On Monday morning, a homeless man sat in front of the county courthouse in Malibu, where he sleeps each night.
In front of him was a small, green propane tank affixed with a torch, which he said he uses to cook and form wood pipes for tobacco and cannabis.
A short walk away is Legacy Park, an oasis of coastal prairies, bluffs and native woodlands. The Santa Monica Mountains rose in the backdrop.
“Once in a while, somebody will see one of us cooking and they will call the … fire department,” the homeless man said, who would give his name only as Daniel.
In Malibu, hard hit by the Palisades fire and long prone to wind-fueled conflagrations, elected officials and some residents increasingly fear their homeless neighbors could inadvertently start an inferno while cooking or using flames to keep warm when camped in the brush or other locations across the city.
Last month, citing heightened fire risk, the Malibu City Council declared a state of emergency and directed the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office to remove people engaged in unpermitted camping and, if necessary, arrest them to accomplish that goal.
“Malibu’s history as it relates to fire is hugely devastating,” Mayor Marianne Riggins said in an interview. “We are making every effort to limit the opportunities for that type of devastation.”
City staff originally proposed directing sheriff officers to ensure the city was free of encampments, while also making sure those efforts did not “criminalize individuals living unhoused.”
At the request of Councilman Bruce Silverstein, that language was removed and the arrest language added.
How sheriff officers will respond is unclear. At the meeting, a captain said officers are limited in what they can do, because it was the policy of the county not to criminalize homelessness.
Silverstein argued since Malibu is an incorporated city that contracts with the sheriff for law enforcement services, officers should follow Malibu policy, not the county’s. He pointed to the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision last year that overturned previous precedent and allowed cities to enforce anti-camping laws.
The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Malibu, said that “arresting unhoused residents, simply for being unhoused, does not advance” goals of public safety and fire prevention, but that she shares “the deep concern of Malibu residents about keeping our fire-prone communities safe.”
In a statement, Horvath said in the last week her office has worked with the city of Malibu, the Sheriff’s Department and homeless service providers to “to adjust deployment and strengthen coverage in areas of greatest concern,” while the local sheriff’s office has received additional funding to “increase their presence and resources throughout the Santa Monica Mountains.”
Malibu residents and officials say they have a reason to be more aggressive.
Last week, authorities arrested an Uber driver, alleging he intentionally started a fire that, a week later, rekindled and became January’s Palisades blaze, which killed 12 people, including four in Malibu, and destroyed 700 structures in the coastal city and thousands more in Pacific Palisades.
Acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli speaks as Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell, right, looks on during a news conference announcing the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht, a suspect in the Palisades fire, on Oct. 8 in Los Angeles.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In court documents, authorities said the man was not homeless. But since 2021, the city said there have been more than 30 fires believed to have been started by homeless individuals.
The city’s public safety director, Susan Dueñas, told The Times she wasn’t aware of any significant damage from those encampment fires.
But that might not be true in the future.
“Any one of those could have become the Palisades fire,” Silverstein said in an interview.
A few weeks before January’s devastation, the Franklin fire tore through the hills above the county courthouse in Malibu and destroyed 20 structures and damaged another 28, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The cause is still under investigation, the agency said.
One of the most recent fires from unpermitted camping was on Sept. 24, on private vacant land near the Malibu Racquet Club, according to the city.
In an online post, the city described it as a “small cooking fire” that was quickly put out by firefighters, while the homeless person camping there was removed.
Michelle Jackson, 58, rents a home on the hill above that fire.
The private chef said she supports law enforcement making arrests if people don’t stop camping illegally, noting that when the Santa Ana winds whip through Malibu it “really doesn’t take much” to start a devastating blaze.
“We all are working hard and paying our bills to live here,” Jackson said. “I wish we had a better solution to homelessness, but it doesn’t mean I want them in our backyard.”
Richard Garvey, a Malibu resident of more than 40 years and head of a local volunteer emergency response program, said the concern about encampment fires is widespread and is held by Malibu residents who have differing views on how much help to provide unhoused people.
He said local residents grill in their backyards, but that’s in a contained area with easy access to water if something goes wrong.
“People who come out to this area don’t realize the unique dangers that present themselves to us,” Garvey said.
Dueñas, Malibu’s public safety director, said some people who are homeless in Malibu are from the city, but most are from elsewhere.
She said the city has had success in housing people in recent years and reduced the homeless population from around 150 in 2021 to about 30 to 40 on any given day.
Dueñas said most homeless people live in the Civic Center area, where the county court, library and Legacy Park are. If people are living in the brush, she said the city works to quickly move them elsewhere.
Daniel, the homeless man outside the county court, said he’s from Michigan but has been homeless in Malibu, Topanga and Santa Monica for 21 years. He said he thinks the fear homeless people will spark large fires is overblown and he said he cooks with propane, not wood, which can easily spread embers.
When the fire department has been called on him, Daniel said he also had been cooking on the concrete in front of the county courthouse, which is removed from the brush of Legacy Park.
Not everyone appears to be doing that.
Last month, a local resident posted a video on Nextdoor of a skillet filled on top of a makeshift fire pit among the brush in Legacy Park. Next to the pit, where at least some vegetation appeared to have been used as fuel, was a mattress, shopping cart and tarp.
Dueñas said even though the council has directed more aggressive action, the city is trying to balance fire prevention and public safety with compassion for people who are homeless and “remains committed to connecting individuals in need with resources, shelter and support through our outreach teams.”
David Verwey, 37, watches a man walks his dog in the heart of Legacy Park, where he has been living homeless for the past two months in Malibu on Oct. 15.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
On Monday morning, David Verwey rested on a bench inside Legacy Park, where he often spends the night.
Also originally from Michigan, Verwey said he moved to California a few months ago, because of a toxic situation with an ex. Now homeless, the 37-year-old former factory worker spends his nights in the park or on Zuma Beach.
Unlike some other people, he said he doesn’t use fire to cook or keep warm and understands residents’ concerns that such activity could start a blaze and it’s “something that needs to be addressed.” He said the Malibu community has been supportive of him and other homeless people, offering free food several days a week.
Verwey said he hopes to one day get a job in the entertainment industry. For now, he’s sleeping in Malibu because it feels safe and peaceful.
As he sat on the bench with only his backpack beside him, Verwey looked out at the wetlands and the mountains rising beyond the water.
“I am perfectly content with being homeless out here,” he said. “This is God’s country.”