FTL's New Homeless Policy Exists, is Important and Under-Reported

1 year ago, in the aftermath of the City of Fort Lauderdale's semi-secret meeting at the Women's Club, and subsequent raid on the homeless camp at Stranahan Park, future Mayor Dean Trantalis called that raid a "disgrace" and "shameful." Earlier this month, the new City Commission gathered for another annual "visioning workshop" at the Women's Club, which has a front row view of the activities at Stranahan Park, and talked again about how they would again "eradicate" the homeless camp in the next year.

Honestly, the fact that the Mayor and Commissioner repeatedly used the phrase "eradicate," in regards to homeless activity around the downtown library, was out of step with their intended approach. Indeed, local press has been happy to pick up on small signs of empathy with the homeless coming from the new Fort Lauderdale City Commission, such as the new "Community Court" proposal, Ben Sorenson hanging out (we're not gonna say camping) at the Park, and commitments from a new business coalition to throw money at the problem. Sun Sentinel is practically crying out with relief, that these nice new politicians are finally gonna help these wet & hopeless people 

Therefore, it's somewhat surprising that no one at all has reported on many of the concrete plans that were expressed at this year's visioning workshop in regards to the homeless. Some of them seem pretty progressive. Some of them are more like a slap in the face to people who dealt with these commissioners in their past lives as minority voices in City politics.

1. The City's proposed "Community Courts" are being readied in order to dismantle the camp at Stranahan Park. This was pretty obvious from the beginning, but the City made it clear at this workshop that they do not think kicking people out of the library will do any good until they have this new program in place to get them in touch with social services. Of course, once all this happens, what happens with those that reject those services...?

Either way, it seems like the people of Stranahan Park have until at least the fall before the City comes to shut them down.

2. The City IS moving forward on a new day shelter project in downtown. AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which already has offices in downtown, is ready and willing to use their own funds to build a new day shelter on their properties just south of the County Courthouse. The property needs to be approved for re-zoning, so this project will likely come up at City Commission in the coming months.

Again, the fact that *absolutely no one has reported on this project,* that advocates have been pushing for for years, is beyond us. This is the first time that this much specific information about this project has been heard in public.

3. Despite a lot of good talk in recent years, the new, "nicer" commission does not have any intention of repealing the infamous homeless hate laws. Mayor Trantalis, the sole vote against some of these laws in the past, doesn't seem to have a problem with them anymore, and Commissioner Sorenson, who even advocated for these laws to repeal as he campaigned for office, seems to have backed down as well.

During the Visioning Workshop, Sorenson specifically brings up the sharing ban and essentially advocates for enforcing it again in the future, pending on-going litigation in Federal and State courts (which will likely not be ending anytime soon).

The enforcement of all the other anti-homeless laws came up as well, and one by one, the Commissioners advocated for the continuing enforcement of laws that criminalize panhandling, camping, and storage in downtown. But they also verbally exempted the sprawling homeless camp at the downtown library, due it being on County property, and due to the aforementioned plan for dismantling the camp through the "Community Court" project.

However, it is also worth noting that there was talking about the County themselves adopting tougher anti-camping laws that could have an impact on the future of the camp regardless.

The City has had very, very litle to say in public about homeless policy since the elections - but it was spelled out very well for those that could afford to spend 2 whole weekdays hanging out at the Women's Club. There's still a lot to unpack from what all this means for the future of the homeless residents of downtown Fort Lauderdale. But it seems clear, at this time, that the new Commission will not be much different that the old one when it comes to criminalizing homelessness.

Resist Homeless Hate Laws.

Week of Action to Resist the New Sharing Ban

The City of Fort Lauderdale is quietly passing a revised version of its infamous 2014 sharing ban on Tuesday, August 22nd, its next City Commission meeting. If passed, it will go into effect immediately. The first reading occurred at approximately 3 am at the last meeting on July 12th, with no discussion from Commissioners. 

The original sharing ban, which repeatedly targeted homeless aid groups Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs and Love Thy Neighbor, brought international scorn on the City of Fort Lauderdale. Due to the extreme lack of attention this new law has gotten, it seems probable that they may again attempt to enforce this sharing ban law against homeless aid volunteers in the near future.

The City also recently raided Stranahan Park's camp and displaced it, and they are subject to yet another lawsuit over this egregious rights violation. Even more recently, it has also installed more foliage in the area of Stranahan Park. The intent is to try to continue to push the homeless people  onto the Broward Main Library property, to absolve themselves of any responsibility.   

Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs is hosting the following activities over the following week to raise awareness and show opposition to the City's insistence on passing wave after wave of anti-homeless laws, that have done little to change homeless problems in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Saturday, August 19th, 4:30 pm
at Stranahan Park, 10 E Broward Blvd, Fort LauderdaleProtest Homeless Hate Laws! Rally and March to Resist Homeless Hate Laws

Tuesday, August 22nd, 6 pmat City Hall, 100 N Andrews Ave, Fort LauderdaleSpeak Out at Final Sharing Ban Hearing

Thursday, August 24th, 8:00 amat 11th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, 56 Forsyth St NW, Atlanta, GARally before Oral Arguments for Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs vs. City of Fort Lauderdale Appeal

As it turns out, the appeal hearing for our federal lawsuit against the Fort Lauderdale sharing ban occurs two days after the passing of this new sharing ban law. 

Food Not Bombs will also be sharing, as usual, at 4:30 pm at Stranahan Park on Friday, August 25th. At this time it is unclear as to what immediate effect the passage of the new sharing ban law will be on ours, or other sharings, occuring after August 22nd.

Sharing Ban v2 August 22nd

The final vote for the new sharing ban law is Tuesday, August 22nd and will go into effect immediately after it is voted on. It's time to let the City know what people think of that...again!

City Manager Lee Feldman 954-828-5013 lfeldman@fortlauderdale.gov

Mayor Seiler 954-828-5003 jack.seiler@fortlauderdale.gov @jackseiler

City Manager Lee Feldman 954-828-5013 lfeldman@fortlauderdale.gov

Vice Mayor Rogers 954-828-5004 RRogers@fortlauderdale.gov

Commissioner Roberts 954-828-5004 BRoberts@fortlauderdale.gov

Commissioner Trantalis 954-828-5923 DTrantalis@fortlauderdale.gov

Commissioner McKinzie RMckinzie@fortlauderdale.gov

Tweetstorm on twitter and instagram with some of our memes or use your own. #resisthomelesshatelaws

More City of Fort Lauderdale Twitters:

@FTLCityNews

@visitlauderdale

@OurVisionFTL

@GoRiverwalk

@FLPD411

Storage Ban Law Sued in Federal Court

In 2014, the City of Fort Lauderdale passed a series of homeless hate laws, to which this blog was dedicated to reporting on. This week, the 2014 storage ban law became the 2nd of these laws sued in Federal Court for violating the civil liberties of homeless and homeless advocates that they were created to target.

The storage ban has been a focus of controversy around Stranahan Park for some time. It was originally enforced in April 2016 by FLPD officers attaching removal notices to property stored along the sidewalk on the west side of Stranahan Park. However, enforcement seemed too controversial and poorly thought out, and the idea mostly faded away when the City and County created a de facto safe space in the grassy area in between the Main Library and Stranahan Park in November 2016.

Last month the City launched a surprise raid of the Park, resulting in many people's important belongings being thrown out without prior notice as required by the storage ban law. In a surprising and fortuitous turn of events, Florida ALCU, with the assistance of Broward Chapter ALCU, not only took an interest in fighting back but managed to sign 16 people from Stranahan Park as plaintiffs. They are joined by Southern Legal Counsel, a Gainesville area public interest law firm that is also representing Food Not Bombs in its federal lawsuit against Fort Lauderdale's sharing ban law.

Although panhandling ordinances similar to Fort Lauderdale's have been challenged or overturned in places like Pensacola and Gainesville recently, that law along with the "camping ban" and the public indecency rules affecting homeless people have yet to be challenged.

Meanwhile, Stranahan Park remains closed and City representatives have been stonewalling anyone asking them when it will be re-opened. We hope to have more news about this soon.

Surprise Eviction at Stranahan Camp

Bulldozer trashing homeless camp
Friday afternoon

Just before 3 pm on Friday, May 20th, the City of Fort Lauderdale abruptly announced the temporary closure of Stranahan Park due to health concerns.

Background

Back in November, the City created a de-facto compromise with the help of the Main Library. Homeless people would no longer live on the sidewalk in front of Stranahan Park, but they would be permitted to stay in the small bushy areas in between the park and the library, fully on County property. The camp was allowed to take hold for quite some time, and many pallets were brought in and other ways to improve what was essentially a small patch of dirt surrounded by concrete. There was even a puppy that grew up there.

