The\u00a0Dallas City Council\u00a0yet again\u00a0made\u00a0the easy choice\u00a0instead of\u00a0the right\u00a0one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last week, council members\u00a0punted on a proposal<\/a>\u00a0that would have\u00a0required\u00a0those wanting to distribute food to the homeless to get a\u00a0permit.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0measure has been controversial.\u00a0Some\u00a0see it as punishing the\u00a0well-intended volunteers\u00a0who\u00a0give their time and money to feed the most vulnerable people in\u00a0Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that is not the\u00a0purpose of the policy. \u00a0<\/p>\n This measure\u00a0was designed to\u00a0curb the\u00a0significant\u00a0nuisance that arises from\u00a0scaled-up\u00a0and often poorly run feeding events.\u00a0These\u00a0events\u00a0tend to draw large numbers of\u00a0homeless\u00a0people\u00a0into\u00a0one place,\u00a0often leaving behind\u00a0trash and disrupting downtown residents.\u00a0Those who\u00a0live\u00a0and work in the area are simply asked to\u00a0endure\u00a0this.<\/p>\n Worse still,\u00a0street feeding events often draw homeless individuals\u00a0away from established and organized service centers that can offer more help than just a meal.\u00a0<\/p>\n But instead of passing\u00a0modest\u00a0rules, which council members have discussed for months,\u00a0they\u00a0pushed\u00a0permit discussion to committee for even more talking.\u00a0<\/p>\n One major\u00a0objection raised to the ordinance was that it would make the city vulnerable to\u00a0a\u00a0religious freedom lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n In\u00a02007,\u00a0Dallas was sued over an ordinance<\/a>\u00a0that required a permit to conduct homeless feedings.\u00a0That\u00a0ordinance required\u00a0event operators\u00a0to provide\u00a0running water and bathrooms.\u00a0In\u00a02013, a court ruled against the city.<\/p>\n The ordinance under consideration this month was less restrictive. It would have required a low-barrier permit, but it would not have restricted event locations. Applications would be free and would only have been denied on public health and safety grounds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Sure,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0possible\u00a0that someone would have sued the city over this rule. But if Dallas\u00a0remains\u00a0determined to govern\u00a0out of fear\u00a0of\u00a0frivolous\u00a0lawsuits, the city will never get anywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u00a0understand\u00a0volunteers\u2019\u00a0desire to help the homeless,\u00a0but\u00a0they should do so in collaboration\u00a0with\u00a0established\u00a0nonprofits that serve the homeless every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n The council should have held its ground.\u00a0Instead of adopting rules to address\u00a0the\u00a0trash and nuisance street\u00a0feedings\u00a0leave\u00a0behind,\u00a0it\u00a0did\u00a0nothing, and the city is worse off for it.<\/p>\n Have thoughts about this?\u00a0Send a\u00a0letter\u00a0to the editor\u00a0using our\u00a0letters\u00a0form<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0letters@dallasnews.com<\/a>.\u00a0Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Dallas City Council\u00a0yet again\u00a0made\u00a0the easy choice\u00a0instead of\u00a0the right\u00a0one.\u00a0 Last week, council members\u00a0punted on a proposal\u00a0that would have\u00a0required\u00a0those wanting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,90221,95358,88000],"class_list":["post-269473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-editorials","tag-tp-homelessness","tag-tp-dallas-city-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}