Billionaire Developer/Owner of Malibu Colony Plaza at Standstill Against Vagrancy and Crime
By Cece Woods
In May 2016, the Metro line began service from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. The easy access to the west side by criminals and vagrants generated a noticeable uptick in crime in Malibu. The increased criminal activity has reached levels of extreme concern for public safety.
Most business owners, including the Malibu Country Mart, Whole Foods, and the Lumber Yard, have hired additional armed security presence, a strategy that significantly improves safety and shopping experience for residents and visitors. This effort has proven to be largely successful in reducing crime and keeping vagrants off the properties.
However, one shopping center, Malibu Colony Plaza, owned by Malibu resident billionaire Stan Kroenke, is now a hub for vagrants and criminals who find it a convenient place to stay because their guards are unwilling, or incapable, of actually doing the job to keep visitors safe.
Kroenke purchased the property in 2005, is currently listed on Forbes at #49 (as of 1/10/20) with a net worth of $9.7B. Kroenke is also rated by Daily Mail as the fifth largest property owner in the United States, owning 1.4M acres.
Tenants, activists, residents, and powerful members of the community who socialize with Kroenke, have made repeated attempts to reason with Kroenke Group for the last few years to clean up the center. Activists and concerned residents often take to social media posting harrowing experiences with vagrancy including incidents of harassment, vehicle break-ins, violent attacks, and individuals defecating and urinating in public areas on Kroenke’s property. Appeals for added security have gone ignored by the billionaire developer who allows this unsafe and unsanitary activity to continue on his property.
Kroenke’s failure to provide adequate security, despite his alleged wealth, adds undue pressure on the Lost Hills Sheriff’s station who were forced to step up their patrols to Kroenke’s property, wasting taxpayer resources on this center, leaving other areas of Malibu (serviced by LASD) vulnerable to criminal activity.
Many of the retail spaces have remained vacant for over a decade, attracting criminal activity and the center’s unarmed, untrained personnel are often seen socializing with vagrants rather than protecting patrons and tenants.
Residents who are aware of this activity, are terrified to visit the center after dark, knowing there is no security capable of managing vagrants and criminal activity.
Homelessness Reaching Historic Levels
The Short Term Rental market has significantly contributed to homelessness in CA. overall, creating a sharp increase in rental rates, and lack of affordable long term rentals.
The middle and low income population resort to living in RVs, many of which can be seen parked along PCH, as well as many homeless encampments popping up in the civic center, and throughout the the area.
The $30M Legacy Park, owned and managed by the City of Malibu, is now a dangerous criminal drug den. Public drug use may be seen during all hours of the day and night. Drug addicts have now established permanent residency in and around the park. The area is no longer safe during daylight hours, forcing LASD to waste additional resources monitoring Legacy Park, as the City is not maintaining the property in an efficient manner to discourage these types of criminal activity.
The very visible and seemingly out of control homeless issue significantly impacted the community’s quality of life as well as the local real estate market. Agents grapple with frequent trespassers on their unoccupied properties, and tents are popping up everywhere, turning our once idyllic coastal town into what is now reminiscent of a “third world country”.
Helping or Hurting?
Organizations like CART and The People’s Concern have made great strides in assisting individuals who want to get back into functioning society, however, by continuing to host local lunches at the Malibu Library and Zuma Beach, they encourage vagrants to stay, without the existence of resources on site to help these individuals.
The free meals are provided at the library on Tuesdays and Fridays, with additional free meals being delivered to the encampments and on beaches such as Zuma. Many community members believe by continuing to make these lunches available, they are contributing to a growing homeless population, instead of reducing it.
Our library is now no longer safe for our local families and visitors because it has become overrun with with criminal vagrants and drug addicts leaving drug dangerous paraphernalia behind for visitors, residents, and our children to find.
Local churches learned the hard way in 2017, after servicing the homeless for over 17 years. City Council asked the churches to eliminate free dinners, a much needed action, after many incidents of disturbing violent acts occurred and residents homes were broken into.
The controversial move made headlines including in this L.A. Times article, intending to manipulate readers to believe Malibu residents did not want to feed the homeless, when in reality, it was a crucial public safety move to protect residents’ from dangerous criminal vagrants that were attending these feedings.
Recently, The Local Malibu received this letter from a member of the community addressing the homeless issue:
Dear Editor,
I’d like to add some feedback to the Malibu Magazine article on homelessness, which left out some concerns. I don’t always agree with your bold approach, but I believe they said as much as they felt they could. Perhaps you may bolster a few more public concerns about this issue.
I agree with Malibu Magazine that inadequate laws are encouraging vagrancy, but I do not feel they went far enough to explain how we could fight this legally to protect our economy. Malibu homeless & advocates are wrong if they think they may utilize Boise vs Idaho, which has very specific language that still allows us to enforce our own laws to protect working taxpayers & businesses. Malibu & its leaders must fight back against vagrancy. The City has already hired private guards for the library, an area overrun with vagrants. The City, & anyone else who can afford to, should consider hiring more guards & private security companies like IPS.
With the lack of necessary support from LA County for social services, we must think of our town’s safety before serving the needs of people who bring nothing but crime, disease, and drugs. Malibu Magazine left out the fact that LA County is no longer supporting St. Joseph’s Center, which was a critical part of our City’s plan. Additionally, Malibu’s Homeless Strategic Plan was wiped from LA County’s website – nonetheless after the devastation of Woolsey Fire. The City of Malibu first launched the Homeless Strategic Plan with intent to eliminate all homeless – as many cities, they leaned on “housing first.” Now, LA County is forcing us deal with individuals who could care less about having a home. We paid into Measure H & we are getting no help from the county with vagrancy.
The nation’s fifth largest Major landowner, Stan Kroenke, has burdened us with his Wal-Mart model. Ralph’s Colony Plaza tenants waited years for retrofits such as façade & sewer upgrades. Numerous residents have witnessed Kroenke’s paid guards do nothing about vagrants who take drugs & defecate in public all day, to crash out overnight in the parking lot as well as the spaces he’s left vacant for over a decade. It is a shame to see such a large shareholder refusing to properly address the crime swamping his retail chain, our community, & public workers. Anyone can clearly see now why Ralph’s Colony Plaza is empty & everyone flocks to Whole Foods – IPS significantly increases safety by forcing vagrants out.
With all the enormous developers and retail chains coming in, we cannot forget our true character. We do not have the bandwidth to deal with urban issues. We should work to relocate the homeless lunches & eliminate any feeding within city limits. It is damaging our retail economy. Since LA County is not offering us more, the parties interested in supporting the homeless should do so on LA County property. An increase in crime causes our property values to decrease while loss prevention costs & insurance rates increase. We need to restructure the labor yard to eliminate any vagrants who are not looking for work. These are two things we can control immediately. We should look to other nearby beach towns enforcing ordinances against trespassing, abandoning personal belongings, parking overnight, & publicly feeding vagrants.
Signed,
Concerned Citizen
In November 2019, LA County removed St. Joseph Center, the largest homeless outreach team, instructing them to officially pull out and cease all operations in the City of Malibu. Additionally, LA County stripped our city from the Homeless Initiative website.
The time has come for citizens to demand action from our City leaders. Malibu City Council must work with business and property owners who service the community, to provide a safe environment to patronize local businesses without being in fear for our safety.
City Council must immediately request local homeless to relocate feedings to areas where social services are available to assist individuals interested in rehabilitating and re-entering society.
If these protocols are not put in place, Malibu as we knew it will never be the safe haven it once was.
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