Recently, the City seems to have lost patience with the camp, whining about being seen as "weak" on homelessness at a recent joint workshop with the County, and most recently, held a secret meeting at the Women's Club last week where "dealing with homelessness" was the #1 priority.

They spoke of getting rid of downtown food sharings as a "top priority" but didn't get into specifics there. But the Mayor and company were quite specific on their immediate desire to "clear out the park" and "clear out the 308," referring to the number of homeless people the county counted in January as not wanting help in housing, aka the "chronically homeless." The Mayor's candor towards the homeless was on its usual display as he rambled about how ridiculous it was to "give free wifi" to people that won't take their help. The Mayor also said he "absolutely" wants the area of Stranahan Park and the Main Library cleared of homeless people "nightly."

The Eviction

Food Not Bombs sharing following eviction

In the past, FLPD officers, Park Rangers, or others, have had some kind of communication with the homeless camp about what to expect coming up, and there have been some unfulfilled pledges to remove the pallets from the camp recently. However there was no advance warning to anyone there about Friday's eviction, which went well beyond what anything had been proposed before.

A long series of recycle bins were brought to collect everyone's possessions and bring them to FLPD headquarters. 1 week vouchers for hotels and bus passes were handed out to some. Within an hour the entire camp was gone, and soon orange tape and signs created a new perimeter around all of Stranahan Park (except the Women's Club). City Manager Lee Feldman & Mayor Jack Seiler then held a press conference at City Hall announced that the park was being closed for at least the next month in order to deal with the "health hazard" of rats at the homeless camp.

And we'll repeat that...because there were rats at the homeless camp, they closed the entire Park, but not the Women's Club, all of which are a few feet away from each other.

Consequences

Notices posted around Stranahan
announcing its closure late Friday

Talks of "political repercussions" came up quickly. The City seems to have acted totally on its own with the eviction, with even Broward County Homelessness Board members finding out live on Facebook. It remains to be seen how the county will go along with this as the Mayor did not hesitate in repeatedly criticizing COC board members by name; the Mayor also claimed that Commissioners like Dale Holeness are now behind the Mayor in regards to ending food sharings. City Commissioner Trantalis, who just a year ago said he wanted all anti-homeless laws repealed, certainly said nothing like that at this meeting and was made out to be the City's little messenger boy for their future actions against the homeless.

If the City actually acted on any more of these decidedly heavy handed attitudes towards the homeless, it would seem that suffering in downtown is going to greatly increase as people are scattered into smaller and smaller areas in downtown.

A Brief History of Rebel Food Sharings in Florida

Following Saturday's arrest of 7 Food Not Bombs activists in downtown Tampa, there has been another flurry of social media outrage regarding the criminalization of homelessness. Like the last several times this has happened, there has been a flood of questions - how can sharing food be illegal? How could this happen? And so on.

Tampa Food Not Bombs before arrests on 1.7.17

The criminalization of sharing resources with the homeless, along with so many other aspects of homeless life, is hardly a new phenomenon for Florida. Generally, homeless oppression goes on in all 50 states without as much as a whimper from the majority of Americans - it just tends to bubble to the top every once in awhile when it makes an attention-grabbing headline. As we saw so very well here in Fort Lauderdale in 2014, the accuracy of these articles is...highly variable - it's actually one of the main reasons this site exists. So for those who are once again hearing about the criminalization of food sharings for the first time, we are offering a brief, incomplete primer.

Tampa in the Aughts

Tampa FNB arrest, 2004

This is not the first time this has happened in Tampa. Tampa once specifically banned the sharing of food in public parks with the homeless, resulting in 5 arrests over the course of a couple of months in 2004. The City also fenced and largely shuttered Herman Massey Park, the park Tampa FNB shared out of back then, resulting in a period of dormancy for that FNB chapter. Eventually lawyers helping FNB convinced the City to reconsider enforcement of these laws due to the lack of legal standing the laws would have needed to withstand a potential lawsuit. When TFNB began to share again in new locations in 2011 or so, no serious conflict would occur again until the events of this past week, even during the heavily policed Republican National Convention of 2012.

