Meals on Wheels may have to park it
By WINTER JOHNSON Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN — Because of financial challenges faced by First Christian Church — the home of Meals on Wheels West for more than 20 years — the food provider might have to come to a permanent stop.
As a congregation that seats a maximum of 50 people, the church has been facing increasing financial difficulty over the last five years, leading to the possibility of a sale, which the board will decide upon next week. During the first 15 years of their tenancy, Meals on Wheels West (MOWW) paid rents ranging from $300 to $600 a month. However, for the past five years they have paid $1,750 a month, and with the possibility of the church selling its property, rent has increased from the usual $1,750 to $3,000 per month. As a result of the church’s most recent rent hike, MOWW will have to move its locale.
MOWW was established in 1974 by the West Side Ecumenical Conference and became a separate entity in 1996. The nonprofit organization focuses on providing well-balanced meals to those who are homebound and unable to cook for themselves. A large portion of MOWW clients are elderly, said executive director RoseMary Regalbuto.
First Christian Church was underwriting the MOWW expenses for many years, thereby leading to a lower rental rate than it would have charged for another nonprofit organization tenant, said pastor Bill Miles. In addition, the church has covered all utility bills for the building. However, the low rental prices have become economically impossible for the church, which led to the rent increase five years ago.
“We may have gone economically too far,” said Miles when asked about the sale, who attributes his opinion to First Christian Church board chairperson Gina Hattenbach, Esq. “If we had charged them what we are charging now, we might not be in a position where we need to sell the property to survive.”
The church has been at its present location since 1924.
Regalbuto said that while MOWW is open to a range of possibilities for a new home, including purchasing a facility, it must have a loading and unloading option, or a parking lot in order to meet the needs of the program, and office space of between 1,100 and 1,400 square feet.
“We’ve been looking at all the options,” Regalbuto said. “We’re open to almost any ideas.”
The lack of available property that meets MOWW’s qualifications leads to its current dilemma. MOWW is looking to pay between $1,500 and $2,000 a month for rent. But according to Regalbuto, the spaces they have found so far are at least $3 per square foot, leading to a monthly minimum of $3,300. That price does not include utilities.
Vince Muselli, president of Muselli Commercial Realtors, said prices for rental space in Santa Monica vary widely, from $1.75 per square foot on Lincoln Boulevard or Pico Boulevard, to $4 per square foot on Wilshire Boulevard. Over the last five years, Wilshire Boulevard rates have doubled and the other streets’ rates have raised as much as 50 percent.
At its current $3,000 rent, MOWW is at risk of going out of business entirely because it would have to go into its cash reserves in order to make payments, according to MOWW board member Barbara Bishop.
More than 400 people will be affected in the event of MOWW’s closure, giving some clients no choice but to relocate to nursing homes.
“The biggest part of Meals on Wheels is the social contact that the volunteers provide,” Regalbuto said. “Traditionally these people are more frail and isolated. It is important that Meals on Wheels is there for these clients.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 23, 2005. Read the original PDF.