No picnic this time

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.

An act of charity - feeding the homeless - has landed one local woman in court.

Gail Sacco must appear March 20 in Municipal Court to answer charges that she violated a Las Vegas ordinance by gathering more than 25 people in a city park without a permit.

Sacco has been feeding groups of poor people with the help of other volunteers at Circle Park in Huntridge since last June, but city marshals had told her in recent months that she could run afoul of the ordinance. On many occasions, however, there were not more than 25 people eating from the table that she set up.

But on Feb. 19, there were, and a city marshal issued the citation. He also told her that she could not return to the park for six months, or she would be cited for trespassing.

The latter seems wrong to Allen Lichtenstein, local attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Telling her she can't come back for six months without any documentation, appeal or due process whatsoever ... that's clearly unconstitutional," Lichtenstein said.

Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic would not comment beyond saying that the city's role is to enforce the ordinance.

The case highlights the challenges of feeding the homeless. Those who ladle out soup to the poor often run afoul of government, police, neighborhoods and even others working with people on the street.

Linda Lera-Randle El, who has worked two decades with the homeless and directs Straight From the Streets, a nonprofit organization, said the issue "gets frustrating for both sides."

She said the most important point in working with the homeless may be obscured - getting them into housing.

"The issue should be how to get people out of the park and into a place to live," Lera-Randle El said.

"They shouldn't be hassled (by the marshals), but the homeless shouldn't be spending so much time in the park either," she said.

Lera-Randle El said many of the homeless get used to lining up for food at set-ups such as Sacco's 2 p.m. meals, transforming what should be a life-sustaining need in an emergency into a lifestyle.

Feeding the homeless is often better done one-on-one or in small groups - and accompanied by social services to get them off the streets, she said.

Sacco said that in addition to feeding the homeless, she also tries to direct them to other social services.

"I want to end homelessness, not hide it," Sacco said.

Shannon West, regional homeless coordinator, said while church groups and others across the Las Vegas Valley feed the poor as a way of helping, they often butt up against neighbors or the law, or both.

"They have great intentions," West said. "However, there are other ramifications."

She said she would like to develop an arrangement she has seen in Miami, where city-approved sites for feeding the poor also offer other services.

The question is, "How do we harness those efforts, and contribute to helping the homeless, while working within the system?" she said. Sacco's citation says she "did willingly and unlawfully conduct (a food feeding) event at Huntridge Circle Park, where 25 people or more did participate or witness such event without obtaining a permit."

A review of the city's Web site reveals that permits are available in only 14 of the city's 63 parks - and Circle Park is not one of them.