Orlando

Orlando FNB arrests, 2011

One of the longest running food fights in Florida history was that of Orlando Food Not Bombs versus the City of Orlando. Orlando FNB shared at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando for many years until the City planned a multi-million dollar facelift for that location and passed a law stating that sharings for more than 25 people in that park require a permit. After a few original arrests in 2007, the conflict became a legal battle for over 4 years, with FNB plaintiffs winning several times before the City finally got an appeals court to rule in their favor. For about 6 weeks, over 25 food sharers were arrested, until the international bad press, hacking attempts, and general all-around outrage convinced Orlando to reach a compromise with FNB, allowing them to continue sharings at the nearby City Hall, and dropping all of their charges. To this day OFNB still shares at City Hall.

Gainesville

In 2009, the City began to enforce a rule practically nobody had heard of which restricted food sharing services to 130 meals per 24 hour time period. This law was exclusively enforced against St Francis House, which was unpopular with local developers and City officials. The Coalition to End the Meal Limit NOW!, composed of Gainesville FNB, church groups, and others, fought for 2 years to end this food sharing law. Part of this story is told in the film "Civil Indigent," featuring the since-departed, irreplaceable, Pat Fitzpatrick.



Sarasota

Sarasota tried to follow Orlando's lead in 2011 to cap the amount of people who can be shared with without a permit, and tried other measures such as banning smoking in public parks, but most of these ordinances did not stand up to legal scrutiny. You can read much more on Sarasota's terrible history with the homeless.


Daytona

Retired couple Chico & Debbie Jimenez were infamously fined over $2,000 by the City of Daytona Beach for their once a week food sharings. Their fines were later thrown out.

Ft Lauderdale FNB arrest, 2014

Fort Lauderdale
Did you know a 90-year old chef was arrested multiple times in Fort Lauderdale in 2014? In reality, almost a dozen people were ticketed with sharing food in defiance of the City's sharing ban law in late 2014, and only 3 people (all with Fort Lauderdale FNB) were ever actually arrested, but the internet was flooded with outrage (as well as clickbait news stories that variously reported that Arnold Abbott was a pastor, that he was actually handcuffed and taken to jail multiple times, and so on).

Currently the law is still in effect, but there are several lawsuits against the City, filed by Chef Arnold's group Love Thy Neighbor, and Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs, that prevent it from being enforced.


There's many more facets to the criminalization of homelessness, all across Florida. From Pensacola's attempts to criminalize the legal homeless tent site known as Sean's Outpost to the Big Brother-style attempts by St Pete to criminalize all homeless activities, there's far more than the occasional and outrageous sight of food sharers being arrested. We can post links about these problems all day (look, here's another good one) but you'd be better served by just scrolling the rest of this site, which has been documenting these kinds of enforcements for almost 3 years now.
The next Tampa Food Not Bombs sharing is tomorrow morning.

Homeless Confiscations - A For-Profit Enterprise

Notices and sticker tags went up on homeless property around the Stranahan Park area once again yesterday, November 29th. The notices say that the City will once again be cleaning the area tomorrow, December 1st, and anything left at 8 am that morning will be removed.

Fort Lauderdale's Storage Ban was passed in 2014 and has been used very infrequently the past few months. In fact, one of the most consistent uses of enforcement so far has been when the Women's Club of Fort Lauderdale has a wedding coming up. That's been true in prior enforcements, and it is also true this week, as there is a wedding scheduled for 4:30 this Friday inside Stranahan Park.

Matters of improper policing and class are often brought up in regards to issues surrounding Stranahan Park. The storage ban may be the clearest lesson yet - a law that is ONLY enforced when wealthy, influential people are intending to profit off of a public space,  and need the area cleared out ahead of time.

This issue has dragged on for years, and it has only gotten more ridiculous. One of our most in depth pieces on Stranahan was actually written due to the incessant rumors, spread by FLPD and Women's Club volunteers, that Stranahan wasn't a public park at all. Around the same time, the Women's Club induced the City to put a fence around the Park. Although this courtesy was not extended to any other organization that has been using the park on a regular basis for years, the Women's Club was conveniently given a key to the Park.

In another weird twist, a church group that booked the Women's Club to do a Thanksgiving sharing for the homeless last year got a rude surprise when they tried to do it again this year - a last minute call from the FLPD announcing that their sharing was cancelled. Again, we have the same group of privileged individuals, using the police to have their own event pulled because they got cold feed about having too many homeless around.

It is well past time that the Women's Club's ability to dictate how the homeless people around Stranahan are treated to end. Their ability to command the police to take away homeless people's belongings, in order for them to make a buck off a wedding, is absolutely repulsive.

