It’s a little after 4 a.m. when two officers and a passenger step out of a police cruiser to talk to a middle-aged woman sitting on the sidewalk. She wears very little.

“Good morning,” greets the passenger, kneeling down to speak to her. “It’s Brian from human services. It’s been awhile since we talked.”

Every day from 3 a.m. to 1 p.m., pairs of specially trained officers reach out to homeless individuals on the streets of Santa Monica, Calif. On this morning, the team is joined by Brian Hardgrave from the city’s Human Services Division. The trio know many of the people they encounter and asks everyone the same question again and again: “Would you like help?”

Santa Monica’s police street team includes six officers and one sergeant who are focused exclusively on homeless issues. “We use the police strategically to engage these individuals who might not normally seek traditional homeless services on their own,” Hardgrave says.

The unit is one of many initiatives in Santa Monica that addresses the problem of chronic homelessness. In the most recent one-day count taken last January, Santa Monica had 728 homeless people, 60 percent of whom were unsheltered. In comparison, in Los Angeles County—which includes Santa Monica—an estimated 47,000 people experience homelessness on any given night.

Growing up in the Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica, Calif., 36-year-old Ana Jara had to follow her mother’s strict rule to stay away from Virginia Avenue Park.

Drug-dealing gangs ruled its 9.5 acres. The only way to describe it: “Scary.”

Today, the park is a hub for Jara and her neighbors—even her mother. On any given day, it hums like a beehive. Squealing toddlers run through fountains in a splash pad. Under trees, seniors practice Tai chi, while Millennials square off in a game of ultimate Frisbee. The park now boasts a new Pico Branch Library, a teen center, a fitness center with a boxing ring and dance studio for Zumba classes, and meeting spaces for after-school enrichment classes or birthday parties.  

The park’s transformation reflects the city’s commitment to create a safe space for people to play, learn and interact. The once-threatening block is now a like a green town square, giving neighbors a way to build connections and strengthen the resiliency of the community. “We know this matters,” says Julie Rusk, director of Santa Monica’s Wellbeing Project. “If you know your neighbors, you're more likely to be able to handle the earthquake or the unexpected personal or economic disasters that we all face in our lives.”

Improvements to the Virginia Avenue Park began more than a decade ago. A factory making plastic products was converted into the teen center with a music studio. The library opened in 2014. Neighbors provided input on how to reimagine the park, with the library topping their wish list. Through an advisory board, they continue to make suggestions on programming.

A police substation is gone and in its place are offices for case managers from city agencies, offering everything from youth services to employment assistance and mental health counseling.

Janeen Jackson, a school arts administrator who serves on the Virginia Avenue Park advisory board, calls the campus-like park “our village.” Her children take classes in African dance and karate, attend artist workshops and frequent the Saturday morning farmers’ market. “This park,” she says, “is really great at connecting communities, breaking down barriers, and developing connections.”

At 4th Street and Colorado Avenue in downtown Santa Monica, Calif., passengers stream off the new Expo light-rail line, where they can hop on a city-run bus or rent a bicycle to ride on a wide new bike lane.

Los Angeles is synonymous with cars and gridlock. But Santa Monica is working to expand and improve options for how its residents and visitors get around. In August 2015, the Santa Monica City Council held a town hall-style meeting to consider new policy initiatives and adopted five goals, among them improving people’s mobility.

“The council has made a really strong commitment to a new model for mobility,” says Francie Stefan, the city’s mobility manager. “That means that you have lots of different opportunities available to you regardless of what part of town you're in.”

The opening of the seven-stop Expo rail line in May 2016, which connects downtown Los Angeles with seaside Santa Monica, prompted planners to take a closer look at travel patterns in the city. The new light-rail line, Stefan says, became a way of “inviting people to experience the city in a new way.”

Few people in Santa Monica, Calif., will forget the afternoon of June 7, 2013. After a family dispute, a 23-year-old man murdered his father and older brother, set their house on fire, and shot passengers on a bus and students at Santa Monica College with a semi-automatic rifle before being killed by police.

The tragedy followed the 2011 suicide of a high school athlete and the 2009 killing of a 20-year-old man as he left an art class at Virginia Avenue Park.

The deaths were a clarion call. A coalition emerged—called Santa Monica Cradle to Career—which linked parents with educators and service providers. The group began examining how the community could support its most vulnerable young people and their families and create an environment for them to thrive.

The Village at Santa Monica is the type of luxury development where only the well-heeled need apply. A block from the beach on Ocean Avenue, prices start at $850,000 for a one-bedroom unit and rise to $7.1 million for a penthouse.

Immediately next door to the condominium building, the same developer also offers an equal number of rental apartments. But there, rents range from $456 a month for a studio to $1,354 a month for a three bedroom.

This is Santa Monica, Calif.’s housing policy at work.

“Santa Monica is a community that, left to market forces, would be completely unaffordable,” says Julie Rusk, who leads the city’s Wellbeing Project.