After reading an article about Fort Lauderdale, perhaps a city with some of the wealthiest population in the US, enforcing an ordinance that restricts feeding homeless people, I am really fired up and incredibly sad. I can not believe how people can attempt to restrict or “starve out” a homeless population while living the high life. Such a disgrace. I could go on for literally hours about this, but I’ll just leave it at that.
I tried to find a list of cities that had bans or other restrictions and couldn’t find a comprehensive list, especially one that cited credible sources so I decided to create one.
List of Cities with Homeless Feeding Bans or Restrictions
The following is a list of cities that have passed ordinances to limit or regulate the feeding of homeless persons. Each city is linked to the source of the information.
- Birmingham, AL
- Chico, CA
- Columbia, SC
- Costa Mesa, CA
- Dallas, TX
- Daytona Beach, FL
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Hayward, CA
- Houston, TX
- Lake Worth, FL
- Las Vegas, NV
- Manchester, NH
- Medford, OR
- Myrtle Beach, SC
- New York, NY
- Olympia, WA
- Orlando, FL
- Pasadena, CA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Raleigh, NC
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Shawnee, OK
- Springfield, MO
- St Louis, MO
I know there are more. If you see one I missed, please add a comment below along with a link to a credible source and I will add to the list.
This list is not intended to be limited to the US only. Please feel free to contribute any city in the world – just add it to the comments below with a credible link.
You Can Help!
Don’t sit by idle if you disagree with these bans and restrictions! Send an email to the mayor, city council, your congressional representative, senator, the police chief and sheriff, etc. Let your voice be heard!
What Do You Think?
Should the government be able to tell individuals or charitable organizations, who, when, where and how they can share food with homeless people?
this is terrible. if I want to help someone that is less fortunate than I am with my hard earned money that I work for, who are they to tell me that I can’t. it’s sickening and inhumane. I honestly cannot believe that they are actually allowed to pass a law like this
Amen, again controlling everything. If it is not there money, not there business.
I call for the following: A homeless feeding flash mob!!! Anyone who lives in a city that bans sharing food with the homeless please organize – get ahold of your churches, your Food Not Bombs folks, anyone you can possibly think of – pick a day then go out IN FORCE and feed as many homeless as you can. Contact the all the news agencies, get people out there filming this, especially if they are arresting people!!! This has got to stop!!
A great idea from friend Eric – ” The mob can dress as Jesus feeding the downtrodden”
Great idea, Molly! Thanks for sharing.
I’m with you…..
Someone pointed out that if you leave a dog out in the cold you can be arrested but we leave humans out in this weather daily…
This is our country over half of our homeless population are veterans….and this is how America shows gratitude…..
My children and I bond through our service for the needy. We collect surplus food from our home and delivery to homeless shelters, food pantries, and other services that feed the homeless. How can this be considered wrong or illegal? The food is good enough for us to eat it, so why would it not be good enough for homeless people to eat it? Since when has that become wrong to help those that have less than us? I don’t understand. Can someone please clarify this for me?
we have somehorrible laws in atlanta. however we have radio free georgia to dicuss these events. 89.3 fm reaches out for 60 miles. we have jazz, blues, reggae, louisiana music and news, salsa, indian music and irish and scottish musics.
we have 4 shelters that have closed 2 were well run and cheap to operate shelters cut from fulton county 1 was a city of atlanta shelter and the final one was a semi shelter cut by the presbytarian church, they provided blankets and meals and advocacy and a foot clinic
This report is missing Ft Lauderdale, Detroit and many others