The economic downturn and State Assembly bill AB 109 are having a direct effect on the quality of life in West Hollywood and other urban areas, with incidents of “contacts” with homeless people up 23 percent this year over last year.

That bill, which went into effect in October, 2011, was designed to relieve the overcrowding in the county jail systems across the State of California by releasing prisoners earlier than scheduled.

Since Oct. 1, 2011, when AB 109 went into action, a total of 3,054 offenders were released to county probation for community supervision.

Out of those offenders, 606 - or just under 20 percent - have been arrested again for new offenses, including 489 felonies and 117 misdemeanors.

Incidenta of "contacts" with homeless people in West Hollywood are up 23 percent over last year. Photo by WeHo News.

Asked by West Hollywood City Manager Paul Arevalo to speak on the issue of an apparently increasing number of homeless people crowding the streets of the Creative City, the top cop blamed AB 109.

 “We have had an increase with homeless in the city… about 23 percent more over the same timeline last year,” said West Hollywood station Captain Kelley Fraser.

“We’re, as a department… managing and monitoring the AB 109 release, which is non-, non-, non-folks… and how that impacts our crime,” she said.

Under that bill, non-violent, non-sex and non-serious offenders are now monitored on probation at the local level.

She said that the WeHo branch deputies are seeing an increase in “drunk in public - that seems to be our big one and petty thefts.”

She reminded “everybody that it’s not a crime to be homeless, but it’s a crime to do crime… Some of the messages that the homeless are providing our deputies is, ‘I’m here because I feel safe.’

“Ironically,” she said, “they know the city has the services here… to ensure that they have what they need.”

Apparently the LAPD is finding same increases. Capt. Fraser told city officials that her department as making sure that homeless people they came into contact with are adhering to their parole or probation requirements and getting the services they need.

Many of the homeless come from the prisons and county jails because of AB 109. Photo by WeHo News.

As the chief law enforcement officer in the city, Capt. Fraser urged citizens and business owners to call the Sheriff’s station if they have any trouble at all with a transient.

Following the Captain’s comments, the West Hollywood social services director, Daphne Denis, explained the service side of handling the transient’s problems, which amounts to “a little more than $400,000,” in direct city funding per year along with “a lot of other programs that assist the homeless.”

“There’s always an uptick in the summer,” she said, “and this year… economic downturn really coming home to roost,” is one factor.

Another factor increasing the number of homelessness on the streets committing crimes is the transfer of prisoners from county to city jails and the city jailers assessing whom they can release on probation, “and some of that supervision is not the best,” said Ms. Dennis.

Although numbers of transients and Sheriff contacts are up, she said, so too are the referrals.

In May, for example, “where we have three or four referrals we had nine.” So far as cooperation with People Helping The Homeless (PATH) transitional housing program, “We are housing right now 24 people in their shelter program and six in youth program.”

The housing and homeless outreach programs put in 36-40 hours each week talking to people living on the streets at night and during the day, “to get them into housing services,” she said.

One factor changing over the past year is the incidence of homelessness coming from inside the city proper.

Some of the homeless population are seriously mentally ill. Photo by WeHo News.

She noted that, in past years, the gay men that were on the city’s streets tended to come here from other places in the state and even country, but in the last year or so more of the gay men needing homeless services are West Hollywood residents who have suffered dislocation due to the economic downturn.

“Of the nine referrals made by the Sheriff in May, I happen to know that there were four  people who used to reside in the city of West Hollywood.”

She called that “an example of the impact that a bad economy has on a life that might be marginal – a little too much substance abuse, not enough job; a little too much domestic disarray, not enough economic wherewithal.”

On the other hand, a light shines at the end of the tunnel, as Ms. Dennis pointed out that an influx of county funding for transitional and permanent housing has created new opportunities for housing homeless people.

“Since October, we have housed 26 people in permanent housing, which is an all-time record for a city that has an average homeless count of 60 people,” said Ms. Dennis.

Importantly, she said, these were the most desperate of the homeless – people who had been on the street the longest and suffered from multiple disabilities.

She acknowledged, though, that the success were “lost when we see a lot more people on the street who might not necessarily be favoring in solutions.”

Ms. Dennis also explained that the regional problem of transients, is now being dealt with regionally by the Westside Council of Governments (COG) and non-profits such as the United Way with an emphasis on finding permanent housing for the homelessness.

Mayor Jeffrey Prang decried the way homelessness, and the treatment of the mentally ill, is treated in the state.

The largest number of crimnal incidents with homeless people involve alcohol and substance abuse. Photo by WeHo News.

“It’s horrible,” he said, adding that according to Sheriff Lee Baca, “as many as 30 percent of inmates… are mentally ill people who may have committed crimes, but they really need treatment – they don’t need to be incarcerated.”

Mayor Pro Tem Abbe Land said that calling the Sheriff was a vital tool in helping homeless people access services. “We all want to be really compassionate, but in a way, calling the Sheriffs could be one of the most compassionate things you can do. Don’t think you’re doing a bad thing; you’re actually doing a good thing for the person.”

Ms. Dennis said that the city was missing a few opportunities to leverage new funding streams opened up in the areas of mental health services, street outreach and permanent housing vouchers.

Under the United Way’s “Home for good” initiative, PATH will be able to quadruple its street outreach personnel and supply 500 “Shelter Plus” vouchers for housing subsidy.

Additionally, the free clinic consortium in LA County will be putting teams “on the street doing mental health intervention for the most vulnerable and difficult to reach population,” she said.

Having said that, she expressed hope that, “despite cuts in some funding sources, we’re going to see a huge influx of resources,” coming down the path, so to speak.

Still, West Hollywood is on a transit line that runs between Downtown and the beach, and “right smack in the middle of the county, which has 50,000 people who are homeless… by far the largest population in the nation.”

Captain Fraser noted that her deputies often find that the homeless people they offer services to refuse them. “Some people choose to be there… choose not to take,” the services the city offers.