Commerce challenges charity: Sacramento sues Loaves & Fishes ministry

National Catholic Reporter, March 28, 1997 by Kathryn Casa

Twelfth Avenue slices so close to the Loaves & Fishes complex that you can hear the traffic above the chatter and activity of the compound. The artery is a heavily trafficked connector to North Sacramento, where farmland is finally giving way to the timeworn urban pressure to subdivide, and where the first of an onslaught of housing developments last month was approved by the city council. In between the city and its northernmost populace is the Richards Boulevard area, with Loaves & Fishes at its pulsating heart.

There are municipal visions for that area, too, arising from a Richards Boulevard master plan approved by the city in August 1995 that is projected to double the size of the downtown business district with a $1 billion array of parks, high-rise office buildings, housing and -- a particular favorite -- a major-league baseball stadium.

According to director Chatfield, the sea change in the city's attitude toward Loaves & Fishes came the year the master plan was adopted. Before that, he said, the city planning director routinely and without public hearing approved amendments to Loaves & Fishes' 1988 special use permit once the required fees were paid. "But suddenly, in August 1995 when we wanted to expand, all hell broke lose."

Efforts at mediation broke down last year, largely when representatives from the surrounding business community left the table and Chatfield and the Loaves & Fishes board subsequently refused to budge, leaving both sides on a one-way street to the courthouse.

Chatfield today declares unequivocally, "We're here to say that this new vision of downtown Sacramento is not going to be built on the backs of the poorest people in our community who are just simply trying to survive and have a safe place to be."

Some predict the litigation will pull up short the rhetoric of both sides. One source close to the issue said, "People will talk and dance around, but nobody gets serious about the conversation until there's a lawsuit and court-ordered deadlines. I don't think the city made a mistake by filing the lawsuit. I think in the long run, people will see that it was the prelude to a solution."

But others wince at the spectacle of a city suing a charity that raises its $1.6 million annual budget from the private sector alone, especially as federal welfare reform laws set a whole new crop of poor and hungry people squarely in the lap of local governments that can ill-afford to cope with them.

Bishop William K. Weigand in January issued a strong statement saying he was "embarrassed" by the city's action and urging the council to drop the suit and "provide positive leadership toward a realistic solution."

Fr. Dan Madigan, president and founder of the 21-year old Sacramento Food Bank Services, said, "It is a public shame, and if we don't stop, if we don't slow up, we're going to make ourselves a national public shame." Food Bank Services is a complex of services for the poor several miles from Loaves & Fishes.

"I get over $1 million a year from the pockets of the people of Sacramento," Madigan said. "I believe this is one of the most generous cities in the entire country. So it would be a terrible thing if we got a name we don't deserve. We're living in a city called Sacramento, and look what we're doing."