This week we viewed a film on homeless life in Santa Monica. I have been to Santa Monica before and know it as one of the most expensive places to live. I did see several homeless people there during my visits, but did not understand how big of an issue it is in this city. In the film, one of the members of the homeless community tried running for city council. The city board had been making little to no efforts to help the homeless, including promising shelter but not being able to provide it and attempting to stop civilians from giving out free meals by the beach. When a group had settled down in a park or outside of a building, the police would come through and tell them to move somewhere else. These people were not given information on where they could stay or alternative solutions, so it was one big game of move-around that the police were playing with the homeless. The police would also cite someone they saw using a shopping cart to push around their things, or if they removed objects from a dumpster (which I do not understand since I thought trash was public domain). Receivers of a citation opted to wait until a warrant was put on them, since that would only mean one night in jail. It is sad to see these people getting in trouble with the law for things that are not a huge deal, such as taking things out of a trash can, when there are much bigger issues the police could be spending their time on. Lastly, a comment that bothered me came from a tourist riding her bicycle, talking about how she was staying at a 5 star hotel down the street, and close by were all these homeless people. She said she wished there was a better sight for tourists to see. 2 young males also mentioned how they did not want to “see” the homeless, as if it’s ok for it to exist, so long as it’s not in front of them. I believe this mindset is the roadblock to solutions.