Health official says feedings should be held at shelters
Groups that feed hundreds of homeless people daily in Santa Monica may soon have to answer to another bureaucracy.
Terrance Powell, chief environmental health specialist for L.A. County, said he is concerned that food borne illnesses could run rampant among the homeless population if food providers are not educated on how to prepare and distribute food.
The health department requires strict guidelines to serve food, including how it is prepared, how it is served and how clean the environment is where it’s being served.
“Feeding the transients and homeless carries a certain responsibility,” Powell said. “While they don’t have the intention of getting anyone sick, they don’t always have the amenities to keep it clean.”
“Feeding the transients and homeless carries a certain responsibility. While they don’t have the intention of getting anyone sick, they don’t always have the amenities to keep it clean.” — — TERRANCE POWELL L.A. County Health Department
Powell said he is concerned about the inherent problems of feeding people in parks where bird droppings can enter the food and providers are unable to wash their hands frequently because proper facilities don’t exist.
“Homeless don’t have bathrooms accessible to them or medical care if they get sick,” he said. “We can go to the doctor and get medication, but they don’t have access to medical attention if they get a food borne illness.”
In the next few weeks, the city council will consider eliminating or restricting the number of “public feedings” at Palisades Park and in front of City Hall. The Bayside District Corp., on behalf of the downtown business community, has recommended that public food giveaways be restricted because they attract transients and vagrants to the downtown area, many FEEDINGS, from page 1 of whom panhandle and hassle shoppers.
Powell, a Santa Monica resident, has run the westside district of the county’s health department for a decade. In recent years public food giveaways in the city become more prevalent, he said.
“The city is in a tough position because no one wants to be painted as unsympathetic,” Powell said. “But the individuals who want to do good for the community sometimes can’t get past their egos and are self-serving... They don’t have the intention of getting anyone sick but there is ignorance and some resistance of how to do it safely.”
The people who conduct the food giveaways mostly consist of church groups from outside the city who aren’t allowed to hand out free food in their own cities so they come to Santa Monica, which has little or no restrictions, Bayside officials said.
The city grants permits for large groups to assemble in parks, but it doesn’t monitor the health and safety of the activities that occur there.
Joel Schwartz, the city’s homeless services director, said the city has been trying to get the health department involved for more than a year. Schwartz is concerned that the health department isn’t spending enough time monitoring the food giveaways.
“I’ve talked to Terrance Powell and they seem tremendously understaffed,” he said. “They have been putting us off for over a year now.”
The health department, which has four inspectors assigned solely to Santa Monica, doesn’t have enough resources to monitor all of the groups that feed the city’s homeless, Powell said.
Some argue that groups should be handing out free food at the city’s homeless shelters so services are attached to the free hand-outs. They also say that handing food out at shelters is a more appropriate location than public parks where children and tourists are present. When hundreds gather in one place to eat, the availability of public restrooms becomes an issue.
“There are appropriate places and there are inappropriate places and some parks don’t fit the bill,” Powell said. “It’s a complete disservice to put the homeless where they are not wanted... everyone needs to be treated with dignity.”
The city contributes about $2 million annually to homeless services and facilities in Santa Monica, but it does not support or run any of the food programs. However, when the city conducted its own food giveaways more than a decade ago, it was much easier to monitor, Powell said. He added that if food giveaways are going to happen, they should be done at the city’s shelters.
“If the city is expending any money toward homelessness they should be guiding the effort,” he said, adding that everyone who has a stake in the issue needs to come together to discuss solutions.
“It’s very easy for a partnership to happen but many of them don’t want to do it,” Powell said. “Volunteers put their own desires before the law and a lot of individual egos have to be suppressed first.”
Powell said he welcomes a community-wide discussion about the issue, which the health department wants be involved in.
“We have been extremely careful in how we approach it,” he said. “It’s important to have dialogue with everyone and channel the food providers to one place.
“There has to be a cooperative effort with those who do it and the city.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 4, 2002. Read the original PDF.