How hard can it get to feed the poor? Pretty hard.
Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.
That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their “Feed a Friend” effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.
“We don’t really know what they want, we just think that they don’t want us down there feeding people,” said Bobby Herring, a Christian rapper who goes by the stage name Tre9.
And Kathy Barton, Houston’s spokeswoman for the Houston HHS department said this:
The regulations are all the more essential in the case of the homeless… because “poor people are the most vulnerable to foodborne illness and also are the least likely to have access to health care.”
Pretty outrageous that private citizens are forced to stop doing charitable work because the government assumes the worst if you don’t have the magic permit.
The silver lining here is that the Houston city council is talking about adjusting the statute so that people like the Herrings are exempt.
…oh, my…the government is ‘way too big…
I hate it when people take these little cases and blow them out of proposition.
Quit blaming government, economy, parties, whatever.
Unless the government specifically forbids feeding the poor, it isn’t a governmental problem.
And this, again, ties in with Catholics putting politics before faith. It’s always about political positions, big versus small government, etc.
Do you know why those businesses were shut down? Because they didn’t have a permit!
All businesses must have a permit, as far as I know. So I don’t see the problem here.
If they want to keep feeding the poor, and if anyone does, they can: By feeding the poor.
Keep them and the poor in your prayers.
Nick, this is not an isolated case. Have a peek here and you can see that it’s a widespread issue.
I do blame the government for, in these cases, intruding on private charity and making it more difficult for people of good will to do acts of good will for people in need.
What is the upset for government regulating charitable work like this? The answer is: there is no upside, just more cost, lost opportunity, less efficiency, and in cases where a charity has to stop – there are more hungry people.
Yes, well-off people and businesses don’t want the homeless and poor hanging out in public parks so they use their influence to stop it. Very sad.
And then there are the gated communities….