Orlando bans feeding homeless downtown

[deadparrot]

ORLANDO, Fla. - City officials have banned charitable groups from feeding homeless people in parks downtown, arguing that transients who gather for weekly meals create safety and sanitary problems for businesses.

The measure, approved Monday, prevents serving large groups in parks and other public property within two miles of City Hall without a permit. The American Civil Liberties Union vowed to sue, saying it's a superficial fix that ignores the city's homeless problem.

City commissioner Patty Sheehan pushed for the ordinance after complaints from business owners and residents that homeless people were causing problems at a downtown park popular with joggers and dog walkers.

A group called Food Not Bombs, which has served weekly vegetarian meals to homeless people for more than a year there, said it would continue illegally.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060725/ap_on_re_us/homeless_feeding_ban

[stepnw1f]

1. WTF?! This isn't a Solution...

how disgusting... What the hell is going on in this country!!!!!!!

[acmejack]

15. As there becomes more of the homeless, it is increasingly criminalized

To the camps with them...

edit can't speel

[stepnw1f]

20. no kidding

may as well lock me up too... I owe the banks money.

[bperci108]

38. The moment that was announced on AAR (newsbreak)....

...the first thing that popped into my mind was the phrase:

"How dare they be hungry, homeless and poor in this community!"


Unbelievable. :puke:

The day is coming; mark this well. :grr:

[sgxnk]

2. if there ever

was a situation calling for civil disobedience, this is it

i would gladly stand, sandwich in hand, in defiance of this stupid law

[Up2Late]

3. Of course, Downtown Orlando is a Disneyfied Twilight zone anyway...

...this doesn't surprise me at all.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. I was resisting the urge to make a sarcastic suggestion

that Disney promote the park as a new attraction -- the 'Buddy Can You Spare a Dime' historical ride.

How are joggers and dog walkers more important than providing a relatively safe daytime gathering place for those with no home and little if any money for food? I've lived near parks that were more popular with the homeless than anyone else and I can't say that I was happy about it but it would never occur to me to ban free food offerings as a way to address the problem.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. THAT will be the Bad PR From Hell

Prosecuted for giving food to the poor.

If that's not deserving of :popcorn:, nothing is.

[DumpDavisHogg]

5. More of that "compassionate conservatism"!

You know, the city of Orlando (and other cities that do the same) can be charged with crimes against humanity for this, don't you?

I think it's time we start pursuing a wholehearted effort to place city officials on trial for supporting crap like this. Perhaps get the UN involved.

This isn't just a local "microinitiative" issue. This is a major human rights issue.

[C_U_L8R]

6. how ©hri™ian of them

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Civil disobedience may be in order here . . . . n/t

[Pacifist Patriot]

27. This is what I said when I learned of Las Vegas...

since I live near enough to Orlando, I better put my money where my mouth is, eh?

[lonestarnot]

9. Vegas and Orlando The Starvers of Homeless! OBSCENE!

[gratuitous]

10. Food Not Bombs is a righteous organization

They'll keep feeding folks, to what should be the shame of the Orlando overclass.

[jaxx]

11. Joggers and dog walkers?

In other words being poor and homeless and hungry isn't pretty enough for the parks.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Downtown Orlando has one of the biggest and best run

homeless shelters in the country. It is open 24/7 and I pretty sure they do a food kitchen open to anyone who comes, so it's not like the homeless won't have anywhere to go.

I can understand other groups want to help too, but there are a lot of problems associated with homeless people and the people who prey upon them and the tourists. So there some serious issues that need to be addressed and one of them is safety. If people visiting don't feel safe it's very bad for business and the people who work there.

[jilln]

13. That's nice but I don't think it's really the point.

Why should they go to the shelter if they don't want to? Who is anyone to tell them where to go? They should have equal right to all public areas, just like people who have homes. Why does paying rent or a mortgage give you special rights to public areas? Are the joggers and dogwalkers allowed to eat in the park?

I do think you're right about the associated problems, but this nonsolution will not fix it, just move it to a less visible area. Just like terrorism, until you adress the roots of the problem it will not go away.

[Bukowski Fan]

14. This is not surprising at all

And it is endemic in most of this country. The upper class and professional class reclaiming downtown areas by building so-called "fortresses". This way, they can enjoy the amenities this newly opened public space offers without having to be in contact with all the rabble.

