Tag Archives: homelessness

Food Not Bombs lawsuit may proceed

Do I hear a settlement offer? Anyone? A lawsuit filed by Food Not Bombs against the city of Houston will proceed after a federal judge rejected the city’s effort to dismiss the case. Since March 2023, FNB volunteers have received … Continue reading

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Food Not Bombs gets temporary ticketing reprieve

Pending a ruling from the judge, so this could be very temporary or it could be for the duration of the lawsuit. A U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday ordered Houston to temporarily stop enforcing a law that requires city … Continue reading

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Food Not Bombs sues the city again

We’ll see how it goes. Food Not Bombs, a group of volunteers who serve meals outside Houston Public Library’s downtown branch, filed suit Tuesday against the city, alleging that a food-sharing ordinance is unconstitutional. The suit claims that the city’s … Continue reading

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Houston still doing well sheltering the homeless

Good news. As she waited for the results of a yearly census of the Houston area’s homeless population, Ana Rausch clicked open an email detailing the soaring number of eviction filings in Harris County. This March, 6,600 households had evictions filed against … Continue reading

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Kirk Watson again elected Mayor of Austin

Party like it’s 1997, y’all. In a tight race, Austin voters picked a familiar face Tuesday night to guide the capital city over the next two years as the region deals with skyrocketing housing costs and explosive growth. In a … Continue reading

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How Houston has handled homelessness

We’ve done pretty well, actually. Since more than $65 million in COVID-related funding has poured into Houston and Harris County’s coffers, they have worked in tandem with a number of partners to ramp up the housing units available to move … Continue reading

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Other May election results

Roundup style, mostly. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg easily wins a fourth term. Mayor Ron Nirenberg vanquished the ghost of repeat challenger Greg Brockhouse in Saturday’s City election and secured his third term in office with a win of historic … Continue reading

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A new homelessness initiative

Good. Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously on Tuesday to authorize $18 million for a two-year program serving the homeless as advocates project a rise in homelessness with the novel coronavirus. The program is the county’s most ambitious partnership with … Continue reading

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Let’s talk “meaningful reform”

Chief Acevedo brought it up, so let’s go there. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo’s voice cracked several times and his eyes welled as he railed against the death of George Floyd beneath a policeman’s knee and implored protesters to demonstrate … Continue reading

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On Abbott, Austin, and homelessness

What Chris Hooks says. On Wednesday, the governor plunged headfirst into a political controversy that has dominated discussion in the city since June. Back then, the city council partially neutered several ordinances that essentially made being homeless in the city … Continue reading

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Federal lawsuit filed over homeless feeding ordinance

I’m kind of surprised that this hadn’t been filed before now. On a recent evening in April, a few dozen people experiencing homelessness lined up outside Central Library in downtown Houston for a free — and illegal — meal of … Continue reading

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Another homeless feeding lawsuit dismissed

Not the end of the story, though. A state district judge this week dismissed a lawsuit a local activist filed last year against Houston’s ordinance regulating the charitable feeding of the city’s homeless, but the case is proceeding on with … Continue reading

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No big drop in enrollment in area school districts

Mostly good news. During the height of Hurricane Harvey, school district officials worried enrollments would plummet as thousands of families fled Houston for Dallas, Austin and other drier regions. While many families lost their homes, it seems most relocated within … Continue reading

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What will this school year be like?

School has finally started for most of HISD and many surrounding districts, but with the devastation and disruption of Harvey, what can we expect from this academic year? Many students in Houston ISD lost everything – their homes, their school … Continue reading

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Federal court bars enforcement if city’s ban on homeless encampments

Score one for the law’s opponents. A federal court on Tuesday temporarily blocked Houston from enforcing its fledgling ban on public encampments, dealing a blow to city efforts to manage escalating tensions between homeless people and the neighborhoods their camps … Continue reading

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Lawsuit filed against Houston panhandling ordinance

From the inbox: The ACLU of Texas announced today that it had filed a lawsuit on behalf of three homeless Houstonian plaintiffs adversely affected by the City of Houston’s camping and panhandling ordinances. Taken together, these ordinances illegally deprive homeless … Continue reading

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The new panhandling ordinance

This happened last week; I didn’t have a chance to really look at it before now. Residents who impede the use of a Houston roadway, or block a sidewalk or building entrance could be charged with a misdemeanor under an … Continue reading

