The United Methodist Church in Malibu serves about 100 meals every Wednesday night and has been doing so for the past three years. Recently, the city emailed church leaders and asked them to attend a meeting that was apparently convened for homeless outreach organizations. Once there, government officials told the Methodist church to end the food giveaway after the Thanksgiving holiday because it was exacerbating the problem. "They claimed we are increasing homelessness," one of the church volunteers told CBS News Los Angeles. Another church member added that many of the homeless individuals eat out of dumpsters and trashcans when they don't obtain their meals from the church.
The new Malibu policy created an uproar in the community, and the city now denies that it told the church to shut down the soup line. According to the city manager, the purpose of the meeting in question was to coordinate, rather than reduce, services to the homeless. "And she specifically says no request was made by the city for Malibu Methodist to end its free food nights," The Malibu Times explained.
The city followed up with a press release indicating that the dialogue with the charitable groups will continue after Thanksgiving and that no decisions were made at the initial meeting.
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Whether in Malibu or elsewhere, helping the growing number of people who find themselves living on the street for various reasons poses challenges on many different levels, including public safety. Local law enforcement "blamed churches for attracting homeless people into Malibu," The Malibu Times added, and that during the meeting, the mayor allegedly said that putting the church meals on hold until April might be a way to determine if that would lead to a reduction in crime in the area. (Related: Read more about the excesses of government intervention at PoliceState.news.)
According to the Waking Times, the surge in homelessness on the West Coast is a byproduct of "the housing crisis of 2008 and now spurred on by the excesses of the region's tech industry." The Associated Press reports that there are 16,00 homeless persons in California, Oregon, and Washington, a 15 percent increase from two years ago, and "Rising rents are the main culprit."
A recent survey claimed that about 20 percent of Los Angeles community college students were homeless and that 65 percent were unable to afford a balanced diet, Natural News detailed in July of this year. Los Angeles Community College trustees are attempting to negotiate with private developers to increase the inventory of student housing at below-market rates and with food vendors to provide meals to those students in need.
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