Arroyo Seco. The city also does not allow tents on any public property.

California law states there is “No lodging in any private or public building, structure, vehicle or place without permission of owner, and no aggressive begging by accosting another person,” he reported.

Both Los Angeles and Santa Monica have far more restrictive policies, he said, with Santa Monica barring camping in parks, beaches, the Pier, streets, and all city-owned properties. , as well as no sitting or lying in doorways in downtown business district or Main St. at night.

And, while Los Angeles bars sitting, lying or sleeping on sidewalks, the law was the subject of a lawsuit and settlement in 2007. Now it is not enforced between 9 p.m. – 6 a.m. until the city builds 1,250 more units of permanent supportive housing.

Currently the Pasadena prosecution plan involves issuing “Stay Away” orders to repeat offenders as well as the enforcement of tough sentences for aggressive panhandling to avoid recidivism.

“If we need to be aggressive, so be it,” said Madison.

Meanwhile, the Pasadena Police Department is currently trying to hire an additional clinician for its HOPE Teams which deal with mentally ill homeless, and consist of a police officer and a mental health professional.

Additionally, there is a current shortage of 357 Permanent Housing Units (PSH) that the city needs. 178 persons have received PSH in the last year, according to Anne Lansing of the Pasadena Housing Department, who added that housing vouchers are difficult to use in a tight housing market.

The Housing Department is currently launching a marketing campaign to make local landlords more receptive to the use of housing vouchers, according to Bill Huang of the Pasadena Housing Department who explained that the city now has a 24 hour hotline for landlords as well as a reimbursement fund for losses or monetary damages based on the use of housing vouchers.

“I want to remind everyone that we are all one step away from becoming homeless,” said Councilmember Gene Masuda. “I want to commend the police on their treatment of the local homeless, and ensure that we have laws that protect our police as well.”

“We can’t arrest our way out of the homeless problem,” said a representative of Union Station Homeless Services. “We need law-abiding compassionate solutions,” he said.

A number of residents related anecdotes of their experiences with local homeless, including one citizen who said he was chased through a parking lot with a knife by a homeless person.

“ I don’t appreciate you all giving them free food and free housing,” he said.

“It’s just really hard to have a business in town with this problem,” said another citizen.

Denise Mourges also spoke out against the creation of “parklets,” cutout curbs that provide benches and shade for pedestrians. ‘This will be very problematic in our area,” she said.

While tabling discussions on drones, the Council also briefly discussed the process for the development of policy and public input for acquiring body-worn cameras for the police.

“This is a waste of money. You’re opening a Pandora’s Box of problems,” said business owner Terry Ajakian. “Body cameras would discourage police officers from doing their jobs,” he said.

According to City Manager Michael Beck, body-worn cameras would be fully implemented by the end of 2016.

A discussion of the November 2015 Emergency Preparedness Exercise was tabled until the next committee meeting.