An incredibly disturbing trend has surfaced recently in local American politics: cities are forbidding citizens from feeding homeless people. My focus is on how this has been created in tandem with shifts in public discourse. Although I recognise the similarities between the new ordinances and previous anti-homeless laws, I want to point to something new that is happening in the legal treatment of street people. City governments, somewhat dependent on the non-profit sector to give material aid while government services are cut, are now vigorously targeting charities/citizens. I will argue that this trend relates to a shift in the framing of the homeless issue – more specifically, a shift in the very definition of the homeless.