Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Health Department Shuts Down Couple's Efforts to Feed Homeless

Read the article and watch the video here and another video here.  The second video is my favorite with the code manager seemingly not knowing the code and then hitting on the reporter like a creepy uncle.  It's probably not a good idea to get caught with your pants down and then wink at the reporter, Mr. Walker.  And, the real story here is the explosion which reportedly occurred at KLLL, but it is literally ignored for most of the video.  The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal also has an article here

A Lubbock couple have been providing a meal to the homeless at a local park every Monday for the past couple of years.  The food is prepared in their home and then distributed to the homeless at a city park which is, apparently, a health code violation.  While the couple's quotes seem a little dramatic to me and everyone seems to be missing the point that the code enforcement official makes, it does seem that they had been targeted by someone who wanted to shut the operation down.  I never partook in this particular couple's meal, but I did attend a couple of meals at this same park on Sunday evenings.  My guess is that a resident in the neighborhood was tired of all of the homeless loitering in the park and filed a complaint.  The most obvious solution here is to have a church in the area offer up their building to people who want to serve the homeless.  Ever wonder what happens in a church building the six other days of the week?  My guess is that the preacher walks around in his underwear with a cup of coffee enjoying all of his days off.

There will be more to come on this story.  In the meantime, go to Tech campus and feed the homeless.  City code officials can't touch you there.  Remind Stuart Walker of that, too.