There are very few things out there that most people would describe as unequivocally good. I’d like to be naïve enough to think that “feeding the hungry” would be among those things, but I’ve lived in America long enough and encountered enough Ayn Rand acolytes to know that isn’t the case. Still, it hardly seems like the kind of thing that anyone would say there ought to be a law against.
And yet it is! At least in Houston, Texas, which decided last month to start enforcing a decade-old law making it illegal to feed the unhoused and indigent. Since then the city has issued 47 tickets to anti-hunger activists just trying to ensure that the poor don’t go hungry.
Specifically, the ordinance bans “feeding more than five people in need without permission of the property owner, even in a public space.”
Enforcement seems to be specifically targeting a Food Not Bombs chapter, which has been serving freegan meals to the homeless outside the city’s library for many years now. When the ordinance was first issued, Food Not Bombs was actually given explicit permission by the then-mayor to continue their program outside the library, but new leadership has revoked it.
The city set up their own free meals program in the parking lot of a police station (I suppose to make up for the fact that they are shutting so many programs down) and now insists that anyone who wants to give out free meals to the unhoused must do so there. This also seems to be a way of getting Food Not Bombs out of the picture entirely, as it is a largely anarchist operation and not exactly pro-cop. (Full and probably unnecessary disclosure: I have done Food Not Bombs)
Food Not Bombs, for those who don’t know, is a global anti-hunger program with no hierarchical organization — ie: anyone can go out right now and start a chapter in their city if they want. Chapters get donations from local supermarkets, bakeries and produce markets and make healthy vegetarian meals which they then serve to indigent populations. The only rules, really, are that the food must be vegetarian or vegan and that it must be donated, not bought, so as to also combat food waste.
This is, unfortunately, not the first run-in a chapter has had with the police.
Via Food Not Bombs:
The United States government started to claim we were "America's Most Hardcore Terrorist Groups" soon after we were first arrested for sharing free vegan meals in Golden Gate Park in the fall of 1988 – a year before the end of the Cold War. All we had done was claim we had the right to feed the hungry in protest to war and poverty. Military contractors are worried that we might influence the public to realize our taxes could be spent on human needs instead of war, and that this could threaten their billions of dollars in profits from arming the United States government. The U.S. government was also concerned that our failure to stop sharing food as directed would threaten their ability to manipulate the hungry by moving food programs to more desirable locations or by threatening to withhold food if the public didn't cooperate with the authorities. Since we will provide food wherever and whenever it is needed, this interferes with the government’s ability to use food for social control.
This week, the city put the first person on trial for feeding the hungry — and to their dismay, the wanton criminal was found “not guilty.” Following that, a court dismissed 8 other tickets for the same “crime.” But the city is not done with them yet.
“The City of Houston intends to vigorously pursue violations of its ordinance relating to feeding of the homeless,” said Houston city attorney Arturo Michel said in a statement emailed Sunday after the first Food Not Bombs trial. In another charitable feeding ordinance trial, unrelated to Food Not Bombs, the city won a $1 fine plus court costs against a pro-se defendant, meaning the defendant did not have legal representation.
“It is a health and safety issue for the protection of Houston’s residents," Michel said. "There have been complaints and incidents regarding the congregation of the homeless around the library, even during off hours." The city has also decided to stop using the Central Library as an official cooling center during heat emergencies like the one this week.
Well gee, it’s not like they can go home, now is it?
If the city cares so much about the “health and safety” of Houston’s residents, perhaps they should spend less time trying to ticket people for feeding the unhoused and more time finding places for them to live?
It is worth noting, given the Food Not Bombs of it all, that while we may have approximately 582,462 people experiencing homelessness in our nation, and while we can’t have nice things like healthcare and food and homes for everyone, that at least we’re spending $33.3 billion on new naval ships next year, because who knows when we’re gonna have to go to war at sea.
If you would like to volunteer for your local chapter or start one of your own, info can be found here.
OPEN THREAD!
When I started this position, I took a $15K cut. It was hard, but I was able to do ok and I really wanted to work with these folks. Also when I started, (a year ago come August 18), I was told that a salary survey was being completed (salary ranges had last been updated in 2000 or something ridiculous like that). The salary survey was completed...and then it was time to take it to the tribal council for approval.
6 votes later (they just kept tabling the vote), it finally got through. I'm pretty sure they changed the level of my position (because we get funded by IHS, we use the federal government system) and my new salary is a $25K increase from what I have been making for the last year.
My Executive Director rocks.
Depression has still got me bad today, but no more suicidal thoughts, thank God. I haven’t been talking much but trust me, you guys are helping. Just lurking and reading comments from people I like and agree with helps me feel better. Here’s a photo of Pretzel helping me too: https://substack.com/@ipso/note/c-21925868?r=2kpaef&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action