More Homeless Feeding Centers? Another stupid idea from our dysfunctional City Government
Another stupid idea from our dysfunctional City Government: More homeless Feeding Centers!
Executive Brief:
· Our Commission wants to set up an additional homeless feeding center in Fort Lauderdale (at taxpayer expense), to try to reduce homeless in parks. Bad idea!
· This is supposed to already be handled by Broward County Government; we pay taxes for them to provide homeless services.
· There are already multiple feeding locations in the City of Fort Lauderdale.
· The costs to establish such a facility would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
· Providing more free food will draw more homeless to the area, and will contribute to more crime and reinforce bad behavior.
· Each year, this program will cost more taxpayer dollars.
· Tell your Mayor and Commissioner: NO!
An ad-hoc task force of Homeless Advocacy Groups, wealthy downtown property owners and religious organizations came together last fall (at the behest of our City Commission), to try to end the feeding of the homeless in downtown City parks and get them to move out of the area. A number of religious groups keep feeding the park squatters, who are drug addicts, criminals and alcoholics. Apparently the only way to legally stop the Advocacy and religious groups from feeding them is to have an alternative feeding spot in the City where feeding can be done.
Coming soon to Holiday Park?
OK so far, as most people will agree that the downtown homeless problem has gotten out of control and regular feeding of these folks has drawn more addicts and alcoholics in to the area to “hang out”, get drunk and do drugs.
But somehow, this task force has morphed into a group that is trying to get our Commission to buy or rent, (then upgrade) a large building in Fort Lauderdale in order to feed these addicts and alcoholics, and to do it with your tax dollars! Right now, this group is trying to get the City to approve a large building near Federal and NE 8 Street, a block away fromHoliday Park and a half block from new lofts and condominiums in Flagler Village.
The site on 8th street under consideration.
As a San Francisco City & County Commissioner for four years (who served on the Human Services Commission), I know first-hand how “well-meaning” advocacy organizations and religious groups almost always make the homeless problem worse for taxpayers and for the homeless. (Go to a previous posting I did on the homeless: “How to reduce it or make it worse.” http://abetterftlauderdale.com/?p=840).
There is no reason for us to be spending taxpayer money on this venture, for the following reasons:
1. First, issues pertaining to Social Services (including homeless services), are handled through County governments, not City governments. That’s the way it operates in most states including California and Florida. Social service issues are County government issues. We already pay huge amounts in property taxes to Broward County; they have the responsibility for, (and already pay) numerous local agencies and organizations to provide dozens of services for homeless throughout Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale. To have our Commission even consider adding another taxpayer-funded program to our City’s budget, when we are already paying Broward County to do this, shows a lack of understanding of the set of services already in place.
2. Second, there are currently numerous places in Fort Lauderdale where the homeless can eat. The Salvation Army, Faith Farm, and the Broward Partnership for the Homeless (on NW 7 Ave. here in Fort Lauderdale) are just three examples. I have been told that legally, our City could use those locations as justification to prohibit feeding in the parks. Why do we need to add another? Apparently, a quasi-religious organization here in Fort Lauderdale called “The Shepherds Way” feels that the “Broward Partnership for the Homeless” is competition to them. They have been lobbying Commissioner Romney Rogers for a place where they can feed the homeless too. (I have left messages for two of that group’s leaders; they won’t return my calls.)
3. Most of the existing feeding establishments require that certain rules be followed by the homeless in order to receive food, for example: you need to be working toward being clean and sober; you must not start fights, cause trouble or be anti-social. These facilities are trying to help people break the homeless cycle by providing job training, drug counseling, family assistance, housing, etc. in addition to food.
4. The majority of homeless in our City (even in this economy) are alcoholics, crack addicts, criminals and those who don’t want to conform to rules on standard behavior. Most of these folks don’t want to eat at those facilities because there are “strings attached” (as there should be). They just want any free food they can get and then be left alone to sleep out in our parks or beaches. Frankly, these are the ones that no one can help; they have to want to improve their lives first; giving them food just encourages their bad behavior. Our City, and our Parks, suffer as a result.
