James Kelly says he spent nine years serving America in the Navy but has fallen on hard times since.
Kelly was looking for scraps of food in the trash when police found him and gave him a ticket for disturbing the contents of a garbage bin in the downtown business district.
Kelly has an attorney who says recent laws passed in Houston are behind the citation. Those new regulations make it illegal for citizens to give food to the homeless. The attorney says "Now, when they try to feed themselves any way possible, they make that a crime as well."
Houston officials claim a charity run food service event was going on while Kelly was searching through the trash.
A statement from police in Houston said “an officer has probable cause to issue such a citation when a person is seen opening a lid and rummaging through contents of a dumpster or trash can."
Kelly says he no longer has his military ID and can’t get help from the VA.