The city of Orlando should be absolutely ashamed of itself.

Thank you to the wonderful people of Food Not Bombs for carrying on their work in face of this inhuman law.

[Orangepeel]

17. I don't agree with this decision, BUT

there is a difference between telling the homeless they aren't allowed in the park (which the city is not doing) and telling the charitable organization that they need to take their food to the shelter instead of the park (which they are).

[Lorien]

18. Where? The "Jesus Saves" building over on Paramore?

that's in a horrible area. I don't know of any other shelter around downtown. I live in downtown Orlando; there aren't a lot of tourists here because it's not close to the major attractions and Church street is mostly closed. I walk around lake Eola regularly and have never had any issues with any of the homeless there. It would be great if Orlando had a spectacular shelter, provided mental health services and career training...but that just isn't happening.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. The Coalition for the Homeless

Info from their website?


The Coalition for the Homeless operates two campuses. The main campus on Central Avenue in Parramore includes the Center for Women & Families, a 240-bed center for families, women and children; the Pavilion, a drop-in shelter for 375-plus men and nine transitional apartments to help families on the road to self sufficiency.

A separate campus near the intersection of Magnolia Ave. and East Hillcrest St. is home to Women’s Residential and Counseling Center (WRCC), 138-bed transitional facility for women, or women with children.

http://www.centralfloridahomeless.org/about.html

[Lorien]

24. Parramore is scary. I can see why the homeless wouldn't want to cross

I-4 into that neighborhood. I've been to the Magnolia center to donate clothing and toys to the children there. It's small and understaffed. Orlando needs far, for more than 240 beds. The line for the soup kitchen near the historical society usually is at least 400 souls, and most of them look like vets. It's a very sad situation.

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. They don't need more beds

they need more homes.

More emergency shelters are not a solution. They are a band-aide. When someone has been living in 'emergency' housing for over 5 years, it's not an emergency anymore. Studies have found that it is cheaper to 'rehouse' someone then it is to keep them stuck in an emergency shelter.

The biggest barrier between living on the street and finding a home is credit and money. Homeless people can't rent an apartment because they don't have 1st, last and security and they've got crap for credit references. With the re-housing concept, the shelter provider or some other appropriate agency acts as the go between and pays the up front costs and even rent and electric for the first year. During that time, social services works with the person to get them back on their feet.

Shouldn't the goal be how do we transition people into a more permanent solution, rather then continuing to put band-aids on the problem?

[Lorien]

28. Didn't you read my other suggestions?

Providing Mental heath care and career training? OF COURSE they need homes! That goes without saying. However, I do feel that having even ONE family sleeping on the streets for ONE night is too many. There will always be transition periods. That's just a sad fact of reality.

[DoYouEverWonder]

29. Like I said in an earlier post

anyone who has been on the street for more then 5 years is no longer in a transition period.

[mark414]

32. have you ever been homeless and gone to one of those shelters?

shelters fucking suck.

that's all i have to say.

[Lorien]

16. I live in downtown Orlando and regularly walk around the park mentioned

there are many homeless there, but they don't cause any problems-certainly no more problems than walkers with unruly kids or dogs! Some of the local restaurants regularly feed the homeless downtown; I just witnessed a waitress handing several boxes of food to a homeless couple on the street as I was walking to the library downtown last week. Hundreds of homeless were also lined up near the historical center as a church group was handing out meals.The city needs to work on offering solutions to the problem of homelessness- like career training and shelters-rather than punishing those who are treating the symptoms.

[Orangepeel]

21. I disagree with this decision, but I feel compelled to point out

some things about my adopted hometown:

1) Downtown Orlando isn't anywhere near Disney and isn't particularly "Disnified"

2) Patty Sheehan is not a "compassionate conservative." She's actually quite liberal on most issues

3) She is not trying to stop the feedings, she is trying to move them. I think it was stupid and kind of mean for her to be doing so -- she ought to be on the side of letting people who want to do a nice thing do it -- but it isn't like she's proposing running the homeless out of town on a rail.

