City leaders and officials previously have said that requiring permits for food distribution is about ensuring safety and quality control.
A city spokesperson last week declined to comment, saying the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Credit: Lynch, Gregory
Credit: Lynch, Gregory
Last spring, volunteers with Nourish Our Neighbors and other community members were told by Dayton police that they could not hand out food to homeless individuals in public spaces downtown without a permit.
Volunteers had been gathering weekly at Courthouse Square to pass out meals to needy individuals.
Some people were outraged when a volunteer was arrested by police after he gave a couple of burritos to a homeless man. Police said they had warned the man and other volunteers to cease distribution activities.
Nourish Our Neighbors said police after that incident continued to hassle the group’s members during other meal distribution events downtown and tried to shut down the meal service.
For weeks, some activists attended Dayton City Commission meetings to demand that the city’s elected leaders rescind the food distribution ordinance.
The ordinance was passed nearly two decades ago to put a stop to food service in public spaces in downtown after residents complained about nuisance activities involving homeless people and other attendees.
Some downtown residents said that a park by the Dayton Metro Library had become an outdoor cafeteria where people littered, loitered, urinated and defecated in public.
Dayton officials in the past have said that the food distribution law ensures that public spaces are kept clean and safe so that everyone can enjoy them.
But Nourish Our Neighbors volunteers have accused the city of “criminalizing charity.”
The group has sued the city of Dayton and City Manager Shelley Dickstein.
Nourish Our Neighbors is being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a national nonprofit law firm that says it defends Americans threatened by government overreach and abuse.
“Nourish Our Neighbors’ volunteers are acting on their belief that society and the government have failed the homeless,” Anastasia Boden, a senior attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a prepared statement. “Dayton can’t force individuals who simply want to help the hungry to get an onerous, expensive and needless permit.”
The city’s food distribution ordinance requires people who want a permit to pay a non-refundable $50 application fee and submit information to the city manager about plans for restrooms, parking, traffic, crowd control, safety and other considerations.
Some volunteers say the fee is a big burden. Nourish Our Neighbors says it cleans up after its events.
Nourish Our Neighbors claims in its lawsuit that sharing food and feeding the hungry is a fundamental right. The group says requiring a permit to engage in charity violates the First Amendment and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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