Thursday, April 9, 2015

May Day! 6 Months of Resistance

May 1st, 2015 marks 6 months since the enforcement of the sharing ban began in downtown Fort Lauderdale - 6 months since countless homeless aid groups were threatened with shutdown over the city's pursuit of its anti-homeless agenda.

One of these groups, Ft Lauderdale Food Not Bombs, is celebrating 6 months of continued survival and resistance on May 1st, which is International Worker's Day. More information is to come but speakers and music are invited to FNB's regular sharing on Friday, May 1st at 5 pm, followed by a march through downtown at 7 pm. We hope it will be a great opportunity for all the different people from different backgrounds to come together and celebrate the resistance to Homeless Hate Laws once more. We still have a long way to go, even considering the FLPD's slow-motion meltdown over its officers' recent conduct towards its poor and marginalized citizens. 

Homeless Guide V2

The first updated version of "The Unofficial Ft Lauderdale Guidebook for the Needy & Homeless" is out. We've created a page on this very blog to permanently host the most recent version of the guide. Share, print, and share again!

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Year One

April marks 1 year since the City began hearing and passing their "Homeless Hate Laws," and 1 year of resisting them.

While the legal challenges to the City's sharing ban trudges on, not much has been done to stop the other homeless hate laws. This is despite the fact that cities such as Miami & Gainesville both rejected laws last month similar to Fort Lauderdale's camping ban, which passed in September without much of a ruckus. 

One participant in the homeless hate regime that has not had an easy 2015 is the FLPD (and a host of other Broward County police departments), who have been riddled with scandals, indictments, and resignations for months now.

Another major change for the homelessness struggle in the area is the closure of COSAC/ Homeless Voice. While Sean Cononie's exodus took dozens of homeless people to their new "pay-what-you-can" motel project in Central Florida, many chronically homeless people in the Hollywood area are basically shit out of luck.  Hollywood PD's homeless outreach program painted a rosy picture of the transition, claiming that ultimately only 9 people " would not or could not move out of Hollywood." No new facilities or services are being created in Broward County to replace The Homeless Voice building, and Hollywood plans to turn it into more overpriced stores and condos. 

In other news more food has come to downtown in the form of #payitfwdftl, a project for customers of participating businesses can pitch into donations to homeless people. Slice Pizzeria next to the downtown library has already given away hundreds of slices of pizza in the past 2 weeks. There's also a project to pass on prepaid cards at the Broward Blvd Laundromax.

So welcome to year 2!