Orange residents speak out against license termination of Mary’s Kitchen; legal action looms

Mary’s Kitchen — a local soup kitchen in Orange — will be forced to vacate the premises by Sept. 18 after city officials terminated the organization’s licensing agreement with the city due to complaints of criminal activity in the area. From left to right: Mary Beth Gram, Bob La Voie, Melissa Durante, Gloria Suess. DANIEL PEARSON, Staff Photographer

Natasha Fucile stood in front of the Orange City Council July 13 pleading with the members to keep Mary’s Kitchen — the local soup kitchen that saved her life — open and operating.

“Seven years ago my life was devastated,” Fucile said at the council meeting. “(I) suffered multiple devastations, which left me out on the street, homeless, jobless and — by the bad choice of my own — addicted to drugs … I would have never made it without Mary’s Kitchen. Closing Mary’s Kitchen is issuing the homeless community a death sentence.”

The volunteer organization has served the local homeless population since the 1980s, providing hot meals and other amenities to an average of 200 people daily. 

However, in the last minute of the July 13 same meeting, the city attorney announced it had already unanimously voted in closed session to terminate the licensing agreement between the city and Mary’s Kitchen, giving the organization 90 days to vacate the premises. 

As of Sept. 18, those 90 days are up, but Mary’s Kitchen President and CEO Gloria Suess remains determined and vocal against the closure. Suess told The Panther the organization is continuing operations as normal and playing the waiting game until this Saturday.

“(The homeless population) needs a place where they are welcomed (and) accepted, they know that they are cared for and there are people who will help them with their basic needs,” Suess said. “We have to continue doing what we have done all these years to show compassion and care to the less fortunate and to make sure they are not hungry, they have clothing (and) they have the hygiene that is needed for basic life.”

City officials ended the licensing agreement due to an excess of criminal activity in the area, including trespassing, vandalism, prostitution and illicit drug use. 

“For many years, Mary’s Kitchen was a helpful and needed resource in the community,” Assistant City Manager Bonnie Hagan said in a presentation at a Sept. 14 council meeting. “However, what was once an effective means of helping to deal with homelessness now serves to intensify an ever-increasing number of health, welfare and safety issues.”

Hagan said staff started voicing concerns in regard to criminal activity near Mary’s Kitchen in 2018, but an increased need for police enforcement in the area within the past few years “gave the city no choice” but to terminate the license.

Hagan described various issues city officials noticed on site and near Mary’s Kitchen: patrons brazenly drinking alcoholic beverages, handling drug paraphernalia, lodging on the premises, damaging the city property and trespassing. 

Struck Avenue, where Mary’s Kitchen is located, has the highest crime rate in the city, Council member Jon Dumitru said at the Sept. 14 council meeting when describing the shutdown.

“We have a duty to public safety,” Dumitru said. “It’s not about anything else. We’re not trying to oppress homeless people. We’re not trying to hassle homeless people. What we are trying to do is protect the city as a whole.”

Hagan said the city issued the first notice of violation to the organization in September 2020 after the number of calls to the police started rising, but the issues only got worse from there.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Council member Chip Monaco explained a recent assault that occurred at Mary’s Kitchen.

“As recently as several weeks ago — at a time when Mary’s Kitchen staff and volunteers should be on their best behavior — an individual experiencing homelessness sought assistance at Mary’s Kitchen and was brutally assaulted by a Mary’s Kitchen volunteer,” Monaco said. “After the incident, the volunteer was arrested, and within two days was allowed to return to Mary’s Kitchen as a volunteer … Mary’s Kitchen has become a place where compassion overlooks the law.”

In contrast, Suess said little to no criminal activity occurs inside Mary’s Kitchen, and while disturbances do occur on the street, that is a public space where the organization cannot control anyone’s actions.

“If they are outside the gate, then they are on public streets,” Suess said. “That’s a police responsibility. When there is a crime committed outside of Mary’s Kitchen, they act like all that stuff is going on inside of Mary’s Kitchen. It’s not going on inside our place … You can’t follow everybody everywhere.”

DANIEL PEARSON, Staff Photographer

The fight to keep Mary’s Kitchen open has also developed into a legal battle.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLU) and Elder Law and Disability Rights (ELDR) Center partnered to send a letter to the Orange City Council earlier this month claiming violations of the Brown Act — California’s open meetings law — when the council met and voted on closing Mary’s Kitchen in closed session July 13.

Sari Zureiqat, a Legal Fellow with the ACLU, and Brook Weitzman, co-founder of the ELDR Center, co-signed the request for the city to cure or correct and cease and desist the decision to close Mary’s Kitchen.

Instead, they pleaded that the city revisit the topic, hold an additional discussion regarding the closure, take public comment and vote in open session.

“The Orange City Council’s recent actions violate the public’s right of government access in an important community issue implicating — at minimum — human dignity, public health and city transparency,” the letter reads. “Thus, we hope the city urgently addresses this issue.”

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Monaco argued against claims of council secrecy.

“There have been many accusations that city staff and council have not been transparent. I take great exception to this assertion,” Monaco said. “The city has provided documentation to the public, the media and anyone who requests it. We’ve met with a variety of reporters on numerous occasions and fielded numerous public requests for information. We’ve tried to get our message out. In spite of the thread of lawsuits, we are confident we will prevail.”

DANIEL PEARSON, Staff Photographer

Residents across the city have voiced their anger toward the Orange City Council for closing a long-standing resource to the homeless community, especially during a pandemic. A petition, created by volunteers calling to save Mary’s Kitchen, has reached nearly 8,000 signatures.

“In addition to providing three square meals a day, they provide laundry, mail services, showers, clothing, medical services, hygiene supplies along with many other services,” said Matthew McAnena, the oldest great grandchild of Mary’s Kitchen founder Mary McAnena, at the July 13 meeting. “They provide all this with no government funding and a staff of volunteers who freely give their time week after week … To shut down all these services in the middle of a global pandemic without any plan to supplant them is both irresponsible and inhumane.”

Dave Min, the Democratic senator for California's 37th Senate district — which includes portions of Orange County — sent a letter to the Orange City Council yesterday urging them to keep Mary’s Kitchen open.

“Should you proceed with closing Mary’s Kitchen, rest assured that I will be working closely with the California Department of Housing and Community Development to ensure that the city’s new housing element replaces these lost services and is in full compliance with state law,” Min wrote. “We are facing a crisis of homelessness in Orange County. To successfully meet this challenge, we will need as many resources as possible. Closing down Mary’s Kitchen amid this crisis is taking us in the wrong direction, and I urge you to reconsider your decision.”

At the July 13 meeting, a large group of speakers rallied together to speak in support of Mary’s Kitchen. Additionally, another set of residents spoke again Sept. 14, begging the council to reconsider the termination.

Nevertheless, the council stood steadfast in their decision to terminate the license.

Suess emphasized that local encouragement has been overwhelming in the past few months as the organization awaits the Sept. 18 deadline.

“The community support has just been humbling,” Suess said. “We had a booth at the street fair and we got 860 signatures. We have close to 10,000 signatures online, countless letters to the council … There is no other place like Mary’s. Mary’s really does belong to the City of Orange. All the schools, including Chapman, have been with us since we started at Mary’s house.”