Little Rock homeless-meal panel divided on objectives; drugs, other issues arise at meeting

Before a committee of advocates, nonprofit representatives, business owners and Little Rock officials can recommend a solution on how to go about feeding large groups of homeless people, they will first have to agree on the problem.

A 14-member committee appointed to study the best way to feed the homeless, particularly in city parks, convened for the first time Tuesday with an assignment to offer to the city Board of Directors by July 11 a recommendation on how to proceed.

With less than 50 days to complete the task, the group agreed on two principles Tuesday: No one wants to curtail feeding efforts, but the city must also balance safety concerns.

From there, opinions varied.

Fred Ball, representing the Arkansas Homeless Coalition, asked the city officials on the committee to explain what problems the city was attempting to solve with a proposed ordinance the committee is tasked with reviewing.

The ordinance introduced by the city manager's office would have required organizations or individuals to register when and where they were going to feed a group of 25 or more people in a city park, pay a $25 permit fee and post a $100 refundable security deposit. It also limited the number of times a group could host feedings per year in each park.

City Directors Kathy Webb and Dean Kumpuris asked for the ordinance to be postponed to allow the committee to study best practices and better advise board members on the matter.

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City Attorney Tom Carpenter had previously said there were issues of trash being left behind and damage to park facilities after groups fed the homeless, which is why the security deposit was proposed.

Little Rock Parks and Recreation Director Truman Tolefree contradicted that Tuesday. He said most groups do a good job of cleaning up and that the ordinance was proposed as a way to organize feedings.

The city needs to know when feedings are planned and where so that they don't interfere with other planned events, and so feedings take place at a park with proper facilities to accommodate -- such as pavilions and restrooms, Tolefree said.

"What we're trying to do is simply go ahead and provide some structure," he said.

Assistant City Manager James Jones, on the other hand, said Tuesday that the proposed ordinance was sparked, in part, by the fact that park employees have to start their days earlier to clean up syringes and needles left at playgrounds.

"They're starting work before 6 o'clock in the morning to make sure that all of that is out of the park so that from a safety standpoint kids don't accidentally or curiously pick up something like that," Jones said.

A man in the audience, Jim Garrett with the Rock of Hope organization, took issue with Jones' statement.

"We are there one hour, two times a month feeding, and we are to be considered allowing drug users? I think not," Garrett said. "I'm almost insulted by that. We are not responsible for those parks the other 23 hours hours that day. We go down there, we feed our people, we clean up our mess and we leave. We take our trash with us. ... You're trying to tie drug abuse to feeding the homeless."

Some committee members said that when groups feed the homeless, they attract the mentally ill and drug addicts to the area and draw unwanted activities such as panhandling.

Other committee members said it was inaccurate to categorize the homeless as drug users and mentally ill. Ball said the majority of people who participate in the feedings are courteous and don't cause problems.

Committee member Alan Sims, vice president of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, said feeding the homeless in parks deters tourism in Little Rock.

Feeding the homeless "doesn't have to be in a park where our children are, where there are safety issues and visitor issues. Why can't we attract them someplace else? Where is the balance? I hope this group can find that. We want to feed and we want a great city," Sims said.

The ordinance that the city proposed would have required officials to build pavilions at the city-funded Jericho Way Homeless Day Resource Center and open them to groups that wanted to feed the homeless, as long as the groups had permission from the center's director. But many advocates for the homeless said the center's location on the edge of the city and its limited hours of operation make it an undesirable spot.

The committee ended its first meeting after about an hour with an assignment to compile a list of all groups in the city that have organized feedings for the homeless, where those feedings take place and what time of day. The group will next meet at 7:30 a.m. June 5 at the Willie Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center.

Webb, the city director who proposed creating the advisory committee, said Tuesday that she understands many people want to address other issues related to homelessness such as mental health care, access to housing and issues with panhandling, but that the committee was formed to address feeding in parks.

She called the resolution proposed by the city manager's office "terrible."

"The scope of this group is to talk about what was in this proposed ordinance and come up with suggestions that hopefully can benefit those that need to be served and can address some of the concerns others have expressed," Webb said. "If we can demonstrate that collaboratively we can address the scope of this ordinance, we can put forth something ... then we can later tackle the issues that underline homelessness."

Some committee members, such as David's Burgers owner Alan Bubbus, said he understands that directive but doesn't think feeding the homeless can be addressed without discussion of other connecting issues.

"My idea for this task force is to use food as a way to get them help. I don't simply want to go in and give a man a fish; I want to come in and try to teach a man to fish," Bubbus said.

There are two people who are homeless serving on the committee.

One of them, Derrick Clark, said he was "blown away" by the comments that the problem with feedings was drug use in parks.

"To talk about 'we stop these feedings here at the park and then we aren't going to have these problems anymore' [is wrong,]" he said. "The problems come way after the feedings. ... [We should] get these people in one place and start to educate them and correct the problem of the mind, not cause a problem."

Little Rock isn't the first city in the nation to attempt to use property restrictions to limit food-sharing. A wave of new regulations in multiple cities prompted the National Coalition for the Homeless to study the issue and write a report in 2014.

An updated version of that report that has yet to be published found that from 2013-15, legislation to restrict feedings or community pressure to stop feedings had taken place in 25 cities, and another 15 cities were attempting to do so.

The initial report found there had been a 48 percent increase in cities attempting to pass such laws from 2010-14. At least 71 cities attempted to or successfully enacted legislation from 2007-14.

The majority of the municipalities took the route Little Rock was considering and put restrictions on the use of public property. They include cities such as Houston; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Raleigh, N.C.; Daytona Beach, Fla.; Shawnee, Okla.; and several cities in California.

Some cities also restricted homeless feedings by passing stringent food-safety regulations, and in some places, business owners put pressure on nonprofits to relocate the feedings, the organization's 2014 report said.

Carpenter, the city attorney, said he modeled Little Rock's ordinance after one in Orlando, Fla. That city passed an ordinance in 2006 limiting groups that feed more than 25 people in parks. Orlando went as far as to arrest people who fed the homeless in violation of the law.

Metro on 05/24/2017

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