Orlando outlaws feeding homeless people...

[DanS]

Via Drudge.

Orlando Bans Feeding Homeless Downtown
Jul 25 1:55 PM US/Eastern
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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.

Robin Stotter, who is opening a restaurant downtown, said he would support homeless people by pledging money for food and shelter, but supported the ordinance.

"The homeless issue is not going to be solved today," he said. "It's a safety issue, and the public deserves a safe place to be."

Two of the city's five commissioners voted against the ordinance _ including Robert Stuart, the head of a homeless shelter.

Stuart said the city was moving to "criminalize goodhearted people."

"We're putting a Band-Aid on a critical problem," said commissioner Sam Ings, the other opposing vote.

[DanS]

Homeless men is a big problem in my neighborhood. Just like in Orlando, homeless men congregate in the city parks to wait for the charitable organizations to come by and feed them. It makes downtown feel much less safe, seems to foster an atmosphere of disorder (drugs, etc.), and lowers property values, especially for residential properties.

To be clear, I would like to solve the problem in a pragmatic and just manner.

Some cities have tried to outlaw the homelessness. If you're camping out in the city then you are taken to a jail that's like a homeless shelter for the evening.

Orlando is trying to outlaw the charity in the city center.

Some have tried to build enough shelters and halfway houses for the homeless. This seems to attract the homeless, creating an endless well to draw from.

Some have filled up the insane assylums with the homeless.

What say you?

[SlowwHand]

How do you outlaw homelessness? That's just bizarre, Dan. Anyone can become homeless. We like to believe not, but thats in error.

[DanS]

Well, it's more like outlawing living on the streets at night. There are an enormous number of homeless people living in their cars, for instance. But they don't seem to cause problems.

[Elok]

This will counterbalance the unmistakable glamourous allure of the homeless lifestyle.

[SlowwHand]

Panhandling, that's another thing. I know it would be tough to not, but they need to not.

[Jon Miller]

I know that I have often thought about becoming a bum..

JM

[SlowwHand]

You are a bum, Jon. You can call your life a success.

[Drake Tungsten]

A group called Food Not Bombs, which has served weekly vegetarian meals to homeless people

Doucebag detector flashing...

[General Ludd]

I say we build a network of underground tunnels between apartment and office buildings so that the well-off never have to be exposed to the world.

[DanS]

Do you live downtown in a major city, Ludd?

[:) Smiley]

Homelessness in the US is not a city-level problem, it's a national problem that needs to be dealt with by federal programs. Otherwise, the places that do try to solve the problem end up attracting drifters from across the country.

[DanS]

It probably isn't going to be solved at the federal level, because of the political constiuencies involved.

[SlowwHand]

AND, the ideal is to have less government involvement. At such a high level, it loses a lot of the personification. These people are parts of our communities.

[Sprayber]

Meanwhile thousands (about 9000 or so) of empty mobile homes sit on a rural airport in Hope Arkansas without a place to go. They were meant for Katrina victims in Lousiana but guess what, federal laws prohibt FEMA from taking them to floodplains.


hmm. homes without people and people without homes. we really are screwed up