[Houston Chronicle] Houston just started enforcing a decade-old ban on feeding the homeless. Volunteers are fighting back.
[Houston Chronicle] Houston just started enforcing a decade-old ban on feeding the homeless. Volunteers are fighting back.
https://archive.is/ZZcga#selection-261.0-261.102
Volunteers giving out free meals with the organization Food Not Bombs have wracked up 40 tickets seeking more than $10,000 in fines since March 1, four weeks before visitors began pouring into downtown for the Final Four.
The Houston law they were charged with violating — an ordinance against giving away meals unless you have permission from the property where you’re doing it, even if the property is public — was put in place by City Council in 2012 but largely had gone unenforced for over a decade, municipal records show.
This is such a ridiculous law that goes against any common sense. It seems like such a gross violation of basic human rights. How is it allowed to stand in the "leader of the free world"?
They try to frame it as disrupting places of business or as a health concern because the meals being handed out aren't regulated by any food service organization. This of course ignores the fact that Food Not Bombs were giving away meals outside of the public library, after hours, and the fact that the homeless population wouldn't necessarily otherwise be able to get any food at all.