Only Soup Kitchen in City to Close

After an unsuccessful five-month search for a new home, Someone Cares Soup Kitchen is scheduled to close Friday.

Merle Hatleberg, founder of Someone Cares, said she was notified in December that First United Methodist Church, where the charity has been based for four years, could no longer accommodate it.

She has since contacted every church in the vicinity, she said, but has not been able to find a new location.

Hatleberg said she is disappointed but not surprised that no one has come forward.

The 10-year-old group has changed locations several times because residents and businesses have complained about the large numbers of homeless people drawn to the soup kitchen.

The Rev. Steve Isenman of First United Methodist said he has heard similar complaints from the church’s neighbors, whose tolerance of the homeless declined as their numbers increased.

Hatleberg said that the kitchen served about 100 people a day when it opened at the church near downtown Costa Mesa in 1992.

Since then, however, the number of daily visitors has grown to nearly 300, she said.

Someone Cares is the last organization in the city that serves food to the poor.

The charity Share Our Serves ended its lunch program last year at the pleading of residents, who said the handouts were contributing to crime and vagrancy in the area.