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By Richard Hamilton, March 31, 2010 2:14 pm

Rather than keeping you guessing about my lawbreaking exploits, I’ll confess my crime. I feed homeless people. [everyone gasp here] “I can’t believe you Richard…I am so disappointed! Wait. What??” [everyone scratch your head now] You read correctly; my crime is taking food to homeless people.

San Antonio has is home to about 25,000 people each year. At anytime, you can go downtown and encounter a few thousand people living on the streets. Over the past year and a half, I have been privileged to meet and serve some of these people. This past fall, the church I work with launched a college ministry with the expressed purpose of connecting college students with those in need locally (namely the poor, hungry and homeless).

San Antonio has been blessed with a new project providing homeless individuals and families with the training, skills and assistance needed to help them become self-sufficient. This project is Haven for Hope. And it is amazing! I believe it will make a difference in many lives. Haven for Hope is structured in a way that allows (even encourages) community organizations, like churches, to partner with them to help hurting people in San Antonio.

The reality is, that Haven for Hope is not for everyone. There are some (admittedly often by their own choosing) who will not benefit for Haven for Hope. This is compounded by the fact that Haven for Hope’s downtown campus has experiences some delays and is not even fully opened.

Here is where the illegality begins.

The opening of Haven for Hope has given some city officials the opportunity needed to “clean up the streets”. Efforts have already been made to relocate people from areas highly populated by homeless San Antonians (namely and area called “Under the Bridge”). Not sure where exactly they expect them to go. Haven for Hope will only hold about 1,500 when fully opened, which it is not yet. To make matters worse, it seems the city is now restricting the benevolence of individuals and organizations by requiring a permit to give away food, making it effectively illegal to feed homeless in San Antonio. Check out a local news story about the new restrictions.

I understand the complications and liabilities associated with the large homeless population San Antonio has. And, I’m sure that some of these decisions are made by well intentioned people. These new restrictions do however complicate the lives of many benevolent people. Speaking idealistically for a moment, shouldn’t government make it easier for people to help people.

So how should I proceed? What should I do with my new found “criminal” status? For now, I will continue with business as usual. Our college ministry will proceed with its scheduled Serve SA event coming up soon where we will pack lunches for a few hundred of our homeless neighbors. I will look into getting permits to make it all legit and legal and hope the city doesn’t start fining in the mean time.

Comments (1)

By Richard Hamilton, December 20, 2008 4:36 pm

What would Christmas look like? from richard hamilton on Vimeo.

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By Richard Hamilton, October 14, 2008 11:59 pm

People from Castle Hills Christian Church (where I am on staff) get out and try to help their community over the weekend.

serve san antonio from richard hamilton on Vimeo.

San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the US and has a homeless population of 2,247 people. On October 11, 2008, about 15 volunteers hit the streets with about 200 bag lunches.

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By Richard Hamilton, September 19, 2008 3:42 pm

I’ve found good coffee! I am currently sitting in a shop called Ruta Maya drinking a black and brown (a double shot of espresso with Leche Quemada), which is out of this world. Free Wi-Fi, good coffee, resonable prices, a great non-cookie cutter look, and live music a few nights a week. I think I will probably be spending a lot of time here!

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By Richard Hamilton, September 4, 2008 3:32 pm

Well, we have relocated. My family and I are living in San Antonio Texas. It is a little bit of a change of pace, but things are going well. Hopefully, things will settle down next week and I can start making regular post. As for now, I’m most likely enjoying better Mexican food than you are but I still haven’t found a good coffee shop. Oh well.