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An app to help the homeless

This is a great idea. A shower. A meal. A place to sleep. Those basic needs come to mind when most think of the homeless. Our Calling, a Dallas nonprofit, has given the homeless an iPhone app. The faith-based nonprofit … Continue reading

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A chance to help the sobering center

It’s a good cause. When the Houston Recovery Center turns to the public in coming months for the first time and asks for help, the request will likely seem small and perhaps odd: The city-backed sobering unit wants to raise … Continue reading

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What’s on the agenda for Mayor Parker in her third term

Now that Mayor Parker has been safely re-elected, with a better-than-expected margin, what does she plan to do from here? A triumphant Parker on Tuesday lauded her “decisive” victory but quickly shifted her focus to the coming two years, listing … Continue reading

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Lawsuit against anti-feeding ordinance dropped

From last week: The plaintiffs suing the city of Houston over its charitable feeding ordinance have abruptly dropped a suit they filed over the issue, just hours after the judge in the case recused himself. The ordinance, which requires property … Continue reading

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The ballot propositions we won’t have

Today is the 78th day before the November 6 election. That makes it the statutory deadline for ordering an election, as noted by the Secretary of State. They cite Sec. 201.054 of the Elections Code for this, which seems wrong … Continue reading

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Petitions to overturn homeless feeding ordinance submitted

There’s plenty of signatures, but no guarantee that this will make it onto the ballot. Activists seeking to repeal a new law requiring City Hall’s permission to serve charitable meals on city-owned land turned in 34,000 petition signatures on Monday … Continue reading

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The Mayor’s office on the homeless feeding ordinance

As you know, I have been running a series of guest posts on a variety of topics. When I invited Nick Cooper to write about his experiences with the homeless feeding ordinance, I also contacted the Mayor’s office to ask … Continue reading

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Nick Cooper: Let Us Help People!

The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. I am a volunteer with Houston Food Not Bombs, a vegetarian anti-war group that has been in the news recently for speaking … Continue reading

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Another homeless feeding update

Depending on how you look at it, time is either running out for the petition signature gatherers who hope to overturn the homeless feeding ordinance, or it isn’t. Free to Give Houston, a recently formed political action committee, needs about … Continue reading

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Mailing letters about the homeless ordinance

Not really sure what to make of this. Activists against Houston’s new restrictions on feeding the homeless plan to mail around 30,000 letters Friday to urge voters to sign a petition to trigger a charter amendment election in November. Paul … Continue reading

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Petition drive to overturn the homeless feeding ordinance

It’s underway. The petitioners have until July 1 to gather their signatures because that’s when the ordinance goes into effect. City Attorney David Feldman just informed me that petitioners have the longer of either 30 days following an ordinance’s passage … Continue reading

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Homeless feeding ordinance town hall tonight

It’s at 6:30 PM at the Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 8300 Katy Freeway. You can see a map here and the flyer for the town hall here. Judging by the organizers and the fact that the email I was forwarded … Continue reading

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We need a much fuller public conversation about the homeless feeding ordinance

As Neil noted, some of us had the opportunity on Friday to ask Mayor Parker questions over lunch on Friday. Not surprisingly, the homeless feeding ordinance came up, and we spent quite a bit of time discussing it. The Mayor … Continue reading

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Homeless feeding ordinance, such as it is, passes Council

Whatever. City Council outlawed feeding homeless people anywhere in Houston without permission of the property owner, voting 11-6 Wednesday after a month of protest that persisted even as the ordinance was vastly scaled back from its original form. […] Mayor … Continue reading

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Homeless feeding ordinance, take three

Mayor Parker does a third revision of the controversial proposed ordinance about feeding the homeless. Parker has whittled an original proposal that would have set rules on preparation, storage and server training down to a plan that mandates only that … Continue reading

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Hold it right there on the homeless feeding ordinance

This is the right call. After a community outcry protesting what opponents call the criminalization of charity, Mayor Annise Parker announced this afternoon that she will not seek a vote Wednesday on her proposed regulation of the feeding of homeless … Continue reading

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Houston gets HUD grant to house the homeless

Since we’ve been talking about homelessness recently, I thought I’d take note of this. Houston-area homeless programs will receive nearly $2.8 million in federal funding as part of an Obama administration plan to confront homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing … Continue reading

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