To the City Council

   I share my opposition to any ordinance prohibiting people sleeping in vehicles on the public streets. An ordinance is inconsistent with values expressed by the council supporting Living Wages for the working poor. Are we stigmatizing innocent poor people because housed people are fearful of them?
   I am Robert Tompkins, resident in an apartment in Sunset Park since 1980. I am a CPA and a former Finance Department City employee. I am former Controller for Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center.
   I am concerned about many working poor with roots in our city having their lives disrupted needlessly. Why is this issue being raised at this time when people have been sleeping in vehicles for many years? If crimes are being committed by these people there are existing laws that can be enforced. I am concerned we are taking away another “safety net “ before disaster for the working poor, the mentally challenged or those temporally set back.
What does a Santa Monica longtime resident do, those one or two paychecks away from financial disaster, when they lose employment and discover living out of their car saves money and buys time to find work or save for off-street housing?
   I understand the Police Department estimates 50 to 70 people sleep in vehicles every day. Assuming the average is 60 incidents a day, there are approximately 22,000 incidents annually. I been told there have been approximately over 200 complaints to the Police annually. This is about one percent (1%) of the annual incidence and much much less as compared to our city population of about 84,000. What have been the nature of the complaints? Are the complaints coming from the same people over and over again in the same neighborhoods? Have there been a material number of arrests or crimes committed by these people sleeping in their vehicles? I hope the energy driving this proposed ordinance is not due mostly to fears of a few local residents as I am not fearful.
   I know several people who do sleep in their car. One is an eccentric female artist in her early 30s. She travels between northern California and here. She makes art about the natural ecology and has little money. She does art business here. She is attempting to make more income so she can afford housing. She cannot afford motels and feels it is unsafe in homeless shelters. She is not a criminal. She does not like the life style, but is doing it out of necessity.
   I have a distant cousin who came here to help a woman abandoned here by her now former boyfriend. She is 24 and found part time work at $7 per hour within the zone proposed for the Living Wage ordinance. She is looking for full time work. She plans on attending local community college and finding housing. He is 31 and usually works at minimum wage positions even though he has a college degree. He has found parttime work. They have been staying with me off and on as I will not have ongoing roommates I am not compatible with 
They are sleeping in his car to save money for housing. They are not criminals. They do not like the life style. It is too cold some nights and they do not get restful sleep generally.
   I am concerned the city already prohibits parking without residential permits and thus the areas these people peacefully park are limited. I hope the City Attorney has rendered an opinion on the constitutionality of any proposed ordinance on two issues. 
   One concerns the use of the gas tax People that drive vehicles purchase gas in Santa Monica. The city receives substantial gas tax monies to maintain the public streets. The people who pay the taxes have the public benefits of doing so restricted because of people’s fears. 
   The second centers on if people have the constitutional right to sleep on a sidewalk they should have the right to sleep peacefully in their vehicle on public streets.
   A final thought centers on people losing their homes due to a large earthquake. I would hope sleeping in a vehicle would not be illegal during that crisis. Many Working Poor today are recovering from their personal quakes. I hope after living in an apartment in Santa Monica over 20 years I have the opportunity of recovering from a future persona quake with the support of my own city, to sleep in my own vehicle, to survive independently.
   Thank you for your time and consideration.
   Robert Tompkins, CPA, MPA 
   Santa Monica