A Houston man ticketed for giving food to the homeless outside a public library has been found "not guilty" by a jury in a criminal court trial last week - now he and dozens of other volunteers are challenging local laws that regulate where and how many hungry mouths can be fed in the city.
Last Friday, the jury unanimously handed down their "not guilty" verdict to Phillip Picone, who was ticketed on March 3 for feeding the homeless outside the Houston Public Library with other members of "Food Not Bombs."
Now, Picone has launched a federal civil rights case to find the municipal law unconstitutional. Another volunteer, Benjamin Franklin Craft-Rendon, also filed a civil rights suit against the city in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas in March
Per the city's "Charitable Feeding Ordinance" enacted in 2012, organizations need to get permission from property owners if they feed more than five people at one time. "Food Not Bombs" has operated a food service station outside the downtown location four nights per week for 20 years. But according to member Nick Cooper, the 2012 ordinance wasn't enforced until a notice was posted outside the library in March.
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Picone and 45 other volunteers received tickets seeking $254 apiece from Houston police that month, according to The Houston Chronicle, but Picone's is the first case to go to trial.
Attorney Paul Kubosh represents 37 of those cases, and argues that the ordinance goes against volunteers' rights to free speech. He told Click2Houston that the city's law is "absurd" and "criminalizes the Samaritan for giving."
"What I'm hoping for is vindication. I'm hoping for not guilty. If you're trying to affect the lives of homeless and trying to make their situation better, you don't do that by attacking the Samaritan. This law is not about the homeless. It's about the Samaritan," Kubosh told FOX 26.
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The city of Houston cited public health and safety concerns as their reasoning behind ticketing the volunteers, saying that the increase in homeless individuals outside the library has caused threats and violent incidents for visitors and families.
City of Houston Attorney Arturo Michel said in a statement that the municipality would continue to "vigorously pursue violations of the ordinance relating to the feeding of the homeless."
"It is a health and safety issue for the protection of Houston's residents. There have been complaints and incidents regarding the congregation of the homeless around the library, even during off hours," Michel wrote. "The City has carefully balanced competing concerns, ensuring through its own program and though its significant allocation of funds that there are alternative, nearby feeding locations that have been well attended and well received."
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But Kubosh characterized these concerns for public safety as disingenuous.
"Let's just be honest. If they're not getting food from the volunteers, they're getting food from the trash bins. They're getting stuff that they find on the street," he told FOX 26. "So, whenever they talk about health and safety and regulations of food, that's a red herring for the public, hoping that the public will back the city."
Before it began ticketing volunteers, the city requested that the group move their food service down the street to 61 Riesner Street, also known as the old Houston Police Headquarters. But one volunteer told Click2Houston that "Food Not Bombs" did not "need to be in a place where we can see jail cells and barbed wire."
"A lot of the people we share food with are not comfortable bringing themselves there," the volunteer explained. "They may be picked out and given special treatment by the police who are around."
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"We do not need to be in a place where we can see jail cells and barbed wire. A lot of the people we share food with are not comfortable bringing themselves there, they may be picked out and given special treatment by the police who are around," one volunteer said.
In his State of the City address last November, Mayor Sylvester Turner said that he wanted the group to relocate and to "retake the downtown central library to make it more wholesome and inviting to families and kids."
"That is a major asset of the city of Houston. We have a few too many homeless folk and feeding programs in front of Central Houston," Turner said.
The city has also stopped using the library as a sanctioned cooling center during heat emergencies, per the Chronicle.
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The mayor's office did not respond immediately on Tuesday to an email seeking comment. Turner is term-limited, and the organization told Houston Public Media that they plan to challenge the ordinance with the next mayor that takes office.
At a press conference following Friday's verdict, Civil Rights Attorney Randall Kallinen said that the jury's unanimous decision indicates that the "overwhelming majority… of the populace… is against this law."
In 2021, federal appeals courts sided with a Fort Lauderdale, Florida chapter of Food Not Bombs in a similar case.
The Coalition for the Homeless of Houston counted 3,223 homeless people in January of 2022, with only 1,502 sleeping in the city's 55 shelters.
