Sheen Gains Support in Malibu on Homeless Issue

Not since a powerful January earthquake shook buildings and shattered windows in Malibu has the seaside town been so shaken by a single event.

One declarative sentence, uttered by one of Malibu’s celebrity residents last week, has touched off a torrid debate in town that civic leaders say threatens to raise the social consciousness level of the community to an all-time high.

After suffering the slings and arrows of an international media onslaught during the past two weeks, it appears that Martin Sheen’s call to open Malibu’s gates to the homeless has stirred local activists to arms. What began as a silly sideshow contrasting Malibu’s riches with the plight of the homeless has turned into a serious campaign to bring aid to the disenfranchised.

More than 300 Malibu residents, including the area’s ranking clergy, signed a petition this week offering to study ways to help the homeless, including the possibility of opening a shelter and holding local fund-raisers. The petition, circulated by a group called the Coalition for Peace, Concern for the Disadvantaged and the Environment, was the focus of a full-page ad Thursday in the community’s largest newspaper, the Malibu Surfside News.

In addition, both of Malibu’s weekly newspapers were filled with pages of sympathetic letters from readers offering support for Honorary Mayor Sheen’s social views. In his act, Sheen stated, “I hereby declare Malibu a nuclear free zone, a sanctuary for all aliens, and the homeless and a protected environment for all life, wild and tame!”

One local activist even went so far as to suggest a plan to house the homeless in strategically located geodesic domes.

‘Sincere Commitment’

“The story has definitely turned around,” said Anne Soble, publisher of the Surfside News. “After a week of dealing with it we were beginning to feel like the communications command post for the Starship Malibu. But now people are beginning to look at what Martin said and they’re trying to accomplish something. There is a very sincere commitment to deal with the issues.”

Local residents had even prepared to welcome busloads of the nation’s homeless to Malibu this weekend after a New York disc jockey declared he would pay to bus them to the town’s shore. Judith Israel, one of the founding members of the coalition, said the group planned to take any arriving homeless person on a picnic in Malibu and had collected extra clothing and food for them.

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh this week abandoned his busing plan, however, causing one Malibu resident to snort that the stunt “apparently failed to raise his ratings.”

“Actually, it’s been a blessing in disguise,” said Israel, who had joined Sheen in many of his marches around the Malibu Civic Center to publicize the grape boycott called last year by the United Farm Workers union. “Because of this we’ve found a lot of people who want to help and we’re determined to turn this into a good cause. We’re very happy now.”

It’s a far cry from the state Malibu was in last week, when one of its own residents, comedian Johnny Carson, made Sheen’s remark a staple of his nightly television monologue. And Malibu Chamber of Commerce officials, reeling from the hundreds of media inquiries around the globe, were seriously considering dumping Sheen as honorary mayor after his decree.

Not everyone in town feels kindly toward the activist actor. Several believe that Sheen took advantage of his titular role and should limit his remarks to addressing the crowds at the annual charity chili cook-off, the primary role of past Malibu mayors.

“I think he took advantage of his celebrity status and treated the whole homeless issue lightly,” said resident Tom Baskerville. Saying he felt compelled to “tweak Sheen’s nose a little,” Baskerville wrote a letter to one of the local papers, which read in part: “Before his liberal spirit of largess evaporates and he capriciously flits on to some ‘no nuke/gay whale’ rally, he should give his address to the media so the world’s dispossessed can find the way to three hots and a cot on him.”

Soble, who wrote an editorial blasting the media for “perpetuating timeworn misconceptions” about Malibu’s materialism, predicted that the controversy will pass soon, leaving only positive side effects in its wake.

“One of Malibu’s charms is that we can take these things with a good sense of humor,” she said.