Activist relieved she can feed homeless at LV parks legally

Gail Sacco on Thursday afternoon did what she has been doing regularly for more than two years: feeding hungry homeless people in a Las Vegas park.

But for the past week or so, it has been like it was when she first began serving up plates of homemade rice and beans to the down and out. Legal, that is.

Sacco admitted to breathing a small sigh of relief last week when a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against an ordinance, passed 14 months ago, that prohibited people from feeding the homeless in city parks. She serves food at local parks several days a week and has been cited for doing so.

But "it doesn't make a difference to me whether it's legal or not," she said while piling a paper plate high with salad for a homeless man at Frank Wright Plaza. "It's the right thing to do."

Sacco continues to be in danger of violating an ordinance that requires permits for park gatherings of more than 25 people. She said she has been cited twice for not getting a permit for such a gathering.

It's hard to predict how many people will show up when you start passing out free food.

"I'm not really worried about that because I don't come to the same park every day anymore," Sacco said. "I bounce all over the place, so they can't say I'm bringing people to the park."

U.S. District Judge Robert Jones decided last week that although Las Vegas no longer can enforce the homeless feeding ban, the city remains free to enforce its trespassing laws in parks, designate park areas for children's use only and require permits for park gatherings of more than 25 people.

The decision was the latest development in a 14-month-old federal court action that set the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and activists against city laws perceived as unfairly targeting the indigent.

Arguments that the ordinances were selectively enforced and unconstitutional on several fronts failed to persuade Jones, who found that the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing that discriminatory intent behind the laws existed.

ACLU General Counsel Allen Lichtenstein disagreed and said he planned to file a notice of appeal that would be heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He had not done so as of Thursday but said the appeal would come soon.

The city has argued that the trespassing ordinances were intended to discourage criminal behavior in parks, not target the homeless. The ordinances allow city marshals to ban individuals from parks if they commit crimes on city property.

Sacco said serving food is a way of reaching out to people and establishing trust, and once people are fed, they are open to accepting other forms of aid, such as finding permanent housing and jobs.

She said she would continue to challenge the city ordinances and support the ACLU in its appeal.

About a dozen people gathered around a picnic table on Thursday when Sacco showed up with her four buckets full of food.

Most were unaware that Sacco had been in trouble for feeding people.

"That's not cool," said 39-year-old Ferrino Norris.

Norris said he became homeless about a month ago after getting stranded in Las Vegas on his way to Los Angeles from Utah.

"Somebody stole my baggage, my bus ticket, my ID, everything," he said. Since then, he has been on the street and surviving on food provided by people such as Sacco.

"They should feed the homeless," he said. "They need to eat."