"We're not trying to bring an end to compassion and community outreach," says City Attorney Brad Jerbic, the man who, before the Las Vegas City Council, proposed Bill No. 2006-37, an ordinance that prohibits the feeding of people without means in city parks, and which made national news when it was passed with unanimity on June 19 and then consecrated into law nine days later. We are, he says, trying to bring an end to the mobile soup kitchens that have sprouted up in city parks the past several months. Our neighborhoods are being destroyed by them.
What happened was, Jerbic continues, these mobile soup kitchens would attract large numbers of homeless people, who would remain there, waiting for the next meal. Meanwhile, they were leaving residue in the parks and the nearby neighborhoods—trash and urine and feces.
Neighborhood associations were calling our offices several times a week, Jerbic says. Businesses and citizens were complaining at the mayor's meetings. If you could have seen some of these meetings, you'd be blown away. Citizens said they felt endangered in their own neighborhoods.
Well, he says, we decided the neighbors were correct. And so we called social-service providers, and they agreed that the mobile soup kitchens did more harm than good. We called service providers, and they said they had an abundance of food.
Yet, "for us," says Pastor Jeff Chaves, speaking for the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, a prominent homeless shelter, "we never have a surplus—what we get, we use."
And further, he says: Tonight, July 28—because it's toward the end of the month and people's money has run dry—we'll serve 600-800 people. Normally it's 400-500. If the number ever exceeds what we had anticipated, we know how to make do. It's occurred before; we adapted.
"I don't care what anyone says," ACLU General Counsel Allen Lichtenstein states with fervency, as if he had just driven down Owens Street, east of Las Vegas Boulevard, where homeless people are sprawled destitute and dejected along the streets surrounding the Salvation Army. "There's not enough space at the shelters. They're overrunning."
There are people forced to wait outside, he says, only to be harassed by the police.
Do you recall several years ago, when the police conducted sweeps of the homeless, dispersing them from the Downtown corridor, Lichtenstein asks. And do you remember what happened? The homeless just moved to the parks. And now the city is trying to sweep them away again instead of constructing effective solutions to their plight.
"This law is unconstitutional, both of itself and in its enforcement," Lichtenstein expounds. He says its language is plain: it states that it is illegal to feed an indigent person, defined by the Nevada Revised Statutes as someone entitled to receive or apply for government assistance. So now if there's someone poor in your family, they can't eat at your barbeque in the park. That's selective enforcement, which exacerbates the whole issue, and against which the Constitution's equal-protection clause defends, he says.
"It's not selective enforcement at all," states Jerbic, who says that cops and park rangers have been receiving special training as to the proper way to enforce this unprecedented prohibition. Rather, it's discretion, he says. In America we grant that responsibility to our police officers. Such as with speeding—a cop employs his discretion when someone barely exceeds the speed limit. Cops use it all the time. Yes, you could in technical terms get cited for sharing your sandwich with a homeless man at the park, but I doubt a cop is any more likely to do that than to ticket you for going 46 mph in a 45 zone. The police just don't have the time, space or resources for that.
And Mayor Oscar Goodman, anticipating a logical criticism of the law—how is an officer to know exactly who is indigent?—told the Review-Journal:
"Certain truths are self-evident; you know who's homeless."
Dirty, disheveled and a bit despondent in Circle Park, near Charleston Boulevard and Maryland Parkway, Jerry Lopez III—"or just JP, like everyone else calls me"—says: "I ain't goin' nowhere. It's too goddamn hot, and I don't have no transportation. Not even a bike."
And further, he says, sitting shirtless under an oak tree, gesticulating with a two-week-old newspaper he reads to pass the time: If shelters were so good, why everybody here? Why ain't we all over there? I'll tell ya why, if you really wanna know. They ain't even worth the trip. I'll stay right here, in the cool of the shade—right here's where I'll handle my day-to-day business.
Rob Schlegel, who resides near Jaycee Park, wrote a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun, stating that the homeless—the loitering, drinking, defecating, urinating, and sometimes clinically insane homeless—are tolerable until they are in your front yard, wreaking havoc and destruction.
Let [advocates] feed the homeless at their houses, not next to ours," he writes.
Feeding indigents at Circle Park on July 27, one day before the ordinance became law, and thus one day before Metro would begin enforcing it, activists from Food Not Bombs held up a sign for everyone to read:
"Who Would Jesus Starve?"
Jesus says, in the book of Matthew, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, tend to the sick and give shelter to those without any, for insomuch as you do it unto these, the least of my brethren, you do it unto me.
"There's a reason we have shelters," says Jerbic. Not only do they provide food, he says, they provide other services as well. A lot of these people need other kinds of assistance, not just a meal. The mobile soup kitchens are drawing them away from these services, Jerbic says.
JP says: "Hell, naw, I ain't goin' to them places." He says they don't give you no food unless you eat up their gospel as well.
"That's not true at Las Vegas Rescue Mission," says Pastor Jeff Chaves. During our meal times, he says, we open our doors to anyone. You come in and eat, and that's it. Yes, our recovery programs are Christian-based—we are a Christian ministry—but we don't push religion on anyone.
Furthermore, Chaves says: We support the new law, and we've always had a special relationship with the city. But at the same time we know there are a lot of church groups involved with feeding the homeless out there, and we also respect them.
"The bottom line," says Lichtenstein of the ACLU, "is that this law is unconstitutional."
Jerbic, steadfast, says: "In my opinion, it is constitutional."
Lichtenstein: We haven't filed anything yet, but as soon as someone is affected—when someone has a standing—we intend to weigh in.
And Jerbic, on July 28: But, you know, I really do hope we never have to enforce it. You know what I mean?
On July 31, the first citations for violating the law against feeding the homeless were issued to two representatives from the local radio station KKLZ 96.3-FM, who had brought donuts, fruit and water bottles to Frank Wright Park. Their court date has been set for August 31, and the misdemeanor with which they have been charged is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, or imprisonment of up to six months.