No question that homelessness, the urgency of it, has been a difficult sell in Culver City for years.
The reason is obvious: In this town, the homeless are not obvious, not nearly as visible as in many other Westside communities.
Which made last night’s program on homelessness at the monthly meeting of the Culver City Democratic Club the more fascinating.
The actual number of Culver City homeless, discussed below, seemed to shock some and disappoint others.
Three persons who have dedicated their lives to developing incremental cures for one of the country’s most debilitating problems sat on an informational panel, David Snow of the unique Upward Bound project, Felicia Adams of the St. Joseph Center of Venice and Dr. Karen Lamp of the Venice Family Clinic, the largest free clinic in the country, and chair of the Culver City Committee on Homelessness.
Mr. Snow posed an intriguing question for the Democrats — how many homeless in Los Angeles County on a nightly basis?
The loudest guess was 500,000, a hyperbolic number that brought a smile.
Without a Home Every Night
Sixty thousand, said Mr. Snow, “and I hope all of you agree that number is unacceptable.”
While allowing that counting is remarkably imprecise, Mr. Snow said that between 8,000 and 8,500 are family units. “The number of homeless is difficult to measure,” he said, “because sometimes they are hidden.” His imaginative Santa Monica-based Upward Bound organization opened a landmark housing site in Culver City last winter, on the old Sunbay Motel property at the northeast corner of Washington Boulevard and Beethoven.
It is a two-story building with 18 marvelously decorated units — each essayed by a different interior designer — that accommodates families for up to 90 days.
Both Dr. Lamp and Mr. Snow stressed the importance of getting homeless clients housed as soon as possible to restore at least an external sense of badly needed normalcy to their lives.
Dr. Lamp said that the Venice Family Clinic treats 24,000 patients a year, and 16 percent, 4,000, are homeless.
One of the rudimentary lessons she has learned from working with the homeless is that “you have to reduce barriers for them.” That is, homeless persons are not given appointments to visit the clinic. They must be allowed to come in when the spirit moves them.
The one time of the year when the homeless may become a front burner subject in Culver City is in the winter when the National Guard Armory is open for 100 days to shield the homeless from the worst weather.
But there seems to be a financial glitch, Dr. Lamp indicated. She said that the city of Culver City leases the Armory to the National Guard for a token fee, $1 a year. But the Guard charges $400 a day, or $43,000 per season, to make its building available to the homeless. Dr. Lamp said a reduction is being sought.
Parenthetically, Dr. Lamp noted that City Hall has been “resistant” to energetically cooperating in organized fashion to rehabilitate the homeless.
Perhaps the jackpot statistic of the evening was revealed by Ms. Adams of the St. Joseph Center, whose representatives spend two mornings a week in Culver City with the homeless.
Asked directly home how many homeless persons make Culver City their home, Ms. Adams said “30.”
