Seeking ‘maximum enforcement’ and offering to stand beside nervous speakers, the local tech developer continues to apply pressure on homeless issues.
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Don’t let the surfer look fool you. Dick Lucas isn’t drifting anywhere.
The longtime Santa Monica resident—and proud new dad—has become a fixture at City Council meetings in recent months. His flowing brown mane and beard are now as familiar to the dais as his recurring mantra: “Homelessness, homelessness, homelessness!”
Lucas, 33, isn’t there to make friends with the mayor. He shows up every two weeks to keep one of the city’s most polarizing issues top of mind.
“Cities can fix this if they do it right,” he tells The Sun.
His appearance, Lucas acknowledges, might suggest a different political disposition.
“If you look at me…you’d think I was a hippie or something,” he laughs. “I sometimes look homeless when I’m out, with my long hair.”
That locally famous mane wasn’t a calculated statement. Lucas started growing it back in 2019 during a 2,650-mile trek along the Pacific Crest Trail. He let it grow through the COVID pandemic and simply hasn’t reached for the scissors since.
‘Maximum enforcement’
Lucas’s approach to City Hall is considerably less laid-back.
The tech entrepreneur and former independent State Assembly candidate has become a sharp-elbowed thorn in Santa Monica’s side, pounding the table on the homeless issue because he believes the city can solve it.
“It’s very comfortable right now to be in Santa Monica as a homeless person,” Lucas insists. “What I am saying is make it uncomfortable. We need to do what Beverly Hills does, what Manhattan Beach does: maximum enforcement. Get them out. Gone.”
‘Come join me’
Raised in Glendale, Lucas attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks before heading east to earn a degree at Boston College. Now married and back on the Westside, he is eager to help his neighbors have their voices heard.
“The default for local politics is that no one cares and it’s boring,” he says. “I try to tell people, ‘Hey, come join me.’”
Recognizing how intimidating the public comment forum can be, Lucas has issued a standing offer to share the microphone or stand beside nervous first-time speakers.
No plans to leave
Despite his visibility at City Hall, Lucas insists he has no desire to put his own name on a ballot again. He sees his role as an outside watchdog, pushing the current leadership to enforce existing laws rather than building his own political career.
Away from the podium, he is a devoted husband, a passionate home cook and the father of an 11-month-old daughter—a milestone that shifted his perspective on the city’s long-term future.
Despite his dissatisfaction with City Hall, Lucas says he has no plans to leave Santa Monica –– or let up the pressure he is putting on local leaders.
He reminded the council of that last week in a warning pulled straight from the graphic novel Watchmen: “I’m not locked in here with you—you’re locked in here with me.”
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