Ely-Chaitlin, Activist for O.C. Homeless

Marc Ely-Chaitlin, for 10 years a crusader for Orange County’s homeless, died Sunday of respiratory failure. He was 42.

A paralegal, Ely-Chaitlin, who had been homeless himself for a year, opened a soup kitchen and halfway house in 1991 in a five-unit apartment building in Dana Point’s Lantern district. He did it quietly, renting the building for $5,000 a month and opening it to the homeless without getting city permits. A local outcry followed. Some residents demanded that the shelter be closed immediately, but others rushed to donate supplies.

The unlicensed facility, which housed about 20 people, closed within months for lack of funds and under pressure from Dana Point officials. Ely-Chaitlin went on to open shelters in Santa Ana, San Clemente and Yorba Linda, but they too closed for lack of funds.

The shelters were all operated by the Mildred Rose Memorial Foundation, which Ely-Chaitlin founded in honor of his grandparents. He created the volunteer foundation after becoming frustrated with what he felt was the slow pace of local social service agencies, but donations did not meet the cost of running the homes.

Ely-Chaitlin often donated legal services to those he described as down on their luck. Members of his family say he devoted much of his time to helping single mothers who had lost custody of their children.

“Everyone who came to him for help was always grateful,” said his sister, Candace Chaitlin-Gardner of Aliso Viejo. “It was a community,” she said of those who came to her brother for help. “They all worked together.”

Along with his sister, Ely-Chaitlin is survived by his parents, Mel and Shirley Chaitlin of Lake Forest.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at Forest Lawn in Glendale, followed by a graveside service at 3 p.m.