Policy

Costa Mesa Mayor Targets Soup Kitchens

Blames charities for attracting homeless

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Looking to cut down on homeless services in Costa Mesa, Mayor Eric Bever has asked the city to investigate some of the city's most prominent and long-running charities.

Bever singled out Share Our Selves and Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, two decades-old nonprofits that dispense food and medical care to the poor and homeless.

The mayor compared the charities to nightclubs that have become neighborhood nuisances.

It would go a long way to solving the problem of homeless people coming to Costa Mesa, the mayor said, "if we managed to put the soup kitchen out of business."