Los Angeles considered proposing a ban feeding homeless people in public

[tenderfoot]

Last edited Wed Nov 12, 2014, 06:42 PM - Edit history (1)

This story is out of date and was posted by MSNBC about a year ago... the idea is still infuriating.



That'll put a dent in homelessness!



As the number of homeless people in Los Angeles County continues to rise, the City Council is weighing a ban on feeding homeless people in public areas.

City Council members Tom LaBonge and Mitch O’Farrell, both Democrats, introduced the resolution after complaints from Los Angeles residents. Arguing that meal lines should be moved indoors, the legislators said the proposal would benefit both the homeless and residential neighborhoods.

Actor Alexander Polinsky is one Los Angeles resident who complained about the number of homeless people crowding his neighborhood.

“If you give out free food on the street with no other services to deal with the collateral damage, you get hundreds of people beginning to squat,” Polinsky toldThe New York Times. “They are living in my bushes and they are living in my next door neighbor’s crawl spaces. We have a neighborhood which now seems like a mental ward.”

“This has overwhelmed what is a residential neighborhood,” Council member LaBonge said. ”When dinner is served, everybody comes and it’s kind of a free-for-all.”

But advocates for the homeless say public officials are attempting to legislate the poor into invisibility instead of helping those in need.

“It’s a common but misguided tactic to drive homeless people out of downtown areas,” Jerry Jones, the executive director of the National Coalition of the Homeless, said toThe New York Times.

more: http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/please-dont-feed-the-homeless


I hate this world!

[shenmue]

1. :(

Not good.

[Paper Roses]

2. As a people, have we sunk so low that this is even a consideration?

This stinks, plain and simple. Poor neighbors, as they have their Filet Mignon for dinner, the homeless MIGHT have a sandwich from someone who cares.

What a rotten world.
The older I get, the madder!

Want to feed them inside some kind of a shelter? If that is viable, then let the poor homeless people know and get them to wherever food is served.

Sometimes I want to give up!!!

[niyad]

13. look what happened in florida the other day--that older gentleman trying to feed

the homeless.

[UglyGreed]

3. Speechless N/T

[Skittles]

4. Jesus would be proud

[JRLeft]

6. How much do you want to bet some of these people are christian or catholic?

[Skittles]

7. you mean they THINK they are christian

they have no clue what it actually means - it floors me that I, as an agnostic, am more christian than 95% of the so-called christians I know

[dilby]

5. WTF is up with Society, for every step we take forward we take two steps back.

We have come to almost making it acceptable to breast feed in public but then we are going to go back and make it so it's illegal to feed homeless in public, seriously what is wrong with us.

[JI7]

8. i hear hateful comments about the homeless from people in LA all the time

and it's not usually the wealthy either as i don't know many or hang out with them.

it's usually people who have their own financial problems.

[daredtowork]

9. Out of Sight Out of Mind

The biggest problem with homelessness, and welfare in general, is people don't feel the need to address it if it's not happening to them at this very second. It doesn't even matter if it "could" happen to them. A heart-tugging story in the newspaper or on TV might garner a one-time donation. But people will make no move to SYSTEMATICALLY address the problem because it is not THEIR problem until it happens to them.

Now, even with the problem of homelessness visible, you will see astroturf comments simply deny it, and articles/books by pundits pave over reality with whatever they want to say. Because when you have positional power, your words stick and have force.

What do you think will happen when "the problem" is actually out of sight? Then the problem will be OUT OF MIND! Nothing will be done because those people will no longer exist. Privileged people will no longer feel uncomfortable and have to look at eyesores on the streets, but people with no privilege will have even less leverage to get their problems solved!

Homeless people, and the people who feed them, need to take this as a cue to GET OUT IN THE STREETS and GET OUT THERE NOW. They need to MAKE THEIR PRESENCE FELT. They need to form their own POLITICAL MACHINE and put people in office that will ADDRESS THEIR PROBLEMS instead of seeking to shove them out of the way for the benefit of people who are already privileged.

[KingCharlemagne]

10. We already fought LaBonge and O'Farrell (both Dems, btw) about this earlier this year and succeeded

in getting them to table the proposed ordinance. Sigh, I suppose we shall have to do so again. If you want to contribute to an organization that actually is feeding LA's homeless in public and fighting this ordinance also, check out Monday Night Mission:

http://www.mondaynightmission.org/

ETA: This story is from last year around this time. As far as I'm aware, there have been no new efforts by either of these two councilpeople to reintroduce the measure.

[KingCharlemagne]

11. Hey there. I appreciate your posting this, but want everyone to know this

story is about 1 year old and badly out-of-date. The proposed ordinance has been tabled, thanks to protests by local activists like my wife and me.

[tenderfoot]

12. I'll update the OP

I should have checked the date... thank you for addressing it.