Dallas has issued zero citations this year for street feedings downtown, despite an ordinance regulating the practice and repeated concerns from leaders who work daily with homelessness and public safety.
Each week, volunteers gather to distribute free food south of downtown Dallas — primarily along S. Ervay Street, Corsicana Street, and Cadiz Street — drawing hundreds of people to the area, as The Dallas Express has previously reported.
City officials have confirmed that no citations have been issued for street feeding violations this year, even though the ordinance remains in effect.
Leaders with Downtown Dallas Inc. (DDI), whose security teams regularly patrol the area during these feedings, say the issue is not charity itself, but that uncoordinated street feedings often create disorder and divert people away from comprehensive services that can actually help them exit homelessness.
“There have been no citations issued,” said David Davis, DDI vice president of public safety and field operations, to The Dallas Express. “Code Enforcement – their message to us is that they don’t feel safe.”
DDI President and CEO Jennifer Scripps told The Dallas Express the group’s leaders are hoping for a stronger enforcement ordinance. She said this year alone, the group has spent more than $100,000 addressing street feeding.
“We want people to be taken care of. Nothing is more fundamental than three meals a day. But the way these services are provided creates a lot of trash, a lot of crowd control issues,” Scripps said. “If Code Enforcement doesn’t feel safe, how are residents and visitors to the area supposed to feel when things aren’t enforced?”
Dallas Chief Communications Officer Rick Ericson told The Dallas Express the city’s approach revolves around “education, collaboration, and public health protection.”
Ericson said city sanitarians routinely engage with volunteers in the field to explain code requirements, provide sanitation guidance, and emphasize keeping public spaces clean and accessible.
Earlier this summer, enforcement officers found volunteers had not notified the city in advance, as policy requires, but allowed them to continue serving food, and offered paperwork for future feedings.
For years, officials and staff members with The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center – just down the street – have walked the surrounding blocks to clean up after the feedings, as The Dallas Express reported.
Groups Observed Feeding for Free Downtown on December 13
Multiple organizations regularly provide free food downtown. On December 13, The Dallas Express visited the feedings and spoke with and observed the following groups operating in the S. Ervay–Corsicana corridor:
- Walter Bruce Foundation – Weekly Saturday street feedings, distributing prepared meals, clothing, and hygiene items
- Omega Psi Phi fraternity (Dallas-area members) – Monthly outreach events providing food
- The Connection – Partnered feeding event serving more than 200 people alongside the Walter Bruce Foundation
Additional volunteer groups were present, distributing food and supplies, but were not individually identified or interviewed.
Downtown leaders say the issue is not volunteer intent, but that uncoordinated street feedings often pull people away from recovery-based services that offer meals alongside housing navigation, medical care, and case management.
On the Streets
The Dallas Express visited the street feedings on December 13, as the BMW Dallas Marathon displaced volunteers and homeless individuals from their usual gathering areas.
The event pushed activity onto Corsicana Street and S. Ervay Street, concentrating the issues that The Dallas Express reported on this summer. Downtown Dallas Inc. security, along with Code Compliance officers and the Dallas Police Department, were present in the area.
Several homeless individuals argued among themselves as dozens lined up for food. Others stood quietly nearby while volunteers distributed meals and supplies.
Fred Trevino, 62, told The Dallas Express he has been homeless since December 2024 after a relationship ended and rising housing costs left him without a place to live. A former maintenance technician from San Antonio, Trevino said knee and back problems forced him into early retirement.
“I just come to get food, take a shower — I try my best to stay clean,” Trevino said. He added that he has searched for part-time work but has struggled to find opportunities that fit his physical limitations.
Trevino said his faith has helped him endure life on the streets.
“I do believe God will help me get out of this,” he said. “We’ve got to remember our timing is not His.”
Trying to Help
Several volunteer groups distributed food, clothing, and supplies along sidewalks south of downtown, setting up tables or serving from the backs of vehicles.
Dwayne Traylor, who was serving food with members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, said the group conducts outreach roughly once per month.
“People out here, they’re homeless,” Traylor told The Dallas Express. “We came here to bless them and make sure they have some sustenance, at least for the day.”
Traylor said the fraternity notified the city in advance and focused its cleanup efforts on the immediate area around its station.
Nearby, volunteers with the Walter Bruce Foundation distributed prepared meals, clothing, and hygiene items. The organization holds street feedings every Saturday, “rain, sleet, or snow,” according to foundation organizer Jazmine Odom.
