If you don’t have a place to live, getting enough to eat clearly may be a struggle. And since homelessness in the U.S. isn’t going away and is even rising in some cities, more charitable groups and individuals have been stepping up the past few years to share food with these vulnerable folks in their communities.
But just as more people reach out to help, cities are biting back at those hands feeding the homeless.
According to Michael Stoops, a supporter named Tem Feavel submitted this image to the National Coalition for the Homeless in 2007, but there is no record of where it was taken.
According to a report released Monday by the National Coalition for the Homeless, 21 cities have passed measures aimed at restricting the people who feed the homeless since January 2013. In that same time, similar legislation was introduced in more than 10 cities. Combined, these measures represent a 47 percent increase in the number of cities that have passed or introduced legislation to restrict food sharing since the coalition last counted in 2010.
The latest city to crack down is Fort Lauderdale, Fla. According to the Sun Sentinel, the city’s commissioners passed a measureearly Wednesday that will require feeding sites to be more than 500 feet away from each other, with only one allowed per city block. They’ll also have to be at least 500 feet from residential properties.
Michael Stoops, director of community organizing for the coalition and the editor of the report, says that as cities have felt more pressure to prioritize economic development and tourism, they’ve decided that food sharing programs — especially those that happen in public spaces and draw dozens, if not hundreds of people — are problematic.
“We consider measures like the one in Fort Lauderdale to be criminalizing being homeless or helping the homeless,” says Stoops.
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