Illegal to Be Homeless

Myrtle Beach Restricts Access to Food

Why are most cities so horrible in dealing with poor people? Is it that they do not understand how those with a low-income live or is it just a single-minded focus on pandering to those with political connections? I can at least understand this desire on behalf of business and government to target homeless people with laws in order to hide such a visible sign of failed leadership. I do not understand when cities restrict access to food served by highly devout religious congregations. Myrtle Beach recently passed a law against feeding homeless people without a license. These groups are only allowed to apply for four licenses to feed per year. These laws are a useless waste of money. Churches will come together and fight the cities over these feeding bans. As happened in Orlando, they will sue, and the city, typically, will lose. Any questions? Ask San Francisco, Las Vegas or anyone of the many cities in Florida that tried this strategy, but failed.

NEOCH in Cleveland worked to try to come to some compromise on these feeding issues. Not until listening to all of these various interests, did I realize how deep seated the religious organizations feel about bringing food downtown. Some of these churches were far away from Cleveland, but felt that it was a part of their very existence to distribute food. After all, in this modern world that often is detached from the words contained in the 2000 year old writings in the Bible, feeding poor people is a clear directive lifted straight out of the Bible.

"Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day."--Isaiah 58:10

It is clear in the Bible (Matthew and Romans) that the Christian God commands the devout to go out and feed the hungry. There is no chance for misinterpretation or confusion. How can a city government mess with this expression of Christian faith? I was surprised how strong this faith was in the delivery of food to homeless people in Cleveland. No matter that the outreach workers were concerned about the lack of nutrition or coordination. No matter that the Public Square was nearly completely shut down with the Euclid Corridor construction project. The religious groups pressed on bringing warm soup, pasta, and their ministry to the streets in snow, rain, and opposition by downtown businesses. We were able to strike a compromise with a few of the churches to relocate the largest meals to a neutral site, but it took many months and wading through some anger. The City of Cleveland did not want to give out tickets or pass a law, but they could no longer tolerate the mess, the clean up costs, and the lack of coordination taking place on the streets.

I was quoted in one of the editorials from The Sun News by the paper, which expressed some skepticism about this decision by the Myrtle Beach City Council. Most of these fundamentalist churches who minister to people on the streets do not like each other. They come from different faiths, and are suspicious of other Christians or Jews, but when facing legal restrictions will join together to fight City hall. They will compromise, but limiting their faith to four feeding times per year is unacceptable. So, instead of working on why people are hungry or living in a park in Myrtle Beach, their City Council will spend the next year fighting to preserve this law. They will continue to get federal funds to support homeless and hunger programs, while trying to make it illegal for the faith community to help. It is always amazing how short sighted city leadership is in dealing with poor people.

Brian
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