How to be Homeless in Santa Monica

If you are homeless in Santa Monica, your first stop should be at the OPCC Access Center, on Olympic Boulevard, between 5th and 7th Streets (within spitting distance of the Santa Monica Freeway).

At the OPCC Access Center, you can get a mailing address and receive mail and telephone messages there.  OPCC also provides food, shower and laundry facilities, and medical aid.  If you want a case manager to help you, they have those too, but, priority is always first given to people who used to live and/or work in Santa Monica.  If you want a locker, you must have a case manager.

In other words, if you come to Santa Monica from outside its legal city boundary, you can pretty much forget about getting serious help to get off the streets permanently.

Your next stop should be at the Welfare Office Building on Pico Boulevard at Sepulveda Boulevard in West Los Angeles.  There you can sign up for food stamps and cash aid; it's not a lot, but it helps.

After going to OPCC and the Welfare Office, you are exhausted mentally and physically.  Where will you sleep tonight?  The bad news is that the City of Santa Monica has effectively outlawed all "camping" within its jurisdiction. 

In other words, there is NO LEGAL PLACE in the City of Santa Monica to bed down at night.  Not the beach, not the parks--and certainly not on private property where you WILL BE hassled by the Santa Monica Police, and possibly arrested for trespassing.

The City of Santa Monica has declared war on the homeless and they want you OUT.  There are several local ordinances aimed at making your homeless life more miserable than it already is.

You'll notice when walking down the street that most buildings display signs saying that "sitting or lying" in that spot between 11 pm and 7am is illegal.

It is also illegal to remove anything from a garbage can.

Thinking of doing some panhandling to get some money?  That's illegal too.

Want to stretch out on that bench on the Third Street Promenade and take a nap?  Illegal.

And that shopping cart?  The police will ticket you for having it in your possession and you will get a date at the courthouse--near L.A. International Airport.

Of course, all of these things are illegal but the streets of Santa Monica are filled with homeless people who are forced to break these laws in order to survive; it keeps the Santa Monica Police Department very, very busy.

The little local newsrags are in bed with the City on this issue.  When they print police crime logs, they always make sure that there is a preponderance of crimes committed by "transients," stoking public hysteria over the homeless problem.

The City is currently finishing a re-do of every bus stop in the city.  Gone are the long, metal benches with backs and armrests; in their place are two tiny, backless and armless "stools" to sit on while waiting for a bus.  Trash cans at bus stops are now under lock and key--no more casually flipping up the lid to see if there's anything you might need inside.

Then, there's the Santa Monica Library--the main one Downtown and its satellite branches.  They have a rule about not bringing blankets into the library and no oversize bags are permitted.  Make sure you keep your body clean because if you stink and someone complains, they will ask you to leave.  Bathing and shaving in the bathrooms is not permitted, but people do it all the time.

You really cannot blame city leaders for taking this hardline approach.  The homeless continue to flood into the city every day, and it is the "bad apples" that spoil the barrell for the rest of us.  Remember back when you had a normal, "housed" life?  I certainly do.  The presence of the homeless WAS annoying, wasn't it?  Yes, it was--admit it.