by Garth Meyer
The Redondo Beach City Council has approved a “Good Neighbor Pledge” by a 4-1 vote, which would not relocate homeless people out of the city in light of a June Supreme Court decision. The vote at the Tuesday, Aug. 6, meeting was not contingent on neighboring cities signing the pledge.
The document was written by the South Bay Council of Governments (COG) and contains a promise that “city staff will be informed about their city’s resources.”
“This is important because it places responsibility on cities and their staff to evaluate the services they provide and to inform their residents. It can also highlight where there are deficiencies,” said Redondo Beach City Councilwoman Paige Kaluderovic.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in City of Grants Pass, Ore. v. Johnson allows cities to enforce laws against camping on public property. A lower court ruling had found that laws against camping constitute cruel and unusual punishment when no alternative, such as shelter, is available.
Kaluderovic requested that the COG delegate from Redondo Beach, Councilman Zein Obagi Jr., sign the pledge on behalf of the council.
Obagi then proposed a friendly amendment: the signing should be dependent on the signatures of the residents of Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Lawndale and Torrance.
Kaluderovic accepted the change.
“Will you wait for Torrance?” she said.
“They have their own pallet shelter, they have done a good job, I am confident they will come too,” said Obagi.
Kaluderovic then said she would like to have a “group of (cities),” but was unsure if that should be the case for all of them.
City Councilman Scott Behrendt supported the amended motion.
City Attorney Mike Webb was asked for his opinion on whether an extension should be considered for other cities.
“I’ll just say this: Each of our neighbors now has veto power,” Webb said. “This will force our neighbors to do exactly what we have been doing and will continue to do.”
City councillor Nils Nehrenheim spoke out against the amended motion and stated that he was more inclined to sign the declaration of commitment now.
“I don’t think we’re playing these shell games,” he said. “But I see potentially other cities around us doing it without necessarily touching us. We need to take a leadership role in solving these problems. I don’t want to tell other communities what to do. We’re not in their shoes.”
“If you sign this, it means other people will look bad if they don’t sign it,” Kaluderovic said.
“This puts them in a position where they may be deficient in some of the services they provide. That strong hand is not going to help us.”
“My goal is to encourage other cities to make the right decision by offering them our commitment in exchange for them also agreeing to the commitment,” Obagi said, indicating that he agreed with both the original proposal and the amendment.
The vote on the change failed 3:2, with Kaluderovic, Loewenstein and Nehrenheim against. The original motion to sign the declaration of commitment was accepted 4:1, with Behrendt against.
“I think it is extremely important that the cities that border us are on board with real commitment to enforcing the regulations,” he said.
The commitment was on the agenda in Torrance and Hawthorne on Tuesday evening, August 13. Hawthorne agreed to it, Torrance did not.
COG program director expects little impact from Supreme Court ruling
Ronson Chu, COG’s senior program manager for homeless services, told Easy Reader this week that he believes the Good Neighbor Pledge will help mitigate any adverse effects of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We don’t think it’s going to have a huge impact, especially if the majority of our cities sign this,” Chu said. “We’re trying to encourage everyone to discuss this over the next four weeks.”
“I think we can all agree that we want our parks to be clean and our storefronts to be clear. We do that by providing shelter and services. Resources are plentiful. COG has a dozen programs.”
These include case management, client assistance in the form of deposits and application fees, housing placement, shared accommodation and a grant program.
Chu noted that in Redondo Beach, the city’s efforts with regional partners have helped take 66 people off the streets in the last six months.
“Ultimately, we want all of our 15 cities to sign the pledge,” he said. HE
