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# Activists sue city over ‘anti-homeless’ laws
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/activists-sue-city-over-anti-homeless-laws/
- Published: 2003-01-04T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:16:06.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Community, Promenade, #archive-import, Homeless

*Homeless march down Promenade to protest barriers placed on local food lines*

Homeless advocates on Friday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Santa Monica law which makes giving free food to the city’s poor more difficult.

Chanting slogans like “Human needs, not Bayside greed,” dozens of homeless and activists marched down the Third Street Promenade on Friday to a press conference where lawyers announced they have sued the city in an attempt to stop it from enforcing what they believe is an unconstitutional ban on food lines.

“Santa Monica, to its everlasting shame, has made an immoral bargain with the devil,” said James Lafferty, executive director of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. “It has decided that it’s more important to shield its tourists and shoppers from having to gaze upon hungry residents lining up for food than it is to provide enough food to shield its hungry residents from starvation.”

> “Santa Monica, to its everlasting shame, has made an immoral bargain with the devil.” — — JAMES LAFFERTY Executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles Chapter

The City Council in October adopted a law giving its police force the ability to break up food distribution programs that lack permits from both the Los Angeles County Health Department and the city.

City officials say the ordinance doesn’t create any new barriers to food lines but does allow for laws that are already on the books to be enforced.

“What it does is provide notice to the community that the state health laws are in effect and applied to distribution of food to the public, which is the county’s interpretation of the state law,” said City Attorney Marsha Moutrie. “I don’t think our law imposes any significant new restrictions and I think it just makes the state health standards more broadly applicable.”

As of Friday afternoon, Moutrie said she had not seen a copy of the lawsuit, but her office is ready to defend the city’s ordinance in court regardless.

Homeless rights advocates say the law gives the city unilateral power to deny food distributors to set up in the city’s parks, violating the constitutional rights of the charities and religious organizations that run the programs.

35C,“Although under this new law you can feed someone with the city’s permission, there is no system in place for asking for permission,” said Carol Soble, a local well-known civil rights attorney who is litigating the case. “This is clearly a violation of a person’s civil rights.”

County health officials have said they welcome the city’s controversial new law and say there is a need to better monitor outdoor food distribution programs.

However, many volunteers of various food distribution programs said they don’t believe the city is trying to protect the health of the homeless with its new law. They believe the city enacted its ordinance to help clear the city of its homeless.

Many of the volunteers and the homeless at the event said they hadn’t heard of anyone getting sick from the free food regularly made available to the public in the city parks.

Paul M. Grymkowski, a volunteer of Helping Other People Eat — or HOPE, said because nobody is getting sick, he feels the city is responding to pressure from a local business association and downtown merchants, who want an end to the outdoor food lines.

“Santa Monica has always been known for its kind heart,” he said. “But the council is collecting a whole lot of bad Karma that could be devastating to the city at some point.”

> “Santa Monica has always been known for its kind heart. But the council is collecting a whole lot of bad Karma that could be devastating to the city at some point.” — — PAUL M. GRYMKOWSKI Helping Other People Eat

Another HOPE volunteer said the new ordinance already has scared many of the homeless from coming to the parks for the food programs.

She said the number of people using the meal programs in the parks has dwindled. Some have suggested it could be because of the winter weather shelters being open, but others contend its fear of prosecution.

“They are afraid now, the homeless,” said Julie, the HOPE volunteer, who declined to give her last name. “They are afraid to come to the food lines now because they think they’ll be arrested.”

The group of about 80 people — consisting of homeless, food providers and legal advocates — gathered at Palisades Park, near the intersection of Ocean and Arizona avenues, where free food was distributed.

At about noon, the group marched up Wilshire Boulevard and then down the Third Street Promenade carrying signs that said “Food and sleep are basic human rights,” and “Ignorance gets people no where.” They chanted slogans like “Everyone has the right to eat,” and “Save our food lines.”

Passersby stopped and watched the procession with stunned expressions. One man standing on the balcony of the Easton Gym yelled “Get a job,” while others standing outside the AMC movie theater cheered and applauded the group.

The group stopped at the intersection of the Promenade and Santa Monica Boulevard, where a swarm of television cameras were waiting.

Tom Morello — a member of the now defunct rock band Rage Against the Machine — spoke at the protest, condemning the city’s actions.

“Feeding the homeless is not a crime,” he said. “The real crime is that the members of the Santa Monica City Council, all of whom have homes and plenty to eat, have passed a law making it illegal to feed the poor.”

Serj Tankin, the singer for System of a Down, also attended the protest and marched in the procession. He said the city has put itself on a dangerous path by passing laws that take food away from the hungry.

“In my opinion we have lost the sense of natural laws and replaced them with human laws,” he said. “These are laws that work against humanity and justice.”

Citing Santa Monica’s ordinance, the Los Angeles City Council is now investigating whether it should create a permitting system for the food distribution programs that take place there.

Attorneys with the National Lawyers Guild warned that if Los Angeles enacts similar laws, it too will be dragged into court by the association.

“Well, Santa Monica’s effort is clearly illegal,” said Soble, “and just as we have challenged it in court, we are prepared to do the same with Los Angeles if it adopts a similar measure.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/010403-01_01.jpg)

(Left) James Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild speaks to the press on Friday regarding a lawsuit filed against the city. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 4, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010403.pdf?ref=smdp.com)