Church protests new ordinances tagging homeless

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer

Travis Park UMC, San Antonio, joined other churches and community groups April 9 to protest city ordinances targeting homeless people.
Some 300 people—about a quarter of them homeless—gathered across the street from the downtown church for a “Festival of Human Dignity.” The event was designed to raise public awareness about the new laws.
“These ordinances say it’s a crime to sleep outside, and it’s a crime to urinate and defecate in public,” said the Rev. John Flowers, Travis Park senior pastor. “There are no public restrooms open between 11 o’clock at night and 8 o’clock in the morning.
“What are they expected to do? And if you tell folks you can’t sleep outside or you’ll get ticketed, then you have to have another option for them, and there is no option.”
The primary aim of the ordinances, city officials say, is to restrict unsavory behavior that downtown business owners and others say has eroded the city’s center. Public urination and defecation could result in a ticket and fine.
City officials point out that the laws apply to everyone, not just the homeless.
Flowers said the ordinances “violate all the basics of justice.”
“To criminalize that behavior is basically criminalizing what it means to be poor and marginalized and homeless,” he said.
“We are not advocating allowing people to sleep on the streets or urinate in public. What we’re saying is you can’t prohibit that without offering alternatives.”
Flowers said he hoped the protest would get the ordinances suspended, at least until the city could provide public restrooms and identify safe zones where people can sleep.
Flowers said the assistant city manager convened an urgent meeting April 11 to address the issue of public restrooms.
Travis Park UMC and Madison Square Presbyterian Church, also downtown, have been declared safe zones. That means people can sleep on their grounds without being ticketed.