I just emailed this letter to the Mayor and City Council. It has been on my heart lately.
---
Dear Mayor and City Council,
I would like to thank you for doing a great job. I bet it is a real hard job managing day to day operations in the City of Dallas. I would like to give you some information to help you make better decisions regarding this city's homeless population. I am one of the "street feeder's" that does the feeding. Every Sunday my Sunday School class from Prestonwood Baptist Church goes out and gets food and water and brings it to the Day Resource Center and feeds the homeless. We also spread the gospel as well, giving spiritual food as well as physical food. I have been doing this every Sunday since last October and have seen things go from bad to worse. The best way to really gauge how the homeless policies are working is to talk to the homeless people themselves. At some point they feel like the City of Dallas doesn't care about them. Everything they have seems to have been made illegal. Originally they were allowed to sleep in public places, of which the right to sleep is a God given right, and that was taken away. Then they were told they could not have makeshift box homes anymore making the homeless more destitute. Then they were told they couldn't ask anyone for money anymore because it was making citizen's uncomfortable. And now it appears you don't want us to feed them, which is another God given right. Already we are told that we have to get a food handler's permit to give food away. Is this true for charitable bake sales as well? I heard the other day you were talking about fining us for helping them. That is wrong on so many levels. I beg you Mayor and City Council. Please turn your policies away from the love of big business money and turn them to the love of mankind. They are still human and need all opportunities to better themselves. In talking with them it appears they feel that in the end your policies are designed for them to go to jail. They feel that they have become political pawns used to get businesses more money and get the city more funding that will never make it to them. The solution to this problem is simple. Help them. Feed them. Clothe them. Give them every opportunity to change. Take back all of the policies that have made being homeless illegal. These policies have done harm to the homeless community. There will always be a homeless population. I pray when you make these decisions that you think about the people with whom these policies directly affect and make a real difference. You have the power to love.

Sincerely,
Brian Bass