Shelter will offer homeless a new view
Helping homeless becomes easier with new furniture, equipment,
supplies
HUD's Cuomo coming to ribbon-cutting
Fort Lauderdale cracking down on services for homeless
County
doesn't know how it will pay to run new homeless shelter
North
Broward County disagrees over location of homeless shelters
Miami
settles lawsuit over harassment of the homeless
South
Florida granted help for homeless
By ROBIN BENEDICK Staff Writer
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Arnold Abbott desperately wants to get arrested.
The 73-year-old founder of Love Thy Neighbor refuses to back down amid pressure from the city to stop feeding homeless people on the beach every Wednesday.
 ( Robert Mayer/Staff) |
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| Arnold Abbott, center left, serves vegetables with other volunteers to the homeless lines up for the food at the south end of the beach.
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Abbott is being chased off the beach, where he has fed the homeless since 1991. At the downtown homeless camp, he and volunteers can no longer drive through a gate to unload hot trays of food. On Tuesday, the city began enforcing a cap on the number of homeless people allowed to spend the night at the tent camp. And some city commissioners tried unsuccessfully last month to get the commission to shut the shelter down.
"It's just a coincidence that all of this is going on at the same time," said Bud Bentley, an assistant city manager. "We are not retaliating against Arnold. He's the best provider at the downtown site. We just want him to abide by the rules."
After six years of scooping hot food for the homeless in the shadows of Fort Lauderdale's priciest real estate, Abbott said he's not goin g to stop -- even though the city has a July 1996 law forbidding it in public parks.
"Let them arrest me," Abbott said emphatically. "The homeless have every right to enjoy a meal on the beach just like anybody else."
Recent complaints from beach business owners about 100 or more homeless people congregating each Wednesday in view of their hotels, shops and restaurants prompted city officials to crack down on Abbott.
Besides his run-ins on the beach with police, Abbott must overcome another obstacle.
City officials have locked a gate at the makeshift homeless camp -- a parking lot covered with large tents -- across from City Hall, 100 N. Andrews Ave. Abbott and other volunteers drove through the gate every day to unload heavy metal trays of food. Now they have to park on a sidewalk or in a nearby city lot and lug the 40-pound trays.
City officials said they locked the gate because the volunteers were unloading their vehicles in a designated clear zone for a helicopter landing pad next to Tent City.
Bentley said volunteers have turned the off-limits area into a parking lot. "We are getting back to keeping it a clear zone," he said.
The homeless are getting a lot of attention in Fort Lauderdale lately.
On Tuesday night, for the first time since Tent City opened in November 1993, the city began limiting the number of homeless people allowed to sleep there.
Tent City has accomodations -- bathrooms, showers and cots -- for 240 people. The city has not turned people away, even when the camp swelled to nearly 300 people some nights this winter.
The Broward Health Department and Florida Legal Services have pushed the city to limit the number of homeless people crowd ed into Tent City.
Homeless advocates warned that they will sue Fort Lauderdale if homeless people locked out of the camp are arrested for hanging out elsewhere.
After months of negotiations, the city acquiesced on Tuesday. By the 10 p.m. head count, there were 248 people in camp. All were allowed to stay. Those who arrived later were not let in.
By the end of March, despite opposition from Commissioners Tim Smith and Carlton Moore, the capacity could be increased to 340 when a new women's bathroom opens. Until then, the cap will be enforced, officials said.
Abbott believes the city is retaliating against him because he won't stop the weekly beach feedings on picnic tables across from the Radisson Bahia Mar.
Last month, police handed Abbott a flyer explaining the two-year-old law that prohibits people from providing social services in parks. Abbott has support from the American Civil Liberties Union in Miami, which plans to sue Fort Lauderdale if Abbott is arrested.
"We're prepared to defend him if the city tries to prosecute him for committing the horrible act of feeding homeless people," said Howard Simon, the ACLU's executive director.
Several homeless people enjoying a hot meal on the beach Wednesday afternoon said it's wrong to harass Abbott. About 50 people, many of them regulars, showed up for chicken gumbo and rice, hot dogs and barbecued beans with beef.
"This guy, he's heaven sent," said Eric Moore, 37, an unemployed English teacher for handicapped children. Wednesday was his second visit to Arnold's feast. "If it weren't for him, we'd be digging in dumpsters for food. The police should find something better to do."
Police and city officials said the homeless leave public bathrooms o n the beach a mess, steal beach towels from lounge chairs, stretch out across picnic tables and wander into hotels and businesses to use the bathrooms.
"They are a big problem," Police Capt. Dan Doughty said.
Some homeless advocates support moving Abbott's feeding program to a central indoor location where the homeless could be brought by bus.
"Obviously if you're running a hotel on the beach and 100 people are congregating out there, that is not the kind of impression you want to leave in people's minds," said Allen Reesor, president of the Broward Coalition for the Homeless and director of the Broward Outreach Center in Hollywood.
Mayor Jim Naugle said he wouldn't mind if Abbott's beach banquets are stopped.
"He's a well-meaning man, but he isn't helping," the mayor said. "Instead of handing out fish, he should be teaching the h omeless how to fish."
Abbott is used to being pushed around by the city.
He said he got kicked out of Holiday Park where he fed the homeless before Tent City opened. He coordinates 16 different organizations that provide meals to the homeless at Tent City, where he serves on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays.
A retired manufacturing representative for a jewelry company, Abbott was a political activist for 18 years in suburban Philadelphia, fighting for civil rights, fair housing and other causes. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1964 and 1968.
He began helping the homeless after moving to South Florida in 1970. His late wife, Maureen, helped transients wherever they went. She would ask Abbott for the largest bill in his wallet, drop a $10 or $20 behind a homeless person, and tell them they lost something as she hurried by.
&nbs p; After Maureen died in 1991, Abbott founded Love Thy Neighbor in her memory. The organization has 200 volunteers and an annual budget of $38,000, Abbott said. Last year, volunteers served at least 60,000 meals to the homeless.
"All my life I've been fighting for the underdog," Abbott said. "As long as there is breath in my body, I'll look out for them."
