1 Xavier Mota
From: Kelsey NaPier <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 8, 2023 8:10 PM
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Public Comment on City Council Homelessness Topic
EXTERNAL
Dear City of Santa Monica,
Publicly traded companies produce quarterly earnings reports for their shareholders. Reporting clear metrics, trends, goals, and progress towards these goals helps investors understand how the company is performing.
Homelessness has been declared a state of emergency. Would you consider hosting monthly updates, similar to shareholder reports, to directly address homelessness in Santa Monica? Our city is not safe and we need clearly defined and quantifiable updates as taxpayers. Please consider Instagram live as a tool. Josh Green, the Governor of Hawaii, effectively used instagram to communicate daily covid updates during the pandemic, and they are not home to “Silicon Beach”!
The city of Santa Monica’s instagram has 28.6k followers, yet it rarely posts. We need transparent and easily accessible information on digital platforms updating Santa Monicans on the homeless crisis and the efforts of our elected representatives to address these critical issues, as soon as possible.
Here is a link to Governor Josh Green’s Instagram:
Governor Josh Green (@govjoshgreen) •
Instagram photos and videos
instagram.com
Thank you,
Kelsey NaPier
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
From: Cathie Lamm
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: NO MORE MONEY TO HOUSE DANGEROUS ADDICTS‼‼‼‼
Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 10:48:33 AM
EXTERNAL
Question: Do you think the homeless on our streets are there because they were local residents whose rent was raised $150? (Of course not)
Are you concerned that a lot of the homeless arrested are career felons from out of state with warrants? (You should be)
Do you think these are people from other counties and states who have problems with addiction and mental health? (Absolutely)
And if you think that's the case, do you think that just sticking them in housing without treating their underlying conditions is going to solve their problems? (It won’t) Please wake up and start doing what is right! Stop wasting our tax money on something that doesn’t work, hasn’t worked and will not work!
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
Other Office Locations:
Ron Olson Justice Center, 1550 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 East Los Angeles, 5301 Whittier Blvd., 4th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90022 Long Beach, 601 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, CA 90802
South Los Angeles, 7000 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90003 Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
1640 5th St., Suite 124
Santa Monica, CA 90401
May 9, 2023
VIA E-MAIL
[email protected]
Mayor Davis and City Council
City of Santa Monica
1685 Main Street, Room 209
Santa Monica, CA 90401
RE: May 9, 2023 City Council Special Meeting – Agenda Items 11.A and 11.B Specifically Item 11.A(7): Authorization for City Manager to Execute First Modification to Agreement with LAFLA for the Eviction Prevention and Right to Counsel programs; and, Item 11.B: HSGP Funding Recommendations Dear Mayor and City Council,
I write on behalf of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (“LAFLA”), and the low-income residents of Santa Monica we serve every day. LAFLA’s Santa Monica community office has served residents for nearly 30 years and seeks to continue its hard work going forward. We offer free legal assistance and representation in: (i) housing disputes and eviction cases; (ii) applications for domestic violence restraining orders and family law orders; and (iii) access and maintenance of public benefits. To that end, we support the staff recommendations in Items
11.A(7) and 11.B.
Item 11.A(7): Funding for Eviction Prevention and Right to Counsel Programs According to the Judicial Council of California, “Eviction is one of the most urgent civil law issues for low-income individuals and families.” We agree. As you know, Santa Monica residents are at greater risk of homelessness and housing insecurity than ever before. Between the Right to Counsel program and our HSGP housing work, we have seen a nearly 28% increase in unduplicated Santa Monica residents assisted with housing cases from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023. We only see that number increasing in the future.
Further, a study by Stout Risius Ross, LLC (Stout) found that in the County of Los Angeles, 97% of tenants with unsealed eviction cases were unrepresented, as opposed to only 12% of landlords.
Stout’s analysis of court-assigned case outcomes for unrepresented tenants indicated that 94% of ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
May 9, 2023
2 unrepresented tenants had a high likelihood of experiencing disruptive displacement through the eviction process.
We seek to stem the tide of disruptive displacement to the benefit of tenants and their families, as well as the community as a whole. The City of Santa Monica is in a unique position of having both the resources to address the plight of unrepresented tenants, as well as the practical ability to implement such a program. The continued funding of the Santa Monica Right to Counsel program should be an example to the rest of the county.