[DoYouEverWonder]

22. I've been through this issue in my own community

My business is in an Enterprise Zone and we moved there because we like it there. However, if you are going to be in or near a downtown, dealing with the homeless people and the associated problems is a major issue.

A few years ago I participated in a Task Force that look at the homeless issue in our community. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Most of the people on the Task Force were homeless advocates. One woman on the task force was a homeless person. A middle aged women whose been living on the street for years, who the system has totally failed. It was a pleasure to get to know her. D wasn't very educated or bright but she has a lot of common sense. D had gotten in trouble when she started having heart problems and couldn't work anymore. Eventually she lost everything and how she survives I haven't got a clue.

For months this task force met and we went round and round and because the homeless advocates were in an all or nothing position for something that was totally unrealistic, there was no resolution.

The ridiculous part was toward the end, we were all standing around outside one night after a meeting. I asked D where she was going? She said she had to catch the bus? I had assumed she lived downtown at the time. It turned out she lived in a transitional apartment complex right up the road from me. So for all those months, this poor woman was horsing around taking buses in the middle of the night to get home and I could have been giving her a ride the whole time. You would have thought the chair or one of the homeless 'advocates' would have put two and two together?

Anyway, the result was some really wonderful conversations and trust me the D's in the world don't want to be on the street. They don't want to be begging and bothering people. They just want someplace to go that is safe, that they don't have to worry about getting kicking out of if they can't pay the rent.

It seems some people are so focused on defending homeless peoples' right to be homeless, that they forget that most of them don't want to be homeless.

[joeglow3]

23. I am mixed on this

The park one block from my work does this. I would love to have my family come down for lunch in the park, but have seen too much stuff going on I would not want my 3 year old exposed to just yet. However, we need to help these people out.

[EFerrari]

40. Welcome to DU, joeglow3

:hi:

[onehandle]

26. Why not just shoot them?

They likely aren't capable of voting Republican, so why keep them around?

C'mon, Jeb. Kill 'em. You know you want to.

[stepnw1f]

34. Nah.. Make the Homeless Into Game

Why not... Once a year... Nobody wants them anyway. I'm sure Cheney would love to attend.

[Megahurtz]

30. This is only going to lead to

more criminalization of the homeless everywhere in this country.:(

Nevertheless, if I was homeless I would leave that city!

[Judi Lynn]

31. More attention should be paid to these humans. The public should be

more aware how they got there, and be informed of how many of them are veterans, or dependents of veterans who couldn't make it. Republicans are responsible, due to their anality, along with lily-livered Democrats whose jobs and status are more important to them than doing the right thing.

The country needs to know what really happens to people without contacts, without stable, and strong relatives who can, or are willing to help, like young men dumped out after a war, with no one to give them shelter, or isolated people turned out of hospitals, like Reagan's homeless were. Just the merest attention by conscientious legislators could transform this situation ENTIRELY.

Treating them as if they are hated, unwanted, shunned is primitive, and ugly. It's tempting fate. Why wouldn't you expect to invite catastrophe to yourself when you are willing to abuse the helpless?

[Bill McBlueState]

33. How do they tell who's homeless?

If you can provide a recent utility bill, are people allowed to give you food? Or do you just have to look a certain way?

[drhilarius]

35. This is exactly what Jesus would do...

we live in a christian country. :sarcasm:

[saigon68]

36. He'd BUST OUT the Loaves and the Fishes

These so called Christian LEADERS OF THESE SCUM CITIES would lock up the hungry and mock them for "BEING LAZY"

[unkachuck]

37. help me understand....

....the Republican Cast-System....

....are homeless natural citizens above or below immigrants?....those who feed immigrants above or below those who feed the homeless?....

....how about the infirmed?....I'm confused....

[Pacifist Patriot]

41. It's not that hard. See if this helps.

Top 20% = worthy

Bottom 80% = expendable

I really don't think there is any particular hierarchy below that threshold. We are talking Republicans here. Keep it simple and think in either/or. Seeing the world as complex is not a Republican trait. It's only confusing because you appreciate the subtleties. ;)

[mark414]

39. "create safety and sanitary problems for businesses" READ:

"we don't want to look at them fuckin poor people!"

[Vinca]

42. It's a sad state of affairs when we treat human beings the same way

we'd treat a pigeon problem.