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03-08-2023, 09:30 AM
Updated 5:46 AM GMT+8, August 3, 2023
HOUSTON (AP) — A man has been found not guilty of breaking a law against feeding homeless people outside a public library in Houston, concluding the first trial to be held after dozens of tickets were issued against volunteers for the group Food Not Bombs.
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City regulations on who can provide free meals outdoors to those in need were enacted in 2012. The ordinance requires such groups to get permission from property owners if they feed more than five people
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Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner had said tickets were being issued in part because of an increased number of threats and violent incidents directed at employees and visitors to the library by homeless individuals. The office said the city had started providing meals and other services for homeless individuals at an approved facility located about a mile (.6 kilometer) north of the library.
“We simply cannot lose control of the iconic and historic building that is intended to be a special and safe place for all,” the mayor’s office said.
Cooper said that the approved location wasn’t ideal because it is close to a police station
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Bans on sharing food with people who are experiencing homeless are not new.
......
Among the most notable cases was against Arnold Abbott, a 90-year-old World War II veteran, in 2014 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Abbott was charged with violating an ordinance that restricted public feeding of the homeless. He later obtained a state-court injunction against the rule on the grounds it violated Florida’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act
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Donald H. Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said many American cities have seen a rise in the number of people who are homeless.
But efforts to criminalize homelessness — or acts of help — fail to address its root causes, such as the lack of affordable housing, Whitehead said.
“We’re creating housing in this country, but it’s not housing that is targeting people at the lowest end of the economic ladder,” Whitehead said Wednesday. “Most of the housing that we’re building are luxury apartments and high-end apartments.”
https://apnews.com/article/houston-homel...51b2331492
HOUSTON (AP) — A man has been found not guilty of breaking a law against feeding homeless people outside a public library in Houston, concluding the first trial to be held after dozens of tickets were issued against volunteers for the group Food Not Bombs.
......
City regulations on who can provide free meals outdoors to those in need were enacted in 2012. The ordinance requires such groups to get permission from property owners if they feed more than five people
......
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner had said tickets were being issued in part because of an increased number of threats and violent incidents directed at employees and visitors to the library by homeless individuals. The office said the city had started providing meals and other services for homeless individuals at an approved facility located about a mile (.6 kilometer) north of the library.
“We simply cannot lose control of the iconic and historic building that is intended to be a special and safe place for all,” the mayor’s office said.
Cooper said that the approved location wasn’t ideal because it is close to a police station
......
Bans on sharing food with people who are experiencing homeless are not new.
......
Among the most notable cases was against Arnold Abbott, a 90-year-old World War II veteran, in 2014 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Abbott was charged with violating an ordinance that restricted public feeding of the homeless. He later obtained a state-court injunction against the rule on the grounds it violated Florida’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act
......
Donald H. Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said many American cities have seen a rise in the number of people who are homeless.
But efforts to criminalize homelessness — or acts of help — fail to address its root causes, such as the lack of affordable housing, Whitehead said.
“We’re creating housing in this country, but it’s not housing that is targeting people at the lowest end of the economic ladder,” Whitehead said Wednesday. “Most of the housing that we’re building are luxury apartments and high-end apartments.”
https://apnews.com/article/houston-homel...51b2331492
