post

Houston Mayor Begins Targeting Volunteers With Police

Houston Food Not Bombs is a local group of independent volunteers that provides meals to the homeless people of downtown Houston. CHRON reports that the group is one of many that is “under attack” by a decade old ordinance that is now being enforced as the city was drawing near to its host date of this year’s 2023 NCAA Final Four. They are now facing crackdowns from Houston PD thanks to the mayor’s direction.

              The issue began with the city’s deciding to now start enforcing a controversial charitable feeding ordinance law that was passed back in 2012. The ordinance states that anyone providing meals to more than five people in need require permission from the property owner to do so, even on public property. This meant the only approved public location was at the same site as Houston PD’s police property room.

Houston Mayor Begins Targeting Volunteers With Police
Food Not Bombs volunteers Tilal Ahmed, center, and Shere Dore provide a meal to a man looking for food by the Houston Public Library - Central Library, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, in Houston. Credit: Marie D. De Jesús/CHRON staff photographer

For groups such as Houston Food Not Bombs to be successful they’re adamant it is best to come to the people in need, wherever they may be. One of their best sites for providing meals is the plaza in front of the downtown Central Library. Where they noticed that Houston PD put up notices threatening fines and tickets for charity groups after February 24th. The first ticket for these violations was given to a member of Houston Food Not Bombs on March 1st. After the initial ticket multiple members of their group as well as a member of a separate religious group providing meals for the homeless have been issued. The Houston PD has also gone beyond ticketing and threatening arrest for one member, Shere Dore, after she received her second ticket. Shere Dore also does volunteer work with a few Islamic organizations that have been feeding people in need by the library, doing the volunteer work four nights a week. She says their efforts help feed hundreds of people on a single night, Tuesdays being the busiest and feeding upwards to 250 people in a single night.

The looming threats of Houston PD moving on to arrests has already caused a drop in the number of volunteers being found helping the many homeless people in the area.  Dore said the threat has already caused one of the Islamic groups she works for to relocate to the official city-sanctioned area. While others have paused their work to assess the risks and what they should do next. “This appears to be the first instance of anyone in Houston being ticketed under this horrific law. The mayor is taking HPD’s time and efforts away from violent crimes, human trafficking, and corruption in government, and sending cops to intimidate people who are doing nothing wrong, and are in fact helping the city’s most vulnerable. He should be ashamed of himself,” said Houston Food Not Bombs volunteer Nick Cooper.

              Mary Benton, director of communications for the office of Mayor Sylvester Turner, defended the new crackdowns on volunteers saying there was, “an increase in the number of threats and violence incidents directed at visitors and employees.” Benton was also quoted saying, “Parents and families have expressed they no longer feel comfortable visiting the library or holding special events. We hope the library can serve as a safe, inclusive place for all to come and visit. That’s why we are providing a dedicated, alternative charitable food service at 61 Riesner Street. This location has the infrastructure and amenities needed to provide services and food to Houstonians in need. By shifting food services to an alternative location, we can maintain the integrity and historic nature of Houston’s Public Library while serving all Houstonians with the dignity they deserve.”

              Benton also provided one news outlet with a version of the notices that were posted at the library before the police began enforcing the controversial ordinance. Stating the city is, “informing citizens about the updated Houston Health Department rules and regulations governing charitable food service events on public property.” The notice saying, “The city supports, and is grateful for, the charitable food services provided throughout the City. To assist efforts, the City is providing an appropriate location with necessary requirements for a safe, clean, and respectful environment.”

              Dore however is skeptical about the city’s statement as to why they have decided to now start enforcing the ordinance. She believes it’s really being done as a means to “clean up” downtown and revitalize it as a hot spot as the city will be hosting the NCAA Final Four. Other advocates also say that volunteer groups and those they help feed being targeting doesn’t fall in line with Houston’s recent claims of being a beacon for fighting homelessness. Some find the move particularly odd as volunteers faced no threats of jail or tickets for doing the same work when the city hosted other major events such as Super Bowl LI in 2017. Although during those events the homeless Houstonians themselves were targeted by sweeps, tickets, and arrests.

              Dore is also critical of the city’s bold claims to successfully addressing the homelessness issue it faces. She did volunteer work for the Salvation Army as well as other non-profits in 2014 thru 2015. The goal of the work was to get an accurate count of the homeless in the city. But according to her the numbers don’t add up. “The more people you count, the more money you get.” She stated in reference to tax and grant money used for the project. Nick Cooper said, “There is so much data that Homeless Counts are inaccurate. And shockingly, the counts are conducted by those who only get funding when the number of homeless go down.”  The language used by the mayor also speaks volumes to the groups and the homeless alike with statements like, “retaking the Central Library Downtown.”

              The first Houston Food Not Bombs member to be ticketed has already filed a lawsuit against the city. Although it’s not the first time the law has been challenged via the judicial branch, it is the first in a long time. The others were dismissed due to a “lack of cause” but with the issuing of tickets and threats of arrest they are hopeful the case can move forward. Food Not Bombs in Fort Lauderdale, Florida successfully won a similar case against a city ordinance. The defense being that the sharing of food with Food Not Bomb’s central Anti-War, Pro-Vegetarian message are worthy of constitutional protection under the first amendment.

