Accord on Hobo Meals Rejected

A compromise agreement between clergymen and the Roseville Chamber of Commerce to resolve a bitter dispute over free meals for transients was rejected by the Roseville City Council by a 3-2 vote Wednesday.

City officials and some merchants have complained that free meals offered by four church organizations are attracting increasing numbers of transients to the city of 50,000, a historic railroad town and longtime stopover for rail-riding hobos.

In an effort to control the food giveaways, the City Council passed an emergency ordinance last month that requires a permit for new or expanded free meal programs. Some clergymen vowed to violate the law if they found more meals to feed the poor necessary.

In another effort to curtail the handouts, city officials offered to help clergymen set up a homeless shelter if they would close meal programs that currently provide one free meal seven days a week.

Clergymen and members of the Chamber of Commerce subsequently worked out a compromise that would have allowed church organizations to provide up to three consecutive meals to transients at the proposed homeless shelter. The agreement called for closure of the meal programs that are conducted at sites near downtown Roseville, about 10 miles northwest of Sacramento.

But the City Council rejected the compromise, the majority citing concerns over the cost of the proposed shelter and the plan to offer three meals to transients.

As a result, the meal programs will continue at their current locations, said Bill Boudier, a deacon with the St. Rose Catholic Church.

“Anytime anybody raises a complaint about the four feeding programs or the transients,” said Boudier, “we can . . . point whoever is complaining to the mayor and the two councilmen who voted against the proposal.”