Costa Mesa Mayor Targets Soup Kitchens

Blames charities for attracting homeless

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."