A home for the holidays

Tariq Malik

There will be a Christmas dinner for Jimmy Carter.

The 44-year-old Huntington Beach transient is rejoicing at the

kindness of others this year as he prepares to spend his first Christmas

in a long time with a family.

“It’s very uplifting to me,” said Carter, adding that he credits God,

whose Catholic teachings he follows devoutly, with his good fortune. “It

makes this Christmas so exciting.”

With his clothes, sleeping bag, fishing pole and other possessions

strapped to a mover’s dolly with bungee cords, Carter, a retired janitor

originally from Pico Rivera, is looking forward to this weekend.

So is resident Cecilia Boal, who believes that while their population

may be small, transients should be remembered during the holidays.

Boal, a 20-year Surf City resident, is Carter’s benefactor and has

known him the 10 years he’s camped along the city beaches. On

Thanksgiving, she invited him to her home for dinner and has done so

again for Christmas.

Any time a person can help someone less fortunate is good, said Boal,

adding that it need not be as extreme as taking someone into a home.

“We’ve done this sort of thing all throughout the year,” Boal said.

“Before I even met Jimmy, my family put together bags of food with juice,

chips and other nonperishables to give out to people we met around the

year.”

Carter said Boal is the best friend he has and that she has saved him

from starving in the past.

“I think it’s the responsibility of those filled with love, rather

than the responsibility of society to care for these people,” said Oden

Fong, Poiema Chapel pastor and president of Covering Wings, an

organization that manufactures waterproof blankets for the needy. “It

seems like people only remember the homeless and less fortunate around

this time of year . . . and granted it is our busiest season.”

Huntington Beach police said most of the city’s homeless residents

live near the beaches, but they usually number just a couple dozen in a

city of 200,000. That number is echoed in Fountain Valley, where church

officials said the transient population is also small in their city.

Fountain Valley United Methodist Church volunteers hold Welcome Home

ministries for the homeless each Saturday, offering food, haircuts,

devotional time and job training.

“We have had up to 20 people attend before, but there’s typically

about five or six regulars,” said Ken Nehrbass, the children’s pastor at

the church. “

Fong said the main reason the population is lower in Huntington Beach

and Fountain Valley is because there aren’t many food kitchens and

shelters to offer a steady source of sustenance.

Carter doesn’t mind the lack of options because he rarely strays from

his perch near Tower 11, south of the city’s pier.

“What matters is that it’s Christmas,” he said. “It’s a time of year

to remember that God loves you . . . and if you remember that, good

things will happen.”