Unsung hero: Coffee for 40, and sometimes doughnuts, for the homeless
Every weekday morning in Laguna Beach, a group of homeless men and women wait patiently on the cobblestones at Main Beach for James Keegan and what he will bring.
Last Wednesday, with more than 30 people congregated, Keegan arrived at 9 a.m. sharp carrying a container of coffee.
Each morning before his walk, Keegan, who moved to Laguna Beach 19 years ago, brews coffee at his home and then drives it to Main Beach. He typically makes enough for 40 cups.
Sometimes on his way to the beach, as on this day, Keegan will stop at the local grocery store to pick up something sweet.
Within minutes of the container of coffee being set on the table, men and women filled their foam cups and grabbed a crumb doughnut or two as Keegan chatted with the group.
“How was your Christmas?” Keegan, 75, asked one man, who replied, “It snowed a lot.”
To another resting on a nearby bench, Keegan quipped, “What do you want, table service?”
Before long Keegan, a real estate developer, had taken a seat next to another man and struck up a discussion with him.
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Editor’s note: This is an installment of Unsung Heroes, a new annual feature that highlights otherwise overlooked members of the community.
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Michael Newman, 53, appreciates Keegan spending time with people who are so often ignored. During the recent rains, Keegan drove Newman to a laundromat to wash and dry clothes.
“He brings coffee so he can stay in touch with everybody,” said Newman, homeless since 2010.
“It seemed to me there was this hole,” Keegan said during a separate phone interview. “When people wake up, there is nothing better than a cup of coffee.”
Keegan has been serving coffee in Laguna Beach in this manner for about 10 years, but his involvement with homeless issues began 35 years ago.
For a time Keegan volunteered with the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children in Los Angeles, giving bagged lunches to people in MacArthur Park and surrounding areas.
He has cooked meals for residents of the Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach and the Orange County Catholic Worker, known as the Isaiah House, in Santa Ana.
Keegan subscribes to the notion of treating neighbors with dignity and respect and believes that “the whole basis of governance is recognition of individuals as valuable.”
He bristles when cities allow police to ticket the homeless for sleeping in public when they may have nowhere else to go.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that we can criminalize biological behavior,” Keegan said. “It’s the last tolerated bias.”
Laguna Beach’s overnight shelter in Laguna Canyon, called the Alternative Sleeping Location, has room for 45 people each night, but demand sometimes exceeds capacity.
When uncertainties persist, morning coffee offers men and women something to look forward to.
“This is a good-natured group,” Keegan said.
Twitter: @AldertonBryce
