Redondo Beach addressed its homeless problem with a court diversion program that provides services instead of custody. When the pandemic brought it to a halt, the city came up with workaround. Now homeless court is held outdoors, in a police station parking lot.
“There is a woeful inadequacy of mental health care in the county,” Webb said. “It can be tough for anyone to change. We tried to make it as easy as possible for them to succeed.”The responsibility fell to Gilbertson by chance. A recent appointee to the Superior Court, she had been given the Redondo Beach docket. The fit couldn’t have been better. With a background in child advocacy, she has an empathetic manner rarely seen on the bench.
“A lot of times when you’re starting out it looks impossible, and you give people that inspiration,” she said. “It is not impossible.”“That’s incredible,” she said. “Just hang in there.” Once in, they surrender their right to a speedy trial and must return to the court regularly to report on their compliance with any treatment ordered by the judge. They remain under the court’s supervision until they obtain a home.
The answer was to go outdoors. The city’s Public Works Department built a wooden box on wheels for the bar — the divider between the attorneys and the public — and hung plywood sheets on the parking lot fence to give a more formal background to the bench, improvised with an office desk on a portable stage. Court reopened in September.
At one point during the session, the sun popped through. Gilbertson advised the defendants to get some water and go sit under one of the tents set up for the service providers.Judge Rene Gilbertson arrives for homeless court outside the Redondo Beach Police Department.Though unique in its setting, Redondo Beach’s homeless court draws its basic form from a model that originated in San Diego three decades ago.
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