              Dore says the unhoused and food-insecure served by the various volunteer groups in Houston are standing behind the groups and their fight against the unjust ordinance. They are hopeful the city will repeal the ordinance. “The homeless are people too, and they deserve to be respected.” Says Dore.

              Sadly, Houston is far from the only city to enforce such measures against those simply helping others in their time of need. It is all too common to see law enforcement doing the bidding of lawmakers against citizens trying to make a difference. Whether it’s through fines, threats of prison, or even destroying food and goods made available for those in need, there are far too many examples of the state using force against peaceful people trying to make their communities a better place. 

             

 

             

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on email
Email
Share on print
Print
post

Quit Helping or Go to Jail

This article, "Quit Helping or Go To Jail," was written by our volunteer David Day.

Living in south Louisiana was difficult in 2005, specifically because of two names: Katrina and Rita. These two hurricanes have had lasting effects that no one could have ever imagined.

If you wind back the clock a little bit, in 2005 the invasion of Iraq by the United States was still in full swing, and many of the engineers with the Louisiana National Guard were deployed oversees. So, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall and decades of corruption and mismanagement surrounding the government’s levee systems came crashing down, many people died and many more lost all their worldly possessions. Louisianans were left with nowhere to go, and with no timeline as to when things would be “fixed.”

I witnessed friends and family volunteering 12-to-16-hour days doing things like cooking, cleaning, and providing essentials.

At the time I was a freshman in high school living in a little town outside of Lake Charles, LA. While I did not personally know anyone who was affected from Katrina, I knew that I needed to help. My family and I decided to volunteer at the Lake Charles Civic Center which was the primary hub where the city was taking in those affected by the storm. In some sense it was a typical setup: there were rooms with cots lined up in rows, making a grid that spanned the entire Civic Center, but in another sense the Lake Charles Civic Center was atypical because of how much the volunteers cared for our brothers and sisters from the eastern side of the state. Something that I am proud of to this day is that we would serve Louisiana staples like gumbo, jambalaya, and pasta while other places would serve bread with spam—or worse—and call it a meal.

I witnessed friends and family volunteering 12-to-16-hour days doing things like cooking, cleaning, and providing essentials. Because of the increase in phone traffic, it was very difficult to make or receive phone calls, so I taught some of the volunteers how to use text messaging. They in turn reached out and taught people displaced from the hurricane how to text. Some people had loved ones that they were not able to reach out to and let them know that they were safe until we showed them how to use text messaging.

Then the unthinkable happened: while still serving the victims of Katrina, we discovered that an even stronger storm was in the Gulf of Mexico, only this time it was headed straight towards Lake Charles. Because of the tremendous loss of life resulting from government’s failures surrounding Hurricane Katrina, it seemed like the state was going to overcompensate by issuing a mandatory evacuation much earlier and enforcing the evacuation order with much more intensity.

The deputies said that if we tried to continue helping people, we would be taken to jail.

While some volunteers evacuated on their own, many of us, including me, wanted to stay to help until the very last minute. Unfortunately, the Sheriff’s office unilaterally decided that the remaining volunteers did not need our help anymore. I will never forget deputies coming into the Civic Center kitchen and ordering me and the other volunteers to leave. The deputies said that if we tried to continue helping people, we would be taken to jail.

As a young teenager, this was a critical moment in my life. I remember evacuating to Pont Breaux shortly afterward and thinking to myself: “Why would they want us to stop helping?” We understood the risk. We understood the timeline. We remembered what happened from Katrina—this was why we wanted to stay as long as we could to help the remaining people. But none of that mattered to the deputies. The state could not make a risk assessment or value judgement for those volunteers who wanted to wait until the last possible minute. Unfortunately, what happened was that the help I could have provided was forcibly prevented by a top-down “solution” that was driven by the desire of politicians to save face from their failures with Katrina. This taught me a valuable lesson that the state, while sometimes well intentioned, is not the best way to help individuals.

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on email
Email
Share on print
Print
post

Charity Amongst the Flames

Can charitable individuals raise $300k for a business destroyed by looters?

 

The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was the focus of many protests across the country on May 27 & 28. These protests later led to riots and looting in the streets of Minneapolis. Unfortunately, this left almost 170 businesses in ruins. One of those businesses was Scores Sports Bar, owned and operated by KB Balla and his wife Twyana. KB is a firefighter with the Brooklyn Center Fire Department and active member in his community.

charitable individuals raise $300k for a business destroyed by looters
KB Balla and his wife, Twyana.

Scores Sports Bar was set for a grand opening in the spring, and then the pandemic hit and then the opening was put on hold. Then the murder of George Floyd sparked the protests and riots in their city. KB and his family poured their life savings into their business, just to watch it go up in flames in a matter of hours. Looters even attempted to rob the safe while the owners were inside the building. KB wasn’t sure what to do after watching all his hard work destroyed.

charitable individuals raise $300k for a business destroyed by looters
KB surveys the damage outside of his destroyed business.

Needless to say, KB didn’t expect what was going to come next after setting up a GoFundMe in the hopes of being able to rebuild. With an original goal of $100k, they have met, and exceeded their goal by additional $200k at the time this article was written. We don’t have to agree on the protests or riots, but we can all agree that this man’s loss is a tragedy—and to see so many come together in this man’s time of need is an amazing story. Not to mention, only charitable individuals raise $300k for a business destroyed by looters—no government program can do that.

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on email
Email
Share on print
Print