Rather than keeping you guessing about my lawbreaking exploits, I’ll confess my crime. I feed homeless people. [everyone gasp here] “I can’t believe you Richard…I am so disappointed! Wait. What??” [everyone scratch your head now] You read correctly; my crime is taking food to homeless people.

San Antonio has is home to about 25,000 people each year. At anytime, you can go downtown and encounter a few thousand people living on the streets. Over the past year and a half, I have been privileged to meet and serve some of these people. This past fall, the church I work with launched a college ministry with the expressed purpose of connecting college students with those in need locally (namely the poor, hungry and homeless).

San Antonio has been blessed with a new project providing homeless individuals and families with the training, skills and assistance needed to help them become self-sufficient. This project is Haven for Hope. And it is amazing! I believe it will make a difference in many lives. Haven for Hope is structured in a way that allows (even encourages) community organizations, like churches, to partner with them to help hurting people in San Antonio.

The reality is, that Haven for Hope is not for everyone. There are some (admittedly often by their own choosing) who will not benefit for Haven for Hope. This is compounded by the fact that Haven for Hope’s downtown campus has experiences some delays and is not even fully opened.

Here is where the illegality begins.

The opening of Haven for Hope has given some city officials the opportunity needed to “clean up the streets”. Efforts have already been made to relocate people from areas highly populated by homeless San Antonians (namely and area called “Under the Bridge”). Not sure where exactly they expect them to go. Haven for Hope will only hold about 1,500 when fully opened, which it is not yet. To make matters worse, it seems the city is now restricting the benevolence of individuals and organizations by requiring a permit to give away food, making it effectively illegal to feed homeless in San Antonio. Check out a local news story about the new restrictions.

I understand the complications and liabilities associated with the large homeless population San Antonio has. And, I’m sure that some of these decisions are made by well intentioned people. These new restrictions do however complicate the lives of many benevolent people. Speaking idealistically for a moment, shouldn’t government make it easier for people to help people.

So how should I proceed? What should I do with my new found “criminal” status? For now, I will continue with business as usual. Our college ministry will proceed with its scheduled Serve SA event coming up soon where we will pack lunches for a few hundred of our homeless neighbors. I will look into getting permits to make it all legit and legal and hope the city doesn’t start fining in the mean time.

4 Responses to “Apparently I’m a Criminal”

1. Stephen says:

   March 31, 2010 at 4:47 pm

   I think this is a perfect opportunity to break the law. If you’re fined or whatever, react in a way that unmasks the powers. Use it as a platform to point out the oppressive nature of the law. (This may, of course, require not paying the fine.) I imagine your impudence will be ignored, but if it’s not, you’ll need a game plan. Maybe you don’t even have to wait for the new law to be enforced. Maybe you could right an article and submit it to the local paper. You may not gain the support of all the locals (some would prefer the legislation if it means “cleaner” streets, thank you very much), but you would be exposing injustice for all to see.
2. Stuart says:

   March 31, 2010 at 9:19 pm

   Do they think homeless will come from cities far and wide to cash in on the homeless assistance? (Anyone see that Southpark? “Change…change…”)

   Anyway, I don’t think the gov’t should make it easier, necessarily, but I def don’t think they should interfere.

   I’d try to jump through the hoops. Ideally, I’d “break the law” if it meant helping someone, although I may consider legal routes to help. Creativity may be required.
3. Nunzio says:

   April 1, 2010 at 1:04 pm

   Jesus did his best work among the sinners and needy of his time, where ever he found them. He did not try to herd them somewhere for the sake of safety. The Mayor was on the radio this morning. As usual, the rhetoric was that it was for the homeless folks own good. The fact that most of what he said sounded good does not make it right. The way I understand it these rules will end up hurting these folks by making it more trouble than many organizations will bother with to help them. We can no longer just take a morning, make some meals and give them away. We will have to buy permits (assuming the city will approve). The expense and time consumption will stop most groups.

   More to the point, Richard yes you are a criminal.
4. richard says:

   April 1, 2010 at 6:33 pm

   @Stuart, by “make it easier” I mainly meant stay out of the way, very unlike the current situation.