‘Exile The Homeless’ City Now Requires Permits And Large Fees To Feed The Homeless

[DonViejo]

BY SCOTT KEYES ON FEBRUARY 13, 2014 AT 11:21 AM

Last August, the city of Columbia, South Carolina approved a new plan to give its homeless population an impossible choice: leave downtown or be arrested.

The city is now taking even more steps to criminalize homelessness. On Saturday, it will begin to strictly enforce an old and seldom-used ordinance requiring groups of 25 or more to obtain a permit and pay a hefty fee before congregating in a public park.

One impacted charity that was interviewed by the Free Times, Food Not Bombs, has been serving food to the homeless in Finlay Park every Sunday for 12 years. The group’s organizer, Judith Turnipseed, noted that the group has an impeccable track record and always tidies up after the meal. But with the new crackdown, Food Not Bombs will have to pay at least $120 per week for the right to feed the homeless, an extremely tall order for a group that’s not even an official 501(c)(3) organization but just serves out of the goodness of its heart.

In fact, stopping groups like Food Not Bombs from serving may be just the point. Since the Columbia City Council approved its exile plan in August, the city has been trying to herd its homeless people to a shelter on the outskirts of town and keep them away from downtown. If charities continue to provide food in downtown parks, the thinking goes, it will allow homeless people to continue to live downtown, rather than being forced to leave.

more
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/13/3288211/columbia-feeding-homeless-ban/

[RKP5637]

1. Can firing squads be that far off? Or send in the dumpster brigades and

process them for fresh meat! It's one step after another. Soylent Green will be on the menu, eventually.

[LeftyMom]

2. I've been to Columbia, SC. The homeless class up the joint.

Really, it's the most miserable shithole I've ever seen.

[think]

3. Cruel.... /nt

[MineralMan]

4. I'm betting there is a church on every

other corner in Columbia, SC. Maybe Jesus should drop in on Sunday. Sadly, that won't be possible, but it'd be great.

Assholes run that city.

[MerryBlooms]

5. Sickening

How the hell do people become so heartless.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. Easy, they believe the poor are being punished by their sky spook.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. Attention DU lawyers, time to make some calls. $120 a week?

Surely someone in SC has experience organizing the homeless?

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Ah yes, Christian inspired poor laws

21st century version. At least so far, no forced indentures.

[reddread]

8. cue the food safety brigade to justify this heinous and unconstitutional action

Dont think for a second that FNB operations dont provide better, safer meals than you can get in almost any restaurant.
I certainly will never order a salad anywhere after realizing what crap gets offered paying customers.

[L0oniX]

9. Please move out of town and die in some field or woods away from where we might see your dead corpse

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. wow

[blackspade]

11. Scum of the earth...

And it's not the homeless.

[DeSwiss]

12. The culprits:

Criminalize the Homeless Ordinance sponsor
Councilman At-Large Cameron Runyan
(left), Steve Benjamin, Mayor

- You might want to stir-clear of these two because karma.

[Systematic Chaos]

14. But I WANNA be there when the smug smiles get, um, wiped off their faces....

Awwww...unca DeSwiss...pwetty pwease??

[jtuck004]

13. So form 27 more groups, and each of you serve a separate item. You can help each

other, but you are not part of each other's group, and you can only serve 1 person at a time, so their ordinance doesn't apply.

Heck, maybe you could invite hundreds of church members to each bring a dish, each person as a separate group with their own little table, and just fill the damn park.

Just trying to do what the ordinance says...

[Cleita]

16. Bless their little black hearts.

Is Columbia a city operated by sociopaths? I've never heard of anything as heartless as this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Nah they are just going back to roots

Elizabethan Era Poor Laws criminalized it. Many of the early indentured servants came to the colony that was administered as a business, and they were bought and sold from Elizabethan era prisons where the shiftless and the homeless were housed until shipped out. Shakespeare would have ended up on a ship to the new world as an indentured servant had he been born twenty years later than he did.

[xxqqqzme]

17. Didn't I recently read

a story about the success the City of Seattle is experiencing w/ a program to HOUSE the homeless? See how that works you heartless creeps.


Yep -

"...In addition, as part of its commitment to implementing the Ten-Year Plan to End Homeless in King County, the City has adopted a “housing first” strategy, which provides homeless people permanent housing with immediate access to services critical to stabilizing their lives. This includes education, job training, and finding treatment for a medical, mental health or addiction problems"....

https://www.seattle.gov/humanservices/emergencyservices/shelter/default.htm

[PADemD]

19. What a joke!

Columbia SC Official Nickname: "The Capital of Southern Hospitality"

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia,_South_Carolina

[struggle4progress]

20. ... Enforcement notification letters about permitting procedures were sent late last month

to 22 organizations that routinely serve meals to the homeless in city parks. That is one of the few groups the city has been able to identify as frequent park users, Caton said ...

Private functions would pay a $350 refundable deposit but would be charged $1,000 for using the facility for six hours. Longer events would pay an additional $250 per hour. In addition, event organizers would have to pay fees to offset the time that city workers spend setting up and cleaning up and for city supplies used for the event.

Nonprofit groups at Finlay Park or Coble Plaza would pay the same refundable deposit plus $75 per hour for the use of the site and the same administrative fees as private groups.

Columbia to begin enforcing park-access permits; fees to come
By CLIF LeBLANC
February 10, 2014

[struggle4progress]

21. Here's a pdf of the ordinance

http://www.columbiasc.net/depts/city-council/docs/old_downloads/2013_Ordinances/Ordinance_2013_046_Parks__Recreation_User_Fees.pdf

[reddread]

22. it wont hold up, so save the anguish for real issues

they may get away with pushing the homeless around, but the feeding bans and discouraging tactics are bound to fail.
this kind of unconstitutional showmanship should require a moneyback guarantee to the taxpayers. if an elected public official fails to uphold the constitution, and in fact intentionally violates it, they should forfeit their wages and do time.

[KinMd]

23. They could start with this on Sunday

The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
Matthew 25:40 New American Standard Bible

I'm not particularly religious, but I remember that

[woo me with science]

24. Evil.

Just evil.