Columbia leaders and some nonprofits that serve homeless populations are at an impasse over providing meals on public property.

City Council members say handing out food to unsheltered residents in public locations can be unsafe and create a nuisance for businesses and other residents, while the nonprofits say they’ve been serving food to those in need for years without issue.

Now, the city has partnered with Christ Central Ministries to provide a free indoor location for groups that wish to provide food, hoping to draw those groups off the street.

But at least one local nonprofit says they don’t want in; they want to keep feeding people on the street.

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All parties say they want to help Columbia residents without housing who may be hungry. But the tension is over how to do that in the safest way possible that also allows residents in need to get access to public services.

City officials lack the relationships that nonprofit groups have built with homeless residents over years, but they also say the status quo cannot continue.

“Right now, we’re at a tipping point where we’re between the unsheltered and the compassion people want to provide them, and the quality of life of citizens and businesses,” Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said. “It’s teeter-tottering, and that’s not a good place to be.”

The catalyst

In May, as Ericka Brown’s nonprofit Be Kind, Be Great was handing out meals to homeless residents at Finlay Park in downtown Columbia, police approached Brown and told her she was breaking the law.

It’s not illegal to pass out free food on public property in Columbia, and “food service such as soup kitchens and food banks operated by organizations that are providing food at no cost and not for profit or gain to the public who are in need of food assistance” are exempt from state food establishment regulations, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

But large gatherings in public places do require a permit, which Brown’s group did not have. So they were told to leave.

Brown’s nonprofit has been handing out meals once a week at Finlay Park since before the COVID-19 pandemic, often serving up to 150 people at a time. The group has now relocated outside the Richland Library branch on Assembly Street.

Now, they fix the plates and keep people moving, Brown said.

The one incident in May was the only time her group ever had an issue serving food, Brown said. But as city leaders have made it clear they want her and other groups to transition indoors or onto private property, she worries about the future of the city’s hungry residents.

Brown doesn’t support the city’s partnership with Christ Central Ministries, which would provide a free, indoor location for groups like hers to serve food from. She worries that LGBTQ residents won’t feel welcome, and she also worries that the potential presence of law enforcement will deter people from using the space.

Rickenmann said he’s willing to talk about those concerns and asserts he wants the communal kitchen to be a success.

But Brown said the partnership simply doesn’t meet the needs of all the people she serves and that she ultimately wants to continue doing what she feels called to do and serve people on the street.

“We have individuals that are wheelchair bound, that are handicapped,” Brown said, explaining that she disagrees with an approach that asks those people to travel several miles for meals.

The city hasn’t passed an ordinance banning public food sharing yet, but Rickenmann said he supports one.

“If it continues that we can’t get people to partner and put people in a safe (place), then we are going to have to look at an ordinance that prohibits people except in permitted spots, because the reality is we can’t keep doing this,” Rickenmann said.

Brown believes it’s a flawed approach. She isn’t alone.

Eric Tars, senior policy director for the National Homelessness Law Center, said similar laws have been cropping up across the U.S. for the last decade, and they’re often successfully challenged.

“From the constitutional side, we’ve seen these ordinances fall time and again to challenges under the First Amendment,” Tars said. Courts have repeatedly found that sharing food as an expression of religious faith or political action is protected speech.

For example, last month a jury ruled against a similar law in Houston after volunteers with the global nonprofit Food Not Bombs were ticketed for passing out food and then challenged the law in court.

Tars said there are also a slate of reasons people might not be able to access a consolidated location. Health and mobility may be a factor, but people also may not want to leave their belongings to walk several miles for food, or they may be distrusting of institutions.

It’s a 2.5-mile walk from Five Points to Christ Central Ministries on north Main Street. It’s a 1.5-mile walk from Columbia Riverfront Park to Christ Central, and about 1 mile from Finlay Park to Christ Central.

City leaders have noted that residents still have to walk to Finlay Park and other locations where people serve food outdoors.

Still, Tars said the idea for a communal space for groups to serve from isn’t bad, as long as it’s an “and,” rather than an “or,” adding that any kind of ban likely will be ineffective and expensive to enforce.

“What we see too often is they make that effort kind of just for show. They aren’t doing it in consultation with the people who would be actually using it, and then it’s not successful ... and then it’s just window dressing before they move forward with the more punitive measures,” Tars said.

“If the service actually meets (people’s) needs, they’ll use it,” Tars said. “It’s on the city, then, to make this as good and as attractive an option as possible.”

It’s unclear when the city’s new partnership with Christ Central will begin, but Rickenmann said at least half a dozen groups already have called wanting to participate.

Ongoing efforts

In November, City Council began looking at ways to curb the practice of providing food to homeless residents in public spaces.

Rickenmann told The State he eventually wants to see the practice stopped altogether, in favor of serving food indoors in a controlled, safer environment.

“Bringing food to somebody who’s camped out at the river, it’s not helping anything. You’re just enabling somebody to be in an unsafe environment,” Rickenmann said. (Brown says her organization has helped people find housing.)

But before the city enacts a formal ban via ordinance, officials have opted to provide an alternative first, he said.

Here’s the city’s pitch: A partnership with Christ Central Ministries at 2401 Main St. allows any group that wants to serve meals to homeless residents free access to a communal kitchen on Main Street, in a space with bathrooms, air conditioning and tables and chairs. The city will cover the insurance costs and other costs associated with the space.

“We had to take this first step, and the more people we get involved, we’re hoping it rolls over,” Rickenmann said. “All these people say they want to provide a meal. Well, let’s work together and make sure that we’re taking care of the bulk of the folks.”

He said it also creates a good opportunity for the city to potentially connect more people with available services.

There are also about half a dozen locations in the downtown area that offer meals to homeless residents, according to a guide the city put together last June, though only Transitions and Oliver Gospel offer meals every day.

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The Columbia area reported locating 226 unsheltered people experiencing homelessness last January during an annual point-in-time count required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The total number of people without housing is much higher, estimated at 987, when people staying in motels and couch-surfing with friends are included, according to federal data.

Columbia leaders have spent much of the last year and a half focused on addressing the presence of unsheltered homeless residents downtown.

In November, the city bought 50 pallet shelters and built Rapid Shelter Columbia, intended for chronically homeless residents.

Rickenmann also has advocated for the creation of a new campus where a variety of services aimed at homeless residents would be relocated into a one-stop shop for transitional housing, addiction services, healthcare, social work and more.

“On the record, we are going to build a comprehensive place that provides the services that are needed that’s not fractured,” Rickenmann told The State.

The city is in active discussions about the campus and is already looking at how to provide clinical space for urgent care and mental health treatment, he said.

He hopes that the communal kitchen idea is a temporary solution that won’t be needed once the all-in-one services campus is launched.

Brown remains skeptical and ultimately frustrated with the city’s approach. She says she’s earned the trust of the residents she serves and believes without that trust the city’s efforts will falter.

“I think the city needs to pull in smaller groups like ours, sit down and speak with us,” Brown said. “Let us help you. We want these people in houses, too.”