5. If the City blindly proceeds and locates a taxpayer-funded building, there will be hundreds of thousands of additional taxpayer dollars spent on bringing any building up to code for public feedings. Grease traps, ADA-compliant public restroom facilities, hand wash sinks for food preparers, 167 degree hot water tank, 3-bay sinks for cleaning trays, etc., all require permits and are costly items to build and maintain. Ask any restaurant owner.
6. And, (as with any taxpayer-funded program), this program would never die. Each year, the program recipients will ask for more and more taxpayer money; in this case to further enable the bad behavior of alcoholics, criminals and drug addicts by feeding them. More homeless feeding programs will encourage other drug addicts, criminals and alcoholics to come here. I saw this type of “help” back-fire in San Francisco by drawing thousands of homeless into the City. It can happen here too.
7. Why isn’t our City working more closely with our Broward County Commissioners Ken Keechl and John Rodstrom, to get them to do more here in Fort Lauderdale? They are the ones responsible. According to one County source, “No one from Fort Lauderdale city staff has contacted our offices about this issue.” Why is that?
8. Bottom line: You NEVER let advocacy or religious groups dictate taxpayer-funded policies and programs for the homeless. NEVER.
Our Mayor and Commission will be discussing this issue on the July 7 Commission meeting. Tell them what you think about this. Call them (954-828-5003) or send them an email:
Mayor Jack Seiler: jack.seiler@fortlauderdale.gov
District I Commisioner Bruce G. Roberts: broberts@fortlauderdale.gov
District II Commisioner Charlotte E. Rodstrom: crodstrom@fortlauderdale.gov
District III Commisioner Bobby B. DuBose: bdubose@fortlauderdale.gov
District IV Commisioner Romney Rogers: rrogers@fortlauderdale.gov
Broward County Commissioner Ken Keechl: kkeechl@broward.org
Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom: jrodstrom@broward.org
Tell them:
“Stop this nonsense of seeking an additional homeless “Feeding Center” in Fort Lauderdale, when we already have several. Get Broward County more involved to help reduce the homeless problem in Fort Lauderdale!”
With your help, we can stop them from wasting our money!
Earl Rynerson
Reader Comments
I admire your perseverance. However, the commission is required by legal precedent to engage the homeless via allowing them access to public property. The Idea I see here is to engage them in one place, and keep them out of other places.
There is no legal precedent to force these people to seek or accept county services.
I’d like to personnaly send them out of state, but civil rights precedents do not allow this.
There is a homelessness problem in our city. However, the highly hostile description of homeless people as “alcoholics, criminals and drug addicts” is far beyond an acceptable description. This group is a social phenomena that exists in each American city, regardless of the poverty level of the population; labeling them as “alcoholics, criminals and drug addicts” is making of this group our enemy.
Surely there could more compassionate ways of addressing this problem? I’m not advocating for more money allocation; what I wish is for us not to demonize further a poor group down in their luck.
Sorry Nora, but you don’t seem to understand that there are different groups of homelessness and there need to be different solutions applied to each group (go to the earler posting of homelessness I did). The group of homeless you see every day are street people and they are almost all drug addicts and alcoholics. Sorry, but that’s the way it is. This group is not “down on their luck”, they are people whose lives revolve around their addiction, and anything they get from us just goes toward furthering their addiction. Until that connection is broken, they have no interest in helping themselves. Unfortunately, history shows that for the most part, it is the street person that has to take the initiative to change. Making their lives easier on the street makes it more difficult for them to want to take the initiative. That’s why most services geared for this group fail miserable.
Earl
Earl,
I don’t particularly disagree with you here, except for the way you are classifying the homeless. They may be addicts and alchoholics and criminals, but they are also human beings many of whom are veterans and suffer from physical and mental illness. This impairs their desire to “follow the rules” set up by the homeless agencies currently in place.
As I am sure you know, particularly in these economic times, there is never enough money in the social services system. County tax cuts have occurred over the last couple of years. I’d be willing to bet that more of the social services dollars generated in the County as a whole get used in Fort Lauderdale as it is. In order to put more money into the system, County taxes would need to be raised. I feel fairly certain that the parts of Broward County that do not have a significant homeless problem would prefer the City raise taxes to take care of it.
Marie-
Read the article I wrote earlier about homelessness (the link is in this posting) for a good reference on the background of homelessness, the different types of homelessness and how to help each. I think you will agree with most of what is said there. But NO, there should be no additional taxes imposed on taxpayers for any of this; not county taxes, not City taxes! I’d have a real problem with that!
