Law enforcement officials say homelessness in Malibu has declined due in part to great enforcement of property laws. There are a few fixtures who call Malibu, with or without shelter, their home.
By Sara Rosner / Special to The Malibu Times
Clifford Warren is a familiar face at the Malibu Colony Plaza. Several people say hello and call out his name while he sits on a bench outside of Ralphs market on the day before Thanksgiving. One woman comes out with a cart full of food, hands Warren a sandwich and says, “Here you go Cliff, ham and cheese, right?”
Warren is one of the five to 10 homeless people who Deputy Jim Castro of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said lives in Malibu. Although the number of homeless in Los Angeles County has risen over the past several years, Castro says that homelessness in Malibu has declined from the 40 to 65 individuals who lived in Malibu 10 years ago.
According to a report from the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty at the Weingart Center, approximately 80,000 people were homeless every night in Los Angeles in 2003, an increase from the estimated 25,000 to 50,000 that slept in the streets in 1984. The main reason-cited by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, based in Washington-people become homeless is the lack of affordable housing. The National Coalition for the Homeless, also based in Washington, cites poverty, due to the lack of work opportunities and a decline in public assistance, in addition to the housing problem as the main factors resulting in homelessness. Other factors NCH lists include lack of affordable healthcare, domestic violence, mental illness and addiction disorders.
Castro, who has frequently been on special assignment to deal with the homeless in Malibu over the past 12 years, said the decline of homeless in Malibu is a result of greater enforcement of property laws.
“The numbers have been reduced because of the areas where they can hang out,” Castro said. “These folks [Malibu shop owners] really enforce trespassing laws.”
Steven Broughton is senior officer for Royal Security Service at the Malibu Colony Plaza and knows most of the homeless at the shopping center by their names, including Warren. He deals with the homeless by enforcing what he calls his “four golden rules”: “No loitering, no shoplifting, don’t cause a disturbance and no panhandling,” Broughton said.
He said most of the homeless people he deals with on a regular basis know the rules well. “I’ve been here for so long I can recognize them, and they know if I’m around, they’ll stop asking [for money or food],” Broughton said.
While the cooler weather yields fewer incidents because of fewer people in Malibu, Broughton tends up to five homeless complaints a day during the summer.
“Our summer season here is a madhouse,” Broughton said.
Many of the complaints Castro deals with involve public drunkenness, aggressive panhandling and sleeping in entryways. When asked where he sleeps, Warren replied vaguely, “I sleep out ’round here.”
Despite the intervention of law enforcement officials, many of the homeless in Malibu choose to stay within city limits. Warren, who is originally from Worcester, Mass., said he has lived in Malibu for 10 years and cannot leave because he is trying to settle an estate for an uncle. Asked why he did not work, Warren rambled on about belonging to a certain order that did not allow him to work. He also said he had served in the Vietnam War.
Peter Moeller, another man who was sitting on a bench at the Malibu Colony Plaza, said he had been homeless in Malibu for eight years until friends found him a camper on Latigo Canyon Road two months ago. Moeller does not work and said he relies on friends to survive. He said he used to work and even owned a health food store at one point. Moeller said he emigrated from Germany and embarked on a long journey that wasn’t finished yet.
When asked why he decided to stay in Malibu he said, “I don’t know, I just got stuck here, and you just can’t get out of it.”
Castro said he believes that many of the homeless stay in Malibu because they don’t want to be anywhere else. “Some of these folks are homeless by their own intentions,” Castro said. “It’s their home.”
One of the challenges Broughton faces in dealing with the homeless is correctly identifying homeless people. He said it is often difficult to differentiate the homeless from Malibu residents. In one encounter, Broughton said a shop-owner called him to confront a homeless man who was loitering in front of her store. When he approached the individual, Broughton said he and the owner realized it was actually actor Sean Penn.
“The trick is to look at their shoes,” Broughton said. “If they’re dirty, they’re probably homeless.”
Broughton said that there are also degrees of homelessness in Malibu. Some of the homeless live in trees, cars or may even be caretakers of local estates. Others may even sport the latest technology. “Malibu is the only place where you find homeless with cell phones, pagers and laptops,” Broughton said.
While Moeller and Warren don’t have any pagers or cell phones, they did seem to have plenty of friends at the Colony Plaza. “I love Malibu, the people are great,” Warren said.
Amidst greetings from passersby, Moeller agreed with Warren, saying, “I have made so many friends here, they just totally treat me like family.”
Castro said the Malibu community has always been helpful and that many of the homeless in Malibu don’t want to live any other way.
“I think we’ve done all we can do,” Castro said. “This is America, they choose to live in the way they’re living. We can’t help people who don’t want to help themselves.”
Moeller, however, said he believes that homelessness is a treatable problem.
“Nobody should ever have to be homeless,” Moeller said. “Especially in this country.”