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Politics & Government

Homeless in Redondo: A Growing Problem Without an Easy Solution

Social service agencies do their best to fill the short-term needs of those living on the streets but there's a shortage of shelters and programs.

Homelessness is dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Every meal, every arrest, every diverted glance, and every sympathetic coin all speak to the same sentiment—we don't know how to fix this.

We know them well: the bearded man who shakes and talks to himself on the beach, the woman with her shopping cart outside of the community center, and the legion who wait for food outside of St. Andrew's Church on PCH. They are as much a part of our community as the streets some of them call home. Whether we ignore them completely or work to help them, they are here to stay, and their numbers are growing.

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Between massive prison releases, the Great Recession, and an uncertain future in the global workforce, homelessness has become a fact of life in Redondo. In the first of our three-part series, we examine the scope of homelessness in our city and programs devoted to those living on the streets.

According to the Weingart Center's Study of Homelessness and Poverty, 254,000 men, women and children are homeless in L.A. County during some part of the year, and approximately 82,000 people are homeless on any given night. A small fraction of them live on our streets: Redondo Beach Police Sgt. Phil Keenan estimates there's "anywhere between 50 and 100 homeless people" in the city, with the number typically swelling during the summer months.

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Like many, homeless people apparently prefer the beach when the heat is on.

Keenan has seen the number of homeless people rise during his 30-year career in law enforcement in the Beach Cities. Thirty years ago, "there were less, and you knew all of them, and now they are everywhere," he said.

As the recession has been tightening its grip for the last two years, St. Andrews lunch program volunteer Norma Carmichael has seen the number of homeless people seeking a free meal grow. According to the retired LAUSD teacher, the program now feeds nearly 60 homeless and low-income residents twice a week. 

The church also provides toiletries and computer access to those living on the street.   

The police department deals with homeless denizens on a regular basis. "On a typical 12-and-a-half hour shift, there will be anywhere between 3 and 12 calls about homeless activity," Keenan said.  

The calls include complaints about sleeping in doorways, public urination and defecation, and violent behavior. The most common offense is stealing recyclables. Whatever the infraction, the solution remains the same.

"From the law enforcement point of view, our method of dealing with them is short term," Keenan said.

This is how the cycle works: Typically, a homeless person will be cited for any number of nonviolent offenses. When the citations go unpaid, they become warrants for arrest. Once arrested, depending on the severity of prior offenses and mental/physical condition, the offender will be released, sent to a hospital or end up in jail. The endgame is always the same: The homeless person is in a different place, and worse off than before.

There are programs devoted to helping Redondo's homeless people. Lunch programs at various churches such as St. Andrews feed them and provide the bare necessities of existence seven days a week. The Beach Cities Health District supports the South Bay Coalition for the Homeless, which helps bring monetary support to lunch programs, as well as referring homeless people to services for healthcare and shelter.

Lauren Nakano, senior manager for the Center for Health Connection with the Beach Cities Health District, helps to put homeless people in touch with the immediate services they need. In the long term she lobbies for programs such as permanent supportive housing.

But the ultimate question for Redondo is: Will we support the efforts of a few to break the cycle of homelessness, when it could mean bringing a questionable element into our neighborhoods?

Nakano understands the challenge in Redondo, where, despite services, there is a noticeable gap in shelters and other programs. Any system put in place has to work for the community while acknowledging the issue.

"The homeless are a part of our community," Nakano said. "It's the community's job ultimately to integrate the homeless."

Selling residents on programs, which will inevitably bring more homeless people to the area, is an uphill battle. But she considers it a battle well worth fighting.

Volunteers such as Carmichael wish there was more that they could do. In the second part of our series, we'll take a closer look at her work at St. Andrew's. That will be followed by a profile of Greg, a man who lives on Redondo's streets.

Lacking more permanent solutions, Nakano, the Beach Cities Health District, the police and those operating area lunch programs have no choice but to deal with homelessness on a case-by-case basis. "Society hasn't come up with a way of dealing with the homeless so we deal with them piecemeal," Keenan said.

Part II:

Part III:

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