Earl
I could not believe what i was Reading.
We have truly lost any sense of compassion and humanity. How absolutely sad for us. I am Almost Ashamed to be a Human Being after reading this. Has the city of Fort Lauderdale misplaced it’s Soul?
I’m so glad that the candidate for Fort Lauderdale mayor WITH Compassion for his Fellow Man won the last election.
Helping the Homeless is never a waste of money. Just ask those that have taken the help, and changed their lives. The problem is huge and yes, we do need to help, as a civilized society. Not all homeless are crackheads, alcoholic and mentally ill, although we seem to have quite a few in Ft. Lauderdale. Those that are not quite as visible, families, are desperately in need of our help. We must do all that we can. Grateful formerly-homeless are some of our best citizens. Changing Lives is money well invested.
Robin- You and I have agreed on most things in the past, on this one we’ll have to differ. True, there are instances where people have legitimately fallen off the bottom rung of the economic ladder and need help; it’s that way now more so than in the past. Families and single mothers with children are the real heartbreakers. And there are many services available today to help these people… But the people you see on the streets are not those folks. These are the chronic drug abusers and alcoholics; these folks don’t want their lives to change; they just want booze and drugs. And anything that people can give them to make their lives as an alcoholic or addict easier is just fine with them. And therein lies the irony; the more you try to help these people; the more damage you do as you are making it easier for them to remain on the streets!
Earl
I beg to differ, Robin. Helping the homeless is NEARLY ALWAYS a waste of money. I’ve spent the last decade working in the emergency room of one of your local publicly funded hospitals. I know most of the guys living in the local park or selling the Sun Sentinel on the street corners on a first name basis. The people living this lifestyle did not end up there by a sad twist of fate, they ended up there due mostly due to alcoholism, some to drugs, and a smaller percentage still to mental illness. Sure, every now and then you meet someone on the streets due to some bad luck and possibly a string of bad mistakes, but most of these people are back off the street in a matter of weeks, and they get off the streets due to sheer will and hard work, not due to a handout. Any religious, or just “good hearted” person who would like to feed the homeless is more than welcome to do so . . . IN THEIR OWN HOME. But to come to my neighborhood and feed these people just a block or two from my house, turning my local park into an outdoor flop-house for addicts? This is unfair. Would your neighbor tolerate you feeding raccoons in their garage? Or spreading bird seed daily over the hood of their new car? Of course not. So why advocate for feeding homeless people who leave their garbage and waste behind in my back yard? Take them home with you if it’s what you truly believe in.
I am sick over what is happening in Fort Lauderdale and in my neighborhood (Flagler Village). Our property values have dropped tremendously as have all others because of the economy but now with the feeding of the homeless that is going on ALREADY in our neighborhood at the Lutheran Church on NE 3rd Avenue (441 NE 3rd Avenue) property values are even lower. I have been in contact with the asst. city manager, the police, the church and so many more people for nearly three years about this problem and I have been put off by all over and over. I live directly behind the church and you can’t even imagine the amount of homeless that walk the path from Stranahan Park (and everywhere else) to get free food Monday thru Friday at 10am and Wednesday night at 6. They give food to anyone who appears regardless of their drunken state or if they are high on drugs. I see them trading their food for drugs constantly and I am always chasing the drunks away by calling the police or doing it myself. I am sick about this. I am also sick of being accused of selfishness by the homeless advocates because I don’t want my home to be in the center of this mess. Flagler Village Civic Association along with Charlotte Rodstrom, District 2 Commissioner (Flagler Village District) are working hard to have our voices heard. Please support the community by attending the meeting Wednesday, July 7, City Hall, Eight Floor, 1:30 pm. This proposed feeding center does nothing to elevate the problem we have in our City. It will only attract more of the same element. I could go one forever but I am sure you get my point.
DO NOT use my tax dollars to support Religious groups for feeding the homeless!
As a FTLaud and Flagler Village resident, taxpayer and property owner I am totally against how feeding the homeless is being handled. Many of the homeless are not interested in getting clean and finding a life off the street. Funneling them up and down our streets from Broward to Sunrise isn’t the answer. Sleeping in a park should never be acceptable. Our impressive public library smells like a toilet as a result of the masses of homeless using it.
