Police in Houston have recently renewed their fight against Food Not Bombs and have ticketed at least one group more than 40 times for over $10,000 for the illegal violation of “FEEDING HOMELESS” (quote from the charge)
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/...
I was curious what this was about.
The article cites this page[1] on Houston Health Department's website which I thought was pretty clear and concise guidance. 61 Riesner St is listed as the city-sanctioned address.
I then wondered: How far is this city-sanctioned location from the Julia Ideson Building mentioned in the article?
Google Maps suggests it's just under a mile away; an 18-min walk or 5-min drive[2].
So the brouhaha is that this group racks up 40 citations for refusing to conduct affairs at a nearby city-sanctioned location in defiance of standing ordinance, then parades the civil disobedience on a t-shirt logo as a mocking gesture in court for the selfies because..."the work being done could also be seen as beautiful, fit for the steps of neaby City Hall"?
One step forward, two steps back...color me unimpressed.
[1] https://www.houstonhealth.org/services/permits/food-permits/...
[2] https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Julia+Ideson+Building,+550+M...
That doesn't seem like an entirely unreasonable law -- assuming, of course, that permission is routinely given when the location is publicly-owned (which I wouldn't bet on)... but what a shitty thing to write on the citation.
There is a permission to feed homeless on public property process that orgs have followed, and the result is police giving absurd restrictions to make it useless for achieving the goal (eg requiring the location to be far away and dangerous so that homeless populations won’t travel to it). Police fight it through abusing their power and criminalizing alternatives. Here’s a better article https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-may...
It is also illegal to be homeless in Texas as of 2021: if you lie or sit in public spaces, it’s a misdemeanor
Sounds like the best step forward is to reach out to a local property owner for permission.
That's the point of the law. The property owners won't give permission because they would rather the homeless not be fed and go elsewhere. There are already locations where meals are given to the homeless; this is to discourage bringing the food to wherever the homeless may be in the event that they're not wanted there.
So if there's a rule, follow it? It's illegal to be homeless in Texas, but it's legal to ask permission to sleep on a local owner's property. Sounds like what you're recommending. Do you think that is working?
Btw the process for feeding on public property was pursued and made impractical by police due to unreasonable restrictions. The permission process is broken by design.