On Feb 5, the Sun-Sentinel published a story about the city of Fort Lauderdale's battle with Arnold Abbott, of the Love Thy Neighbor organization, who has be threatened with arrest simply for feeding the homeless. Arnold Abbott:Sun-Sentinel
Good and reasonable people might disagree about the best way to deal with the poor and hungry, and the extent of our individual and collective duties. But who could imagine that someone could be arrested for feeding the poorest among us?
Yet that is the situation in which Arnold Abbott finds himself. The city is threatening to arrest him for feeding homeless people on the beach.
I checked with the city Department of Parks and Recreation and found out there is no stated limitation on people using the picnic tables on which Abbott serves the meals. Any civic group, any church, or any other group is free to use this area.
With Abbott, the city is relying on an ordinance that bans provision of social services on the beach.
But the serving of meals is classified as provision of social services only because the city makes that distinction in its ordinances. This still does not explain the reason for drawing that line.
The Sun-Sentinel does explain the reason for the ordinance when its says the city had received complaints from business owners about the homeless people congregating "in view" of beach hotels, restaurants and shops. The homeless people may not be the most well-groomed and attractive, but does that mean that they do not have a right to exist or that Abbott does not have a right to feed them?
This brings us to the crux of the problem: Do homeless people have a right to be anywhere? And what is the best way to deal with the complex problems that brought these individuals to homelessness, including mental illness, drug addiction, physical illness and disability, family issues and so on?
Mayor Jim Naugle says that "instead of handing out fish, [Abbott] should be teaching the homeless to fish." The problem is that many homeless people, due to mental illness or other issues, are not able to hold the fishing pole.
The issue of the serving of fish vs. teaching the hungry to fish came before the City Commission in the form of a recommendation by a citizen advisory board to help the Cooperative Feeding Program purchase a facility in which to feed the hungry and train individuals for jobs in the restaurant and catering industries. The city chose to deny the funding. So much for "teaching the homeless to fish."
In the last year, the city has reformed its zoning - including, for practical purposes, the zoning out of social services for the homeless.
I can hear the city commissioners saying, "But we are building the Homeless Assistance Center [HAC]." Well, there are, at minimum, 200 to 300 people in Tent City now on any given night. The HAC will serve only 200 people at any given time and those served will have to be at a point of readiness to enter a structured program, which many of the homeless are not.
Despite the common myth that most of the homeless in Fort Lauderdale are "snowbirds" who come down for the winter or, in the city's apparent theory, for the food, the homeless are most often long-term community residents.
The homeless have the same right to use public facilities as any other citizen. In addition, constitutional rights of religion and freedom of association are implicated.
The city of Fort Lauderdale is ignoring lessons from other cities. Miami has recently settled a case after long and expensive litigation, agreeing to pay fines to the homeless persons whose property was taken by the police and those who were illegally arrested in "sweeps." Oakland Park also engaged in lengthy and expensive litigation to keep a family shelter out of the city. Again, the city was required by law to accept that the Catholic Church has the right to operate a homeless shelter.
Fort Lauderdale must accept its responsibility to work for solutions to the homelessness "problem," as it is called. The city would, if it could, ban the homeless from the city. But Fort Lauderdale is in Florida, which happens to be in America.
The author is an attorney with Florida Legal Services Inc., 900 River Beach Drive, No. 418, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315; phone 524-3497. She wrote this article for the Sun-Sentinel.