By Daniel Brouse
There have been many false posts about the arrests of a “90-Year-Old Man Who Feeds Homeless” in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For the most part, everything in the posts is not true.
1. The man has not been arrested
2. It is not against the law to feed the homeless in Fort Lauderdale
Screen Shot of a False and Misleading Post
The Sun Sentinel:
“Most people think we’ve banned feeding and we haven’t,” Mayor Seiler of Ft. Lauderdale said. “We’ve set up clear rules and regulations, and they’re reasonable and consistent. We got a lot of input on this from the social service community.”
The New York Times reports:
“This year, Fort Lauderdale, despite a reputation for being more progressive than most Florida cities on homelessness, passed a series of measures that surprised and drew the ire of homeless activists. The latest one, passed last month, made food distribution in public places difficult by requiring toilets, written consent from property owners and feeding sites located 500 feet away from each other.
But the law also relaxed the rules on feeding the homeless in houses of worship and on private property, an attempt to steer food distribution away from parks. On Wednesday, a police officer recommended two nearby sites to Mr. Abbott, an offer the mayor said Mr. Abbott had refused earlier in the day.”
The Mayor released a statement regarding the issue:
On Nov. 5, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler issued a statement in which he said he wanted to “set the record straight” about the city’s services for homeless. He said that the media had misrepresented the facts.
“Contrary to reports,” Seiler wrote, “the City of Fort Lauderdale is not banning groups from feeding the homeless.”
“At two recent outdoor food distributions, citations were rightly issued for non-compliance with the process enacted to ensure public health and safety. Contrary to what was reported in the media, no one was taken into custody. …”
Many cities in the United States have laws against serving prepared food without Health Department certifications, proper garbage disposal, sanitary hand washing and other safety measures that apply to serving any body.
Other problems we found at Occupy Philly while feeding 500 people on a regular basis:
1) Excrement. It is a cruel and unusual punishment to bring homeless people together, feed them and then not let them go to the bathroom. In fact, taking a shower and going to the bathroom are much greater concerns than getting fed. Fortunately, there are many places to get three meals a day. Unfortunately, there are few places for basic human hygiene.
2) Med’s go with feeding. People needing medications for mental illness went untreated. After the first week or two, things got ugly. I was assaulted on more than one occasion by the people we were helping. Also, issues like seizure medication. While embedded as a journalist, I started an Occupy Philly houseband. It was made-up of great musicians. Many were homeless. One (nicknamed “Church”) ended up not getting his seizure med’s. He had a seizure, fell down the concrete steps and had all his front teeth knocked out. If you’re going to feed people, you need to make sure they get their medications.
3) Safety. Once we established a regular feeding, the element of society that preys on the vulnerable arrived. The homeless were robbed, cheated, raped and victimized in almost anyway imaginable.
4) Estate plan. There needs to be a plan for when you can not feed them any longer. We created a large group of people that became dependent on our three meals a day. When the plug was pulled, it was very unfair to the homeless.
Sources:
Tampa Bay Times / Miami Herald “Jack Seiler says Arnold Abbott, 90-year-old, wasn’t taken into custody for feeding homeless”
The New York Times “Florida Finds Tricky Balance Over Feeding of the Homeless”