In the last 12 months of the Right to Counsel program, in cases where we have provided representation in the unlawful detainer litigation, roughly 70% of tenants have remained in their housing, with the other 30% granted some combination of additional time, a waiver, a sealed record, or a soft landing in new housing. Indeed, representation in unlawful detainers is homelessness prevention, and the program has been successful.
As such, we appreciate the counsel’s consideration of this funding, and its commitment to address the ongoing homelessness crisis. We support the recommendation of staff in Item
11.A(7) as part of a larger strategy to address homelessness and housing insecurity in Santa Monica.
Item 11.B: HSGP Funding Recommendations – Community Office and Domestic Violence Clinic in Santa Monica Courthouse
The LAFLA community office has been a fixture in Santa Monica for nearly three decades. In addition to the vital litigation work addressed above, this HSGP funded program also engages in a large amount of pre-litigation prevention work, finding solutions so tenants and their landlords never have to go to court in the first place. While these attorneys also engage in plenty of unlawful detainer litigation (alongside the Right to Counsel program), there is an emphasis on problem-solving and engagement to avoid litigation where possible.
We further support the staff recommendation to continue funding our long-running domestic violence clinic in the Santa Monica courthouse. The need to protect domestic violence survivors continues to grow. Studies have shown that intimate partner violence increased during the pandemic, even if reporting of that violence did not. However, more survivors are seeking protection as restrictions and the pandemic has lessened. As of January 1, 2023, we saw a nearly 35% increase in Santa Monica residents who received legal services from the DV Clinic compared to the same time in 2022.
LAFLA provides this vital assistance to survivors of domestic violence, as well as support in divorce, custody, and child support cases in a manner most convenient for the client, whether that be through Zoom or in-person assistance. This blended model allows us to serve traditionally hard-to-reach clients and provides the widest access to survivors seeking protection from domestic violence.
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
May 9, 2023
3 Finally, HSGP also funds our benefits work for Santa Monica residents. LAFLA provides advice and support regarding government benefits such as Social Security, SSI, Food Stamps, and CalWORKs. Especially in light of the economic hardships experienced by so many due to COVID-19, keeping residents connected to these benefits is essential to their well-being.
Conclusion
All of these services are part and parcel with LAFLA’s holistic treatment of our clients, recognizing their issues are multi-faceted and often require more than one type of support to resolve. Accordingly, we support the recommendations of staff with regard to the Right to Counsel program in Item 11.A(7) and the HSGP funding outlined in Item 11.B.
Very truly yours,
Kevin F. Mitchell
Managing Attorney
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
From: Tara Barauskas
To: councilmtgitems
Subject: Item 11A - 5-9-23
Date: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 9:44:06 AM
Importance: High
EXTERNAL
Dear Mayor Davis and Members of the City Council,
I’m writing to express my support for the efforts the City has made, as outlined in Item 11A. The City of Santa Monica has demonstrated its commitment to diversity and inclusiveness over many decades, by providing strong support for the production and preservation of affordable housing. The people that live in Community Corp. housing provide workforce to many important jobs in the community that simply pay less – for example, grocery store workers, construction workers, hospitality and retail workers, people who work in schools and childcare. Without affordable housing such as we and other organizations provide, there would not be the possibility for many of these families to live in Santa Monica and they would need to live hours away. Without affordable rents, some of these households would likely be homeless, and some of our residents have been homeless and now are stably housed. We appreciate the efforts of the City to address homelessness through a variety of means, including an array of services, as well as supporting the production of long-term, permanent housing for people of modest means. This is a long-term strategy to prevent homelessness and is critically important in our collective goals of making sure everyone has a dignified, safe place to live. Thank you to the City leadership and staff who makes this work possible.
Tara
Tara Barauskas, LEED AP
Executive Director
Community Corporation of Santa Monica
1423 2nd Street, Suite B
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 394-8487 ext. 133
[email protected]
www.communitycorp.org
I acknowledge with respect and gratitude the Tongva, Kizh, and Chumash Peoples on whose traditional territory I live and work.
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023
ITEM 11.A.
May 9, 2023