Catholic Worker Movement

Ted Von der Ahe walks past clusters of shopping carts to reach the well-scrubbed building where he works with food, the commodity that made the Vons grocery heir rich. But these shopping carts are heaped with the ragged belongings of the homeless, and the food is free. Von der Ahe dishes it up as a part-time volunteer for the Los Angeles Catholic Worker soup kitchen on skid row.

In an effort to settle a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Catholic Worker homeless shelter, Santa Ana city officials said Friday they will suspend efforts to shut down the facility and reconsider the zoning laws that it is violating. Seven Catholic Worker staffers, who run the two-story Isaiah House on a residential street, provide about 10,000 meals for the poor each month and shelter more than 140 people on busy nights.

No one disagrees that too many homeless families are taking refuge at the rented two-story Craftsman home in Santa Ana. Deep into November, with money from government checks all but gone, their numbers have swollen to more than 120, including 70 children. At night, the lucky families who get to sleep inside on the wood floors huddle under blankets, comforters and sleeping bags. Hacking coughs and the cries of babies punctuate the evening silence -- a small price for a sturdy roof overhead.