“We give out food, clothes, any toiletry items — anything that’s essential,” Odom said. “We just want to be the hands and feet of Jesus.”
Odom said the foundation notified the city ahead of the most recent feeding and collects trash in the surrounding area following events.
Next to the Walter Bruce Foundation was The Connection, a Dallas-based women’s social nonprofit that partnered in the December 13 feeding. Organizer Natalie Arloo said the group helped serve more than 200 people that day.
“It’s important to serve, but also important to make sure it’s clean,” Arloo said.
Arloo said the Walter Bruce Foundation handled notification to the city and that her group focused on cleanup before leaving. She said city sanitation crews typically remove remaining debris after feedings.
However, during prior visits by The Dallas Express, food containers and trash were observed scattered across surrounding blocks after feedings concluded.
Long-Term Problems
Pastor Earl Fitzsimmons, founder of Bring The Light Ministries, said his organization has stepped away from large downtown street feedings after years of participation, citing growing disorder and a lack of coordination among volunteer groups.
Fitzsimmons, who said he was previously addicted and homeless, has spent more than 18 years working to help others recover. His group previously fed people south of downtown but has since shifted its outreach strategy.
“The organizations that are doing seasonal outreaches — they do it when it’s convenient for them, not when it’s needed by the people,” Fitzsimmons said. “Things are well-intentioned, but way misorganized. They are myopic in their view, and don’t give a darn about what anybody else is doing.”
Instead of attending large feedings, Fitzsimmons said Bring The Light Ministries now ministers directly to people living in encampments around Al Lipscomb Way and near the Austin Street Center, focusing on longer-term engagement rather than one-time distributions.
“My experience has shown me that most seasonal outreaches are not really concerned with what else is going on in the sector,” he said.
Fitzsimmons said the result is not fewer people on the streets, but movement from one area to another.
“They move from one place to the next, to the next,” he said. “We’ve got to chase them down to find out where they are, but there’s no real strong attrition — they’re not getting a lot of people off the streets.”
Downtown leaders say the risks of uncoordinated outreach become more pronounced during major holiday events.
As The Dallas Express previously reported, an unrelated nearby gift distribution on Christmas Eve 2021 escalated into a fight in a parking lot that ended in a fatal shooting.
Scripps said the organization began shifting its strategy more than a year ago to focus specifically on the impacts of street feeding.
“This just creates a huge quality-of-life issue, and it’s not that we aren’t charitable,” Scripps explained. “This is not a good practice for the people doing the work or the recipients.”
Scripps noted that DDI has increased coordination with code enforcement and deployed designated teams to manage feedings, but enforcement remains limited.
“We’re really still struggling to get any citations issued,” she said. “They still need to do some rule enforcement.”
City officials have been drafting a revised street feeding ordinance for months, and DDI leaders say stronger language may be needed. Still, Scripps emphasized that enforcement of existing rules should come first.
“I think we have to start with enforcing what’s on the books,” Scripps said.
Scripps also suggested practical changes, such as requiring trash containers or compostable serving materials, to reduce cleanup burdens.
Larry Gordon, DDI’s chief of public safety and field operations, said current laws make enforcement difficult.
“It’s a Class B misdemeanor, meaning that person goes to jail,” Gordon said. “I don’t know any Dallas officers that would arrest this woman feeding the homeless, and pack her stuff up, and take her to jail.”
David Davis, DDI vice president of public safety and field operations, said other Texas cities have implemented more structured approaches.
“Cities like Austin, San Antonio, and Houston have found ways to organize street feedings in designated areas,” Davis said. “Why is there not a more punitive approach with repeat violators?”
Scripps urged volunteers to redirect their efforts through established providers rather than uncoordinated street outreach.
“There’s so many ways to help the unsheltered, and we applaud the call to do that,” she said. “But please work with service providers.”
Gordon echoed that message, pointing to recovery-focused organizations such as The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center and The Stewpot.
“You can go there and help people,” Gordon said. “They need the help desperately.”
Downtown leaders say the intent to help is not the issue. The concern, they argue, is that uncoordinated street feedings — however well-meaning — often fail to address the underlying causes of homelessness and can create unintended consequences for both those on the streets and the surrounding community.
Until the city enforces existing rules or provides a clearer structure, they say, the cycle is likely to continue — with compassion expressed, but lasting solutions left out of reach.