Bobby Dubose has openly rejected the idea of hosting the center in his district which is nearby, within the 2 mile radius of Stranahan Park and has plenty of commercial use buildings this could be placed in. Flagler Village is home to thousands of residents and is the new frontier for live/work close-in to downtown. Many of us consider leaving because of mismanagement like this. For a city our size, this is a joke. Is this just a way to drive down property values with the intention of acquiring the land for future redevelopment???
Robin — are you going to shoo away the homeless when the decide to sleep off a nice dinner outside my front door which faces Holiday Park … that is right I did not think so.
Camille is absolutely right, the feeding program of the church in her neighborhood has done nothing but destroy the neighborhood and continues to be done in an irresponsible manner. What needs to take place is a RESPONSIBLE response to the poor in our midst.
Offering free food (or free anything) to the homeless will attract more homeless as word gets out. Why must Fort Lauderdale be the place where the entire county (and beyond) dumps its homeless. If they want to do feeding, than they must make it fair. Move it around the County on a predictable basis so the homeless will know where to go ahead of time and then the entire county can share in our joy.
The County must be the lead on this Issue we cannot afford taking this on alone Mayor Seiler needs to demand that the County Commission address this problem downtown.
I agree Ray- Let me know when he decides to start acting like a Mayor. So far he has not. Earl
Helping someone down on their luck is one thing, helping them forever is quite another. People by natural instincts will take care of something if they had to work for it or pay for it. When it is given for free, somehow it just doesn’t have the same umph and people have a tendency to abuse. Sort of a child you give everything to. The toy lasts a day or two maybe even a week, and then it’s old news, I want something else. And the parents give, give and give. It becomes a vicious cycle. Grown-ups are no different.
I agree 100% Gladys! Earl
Great. Another government program that would cost more than just giving the homeless vouchers and letting them buy their own food.
Vagrants are called vagrants because they migrate to the most hospitable surroundings. Making Fort Lauderdale more hospitable is not in our best interests. We should be making it less hospitable. We’re not responsible for them. And we shouldn’t feel responsible for them. They’re not members of our community and never have been. They’re freeloaders taking advantage of a city that has a hands-off policy. Giving them more free stuff at a time when people who actually have contributed to the community are suffering makes no sense.
You want to get rid of the vagrants? Give them rakes and brooms and tell them they have to work for food and shelter vouchers or leave. They’ll all be gone by first sunrise.
PRAY TO GOD you people never become homeless.
But that may be the problem, you may not have God in your life.
I am a 60 year old man with a slight mobility issue(walking, standing). I have computer skills and office skills. I lost my job a while back and have gone through all my reserves and am now living in my car. At least the Library has computers for me to attempt to find a job, which I do EVERY weekday!!!!
I DO NOT have a drug problem nor do I have a drinking problem, I don’t even smoke cigarettes, that just sends precious money up in smoke. I do not have any mental health issues either.
I can be frugal and could live well enough on minimum wage but even that has not been in the cards.
Go to http://www.wf1broward.com and you will see that there are 94,000 people registered with the county employment service looking for work, many of them are homeless for the want of a job. Check the Sun Sentinel and you will see less than one whole page of jobs, where there were 10 or more pages not too long ago. Many of the current jobs, (at least half) are telemarketing jobs that chew up and spit out employees like a wood chipper, and many are ripping off their employees as well as the people they are calling.
There are more than 6000 homeless in Broward and that number is growing. Couple that with less than 2000 beds available for the homeless and you can see the problem.
Sure….there is a segment of the homeless population that is “Unwholesome” but not everyone that is homeless is a hard drinking, drug shooting individual.
I would be happy to work to pay for my food and lodging!!!! GIVE ME REAL JOB!!!!
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QUOTE “They’re not members of our community and never have been.”
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I have lived in Broward County for more than 35 years and have paid property taxes and sales taxes. I also have helped in various charities through the years, and I don’t mean just monetary contributions, I mean real work and sweat. I think that qualifies me as a member of the community.
Give a man a meal and you feed him for a day, give him a job and you won’t need to feed him.
SO!!!! I any of you are willing to give a person that does not want to be homeless a job, drop me a line.
George
goibhni@gmail.com