On Monday evening, Malibu dinners for the homeless resumed for the first time since last November. It was a very pleasant affair—tables and chairs were set up outside the entrance to the old courthouse, adorned with tablecloths. Officials, agency representatives, law enforcement and volunteers from the Malibu community were on hand to help out. The dinner was generously catered free of charge by Sir Richard of Monrose Catering, whose menu included mixed green salad, rigatoni with marinara sauce, chicken marsala, grilled vegetables and chocolate brownies.
“The bureaucratic obstacles have been great because we are on government property, but so has the effort on the part of so many good people to help us make it happen,” wrote Carol Moss, founder of CART, in an email. “The persistence of a few volunteers from CART has been at the forefront. We’ve had great support from County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, Susan Dueñas from the city has collaborated in a wonderful way and we’ve also had support from the sheriff and fire department. They say it takes a village, and here in Malibu we certainly have one.”
The dinner was the first to take place since the much-publicized cancellation of dinners for the homeless in Malibu just before Thanksgiving last year. It took nearly a full year to get the program back up and running, including a coordinated effort with many moving parts.
“Many thanks to the City of Malibu and CART for working with the county to reopen this meals program,” Kuehl said in a statement released by her office. “The county has found that service programs like this do far more than simply feed people. They help build long-term relationships with people experiencing homelessness and can help people get back on a path to stable lives and housing. These efforts are critical in our countywide effort to make sure that every person in the county has a home.”
When twice-weekly homeless dinners served at Malibu United Methodist Church were cut off last year because of pressure on the city from nearby residents, the news was reported across the country and even the world—and not favorably.
The LA Times wrote, “The issue boiled over on conservative and Christian online forums, where Malibu residents were castigated as liberal hypocrites. Lurid death threats poured in to City Hall.” The United Kingdom’s Independent headline said, “Malibu church ‘pressured to end meals for the homeless’ because it ‘lures the needy.’”
For 17 years, the faith community of Malibu, along with local nonprofit groups like CART and SOS, had served dinners to the homeless, with the most recent arrangement being two dinners each week on the premises of Malibu United Methodist. That is, until local residents starting complaining and pressuring the city to stop the dinners, because they were uncomfortable seeing homeless people around the neighborhood.
Whereas local government was never involved in feeding Malibu’s homeless in the past, the city has now stepped up to oversee the effort. Their “Meals Program for Homeless Individuals” is being held at the vacant county courthouse (next to the Malibu Library) twice per month. The faith community and CART will provide meals, and outreach workers—able to connect the homeless with housing and services—will attend the dinners.
The sheriff’s department has deputies nearby during the dinners to check the building and secure the area once the dinner is over.
The evening drew only about 15 homeless individuals. It’s uncertain how many more will show up for future meals, but the city anticipates that “numbers will grow as awareness of the program spreads” and that it’s possible homeless “people from outside the area may start attending.” The city says it will monitor the program closely and promises to quickly deal with any problems.
The community is invited to “attend, volunteer or observe” the meals, and the city will post information about each dinner’s attendance on its website.
When CART volunteer Terry Davis was asked via email what some of the biggest hurdles were in restarting the homeless dinners, she said it was finding a location.
“For years, [when we asked officials about using the old courthouse], we’d get a flat, ‘No. Not possible,’” Davis wrote. “When we asked to use City Hall, they didn’t really want to hold the dinners there for a plethora of reasons: city employees, schedules, security, no kitchen, no suitable space, negative community feelings. I think all of that, coupled with the county push to address homeless issues with substantive action, cracked that old County Courthouse door open for ‘review.’ I also believe that holding several Homeless Connect Days there showed that it is indeed a viable space to explore.”
Susan Ng, Kuehl’s west valley/mountain communities district director, confirmed the most difficult part of the bureaucracy was making an official motion granting the city a free license agreement to use the old courthouse as a venue to provide homeless services, which only includes the use of hallways, restrooms and offices to store tables and chairs.
According to Davis, there are safety and liability restrictions on both hot and cold food service.
“We hope to resume a degree of volunteer-prepared foods in the future, and the Health Department will visit some of the church partners’ kitchens and tutor us in some dos and don’ts,” she said. Although regulations won’t allow them to “cook from scratch,” in the future they can make some almost home-cooked meals. “For now, we’re pairing up with local restaurants and caterers to ensure a successful experience through year-end,” she said.