MAYOR: EX-CRITICS CAN HELP L.A. DEAL WITH HOMELESSNESS.

Byline: Dan Laidman Staff Writer

Appointing previous opponents of city policy on the homeless to an official panel on the subject is a way to balance civil-rights concerns with the need for aggressive intervention, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday.

The mayor's expanded defense of his appointments to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority came a day after some City Council members questioned his choice of Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which has sued the city several times over homeless issues, and attorney Doug Mirell, who worked with the ACLU in a case that limited police sweeps of Skid Row.

Villaraigosa told reporters that law enforcement action is needed to protect homeless people from those who would prey on them.

``There's a way to do it and respect the Bill of Rights,'' he said. ``You can't just go into an encampment and pat everyone down.''

The discussion about the appointments, which are headed to the City Council for a vote on confirmation, has brought out a larger debate about how the city approaches homelessness.

The ACLU sued the city in the early 1990s over a curfew that prohibited sleeping on the streets. It sued in 2000 when police were allegedly stopping the homeless, without reasonable cause, to catch parole violators.

The organization sued over police searches of the homeless again in 2003, the same year it sued again over a prohibition on sleeping on city streets.

``As long as the city doesn't have enough shelters or beds, where are people supposed to sleep?'' said Ripston.

Councilwoman Jan Perry maintains that such stances can impede efforts to deliver services to the homeless.

``My fundamental belief is some people are so extremely mentally ill that they will never be able to bring themselves in voluntarily for any kind of help,'' she said.

Perry has called for the city attorney to look at potential conflicts of interest raised by the history of litigation and the nominations of Ripston and Mirell.

Mirell, an attorney in the 2000 lawsuit about police stops, said the injunction that was part of the settlement in the case will expire in a matter of weeks. It is the only homeless-related case he has worked on, he said, and he took it pro bono and has no financial stake.

As a member of the authority board, Mirell said he would ``explore the whole panoply of issues and possible solutions without a preconceived agenda or prejudgment of any kind.'' < Many of the policy concerns regarding law enforcement and the homeless are unique to the downtown area because of its concentration of poverty and social services, said Larry Trench, director of the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission.

``The Valley's just a totally different situation,'' he said. ``They're spread all throughout.''

Another of Villaraigosa's nominees, Cecil ``Chip'' Murray, retired pastor of First African American Episcopal or AME Church, said that may be changing. He expects his panel to confront the challenge of downtown development and gentrification, pushing the homeless out of the city core.

``This means they will eventually become evacuees, moving south, east and west - further exhausting the diminished resources of those areas they inhabit,'' he said.

Dan Laidman, [phone]

dan.laidman(at)dailynews.com