Soup Kitchen With No City Permits to Close

The operator of a 9-day-old soup kitchen and halfway house here said he will comply with the City Council’s order to close because the facility lacks proper permits.

But Marc Ely-Chaitlin, founder and president of the kitchen, said he would continue serving meals until he received the city’s mailed order to shut down.

“I intend to comply,” Ely-Chaitlin said. “I’m not trying to make trouble, I want to be a friendly neighbor. But I’m going to continue to press this issue. This is a beginning.”

On Wednesday, chicken soup, French bread and vegetables were served to the residents of the Olinda Drive apartment building that was recently converted to a facility serving the homeless and hungry.

Ely-Chaitlin angered the council by opening his facility last week in the five-unit apartment house in the Lantern Village neighborhood without seeking permission from the city. Most council members learned of the kitchen through news stories about it.

While admitting that there was a need to help the needy in South County, the council insisted that Ely-Chaitlin and his nonprofit Mildred-Rose Memorial Foundation find a more suitable location.

“I don’t deny that there is a need,” said City Councilwoman Judy Curreri, a public health nurse. “The shelter was opened by an individual trying to do good . . . but he was well aware that this community has laws and he chose not to respect that.”

City Councilman Mike Eggers agreed, saying Ely-Chaitlin had deliberately defied the city.

“This halfway house is a sham,” Eggers said. “We can’t solve one problem by simply creating another one.”

Ely-Chaitlin shrugs off such criticism, claiming that he sent a letter to each council member a year ago asking for help but received no response.

“The council has known about this problem for a long time and has done nothing,” he said. “The whole government is in a state of denial about this issue. I’m not here to turn this into an issue, I’m here to feed hungry people.”

Had he asked the council for permission, he would have been refused, Ely-Chaitlin contended.

“If I did (seek permission), I wouldn’t be open now,” he said. “That’s the flat-out truth. I know it and they know it.”

How long he will remain open depends on how long it takes the city’s order to arrive, Ely-Chaitlin said. Ed Knight, the city’s community development director, said he would contact Ely-Chaitlin by mail, telling him to “cease all operations.”

Knight said he would also contact the county health department and seek its “aggressive” cooperation. A county health official, however, said his staff had visited the kitchen and offered Ely-Chaitlin the same advice offered to similar nonprofit operations.

“I instructed my staff to consult with the operator and give him guidelines,” said Jim Huston, the assistant director of environmental health for the county. “Our current position on this, and we see it happening all over the county, is we see some positive benefits to the homeless problem in operations such as this. We feel our role is to be supportive but take an educational approach. . . . As long as it is nonprofit, we would not close a place down. . . . We try not to be roadblocks for operations like this.”

Ely-Chaitlin said he hopes to set up a new operation as soon as he hears from the city. He plans to apply for city funding and help in relocation.

He may find that help from City Councilwoman Karen Lloreda, who also voted to close the soup kitchen while supporting Ely-Chaitlin’s cause.

“We can’t ignore it; we have a problem with homelessness here,” she said. “While we all agree it wasn’t handled right this time and not in an appropriate place, we, and I mean the cities in the region, need to start addressing the reality. Part of that is finding the right location for this kind of operation.”