A bill currently in front of the St. Louis Board of Alderman could prohibit people from giving out bottled water to the homeless in extreme heat and distributing blankets in the bitter cold, the Rev. Larry Rice said at a press conference on Wednesday, July 6 at his shelter, the New Life Evangelist Center, 1411 Locust St.
If passed, Alderman Jack Coatar’s Board Bill 66 would make do-gooders pay for a vendor’s license if they want to help the homeless.
“We’ve saved many people’s lives by passing out blankets in the winter,” Rice said.
Board Bill 66 proposes to add “dispensing and distributing” to the activities that require a vending license on any public sidewalk, street, park or roadway in St. Louis. It would also limit vending to the hours between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
Coatar is currently on vacation and did not respond to The American’s email.
The bill says nothing about feeding the homeless, but Rice and other individuals who help the homeless downtown said they can read between the lines.
“This is targeted against the homeless, clearly,” said Laura Shields, a volunteer with St. Louis Homeless Winter Outreach. “If a person’s on the street, and I have two sandwiches and they want one, why wouldn’t I give them one? It’s decency and common sense. And I will continue to do that.”
She said if it heats up, she will be passing out the bottled water in her trunk. Several leaders – including St. Louis Police Commissioner Sam Dotson recently – have said they are against individuals and religious groups feeding the homeless on the street because it “enables” homelessness.
Sheila Irby, who is currently staying at the center, said that’s not the case. She moved here from Virginia a month ago because she is trying to start over, she said. There, she had a good job as a freelancer in the computer field, but her contract ended and she couldn’t land another gig.
“That’s when the money stopped coming,” she said. “I’m really not trying to stay homeless.”
She chose to stay with Rice because she loves the Christian environment.
“We need those shelters to stay open,” she said.
Rosemary Porter is a volunteer at Rice’s center and is currently living there. She said she is in between jobs and needed a temporary helping hand.
“I don’t think it’s right to charge anybody or harass anyone from helping people,” she said. “If you give someone a sandwich, it’s not going to make them dependent on those sandwiches. Sometimes you just need it to go on.”
Rice said the center’s winter patrols have been helping people survive the cold for 40 years.
“Now the downtown aldermen and downtown St. Louis want to make criminals out of everyone who wants to do good,” he said. “I call it the ‘Anti-Good Samaritan Bill,’ and I’ll have to be arrested again.”
He pointed to the two police cars that are parked every day in the middle of the green space between the downtown library and Soldiers Memorial.
“St. Louis is supposed to be a city that cares,” he said. “It’s just going to give St. Louis another black eye.”
Follow this reporter on Twitter @RebeccaRivas.