Food Not Bombs Appeals Sharing Ban Case

Last week, attorneys for Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs filed an appeal in its effort to stop Fort Lauderdale's sharing ban law. In the original case, the judge ruled in favor of a motion for summary judgment for the defense, dismissing the case before it could head to trial. 

Food Not Bombs feels confident that the Judge's ruling did not properly reflect the group's mission to share food with the homeless as an act of protest against war and greed, which should be protected by our first amendment rights.  

Two years after the sharing ban was originally enforced against homeless advocates in downtown Fort Lauderdale, the criminal cases against food sharers are still dragging on. Closing in on nearly 3 years since city officials first announced their intent to impose a sharing ban, they still have not announced a revised sharing ban law.  

Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs stands in solidarity with all the people who have been affected by the City's anti-homeless laws and will continue to work towards a day where they are all repealed.

Proposal for New Homeless Shelter Continues Wednesday

The second meeting of the "Ad Hoc Central Fort Lauderdale Committee" for the Broward Homelessness Continuum of Care Board (COC) was a few weeks ago. Once again, the focus of the discussion turned towards a new day shelter for downtown Fort Lauderdale. One that would solve problems such as the storage ban and further reduce the chronically homeless population of downtown.

While it wouldn't solve all the problems downtown, there are some pretty big benefits to this idea. The ad hoc committee has passed a recommendation for this shelter to the full CoC board, for discussion this Wednesday at 10 am at Government Center. If it passes here, the recommendation will be moved to the Broward County Commission, who would have the power necessary to enforce it.

This shelter may have the power to save lives, and change the course of people's futures. Hopefully the rest of Broward County sees it the same way. It's a bit hard to tell if the idea has much traction in the halls of power and the general public since absolutely no one besides this site has been reporting on this issue. CoC board members have been talking about this since at least July...hopefully this becomes newsworthy soon?

Sharing Ban Ruling Met with Dismay, Garlic Bread

The following is a statement from Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs after its sharing ban lawsuit was dismissed last Friday.

*******

In 2014, the City of Fort Lauderdale passed many "homeless hate laws," the last of which was a ban on sharing food in public spaces within city limits. A series of lawsuits have delayed enforcement of this law for almost 2 years. One of those lawsuits was filed by Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs. We have been sharing food downtown in Strahanan Park for about 10 years. Like Food Not Bombs chapters all over the world, we do this as an act of solidarity with the marginalized homeless people of Fort Lauderdale, and to protest the greed and militarism that prevents equity needed for the poor and oppressed people of the nation and the world. 

A Recent Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs Sharing

On Friday, the judge presiding over our food-sharing-as-protected-free-speech case finally responded to the parties' motions for summary judgment, dismissing ours and granting those of the defendants'. Fort Lauderdale, and indeed the entire federal court system, now has a fresh court victory against the rights of homeless and homeless advocates. 

Hours later, Food Not Bombs volunteers and homeless folk shared hot soup and garlic bread under the gazebo inside Stranahan Park as the rain fell. Some of those arrested in 2014 still have active criminal cases dragging on to this day. As the rain tapered off, we talked about the uncertain future ahead. 

The world didn't exactly stand still in the last 2 years. The federal government has released several briefings in an attempt to discourage cities from criminalizing homelessness. So far there's not much indication that that is curbing the City of Fort Lauderdale's habits. Commissioner Dean Trantalis has actually said on a few occasions at public county meetings over the summer that he does not think the laws are working and he would like to have them repealed.

Food Not Bombs & friends
on a walking tour of downtown last weekend

There are still other legal challenges for the sharing ban and it may be difficult to enforce the sharing ban law at this time in spite of the ruling. The City has not released any updates so far about enforcement of the sharing ban.

In the end, the Judge ruled that our food sharings simply don't qualify as first amendment activities. This is a peculiar notion. Food Not Bombs and other activists have joined together at food sharings to show solidarity with the oppressed, and to express outrage over an inequitable status quo, for a decade now. The messages, solidarity, and actions that take place in Stranahan Park continue to reverberate across Broward County and the state of Florida.

We can't say for certain anything about the ongoing legal status of our sharings at this time. Besides Fridays at Stranahan, it's theoretically possible the Sistrunk Sharing could be affected as well, which takes place this coming Wednesday. For now we continue to encourage the rebel food sharers of South Florida to continue to visit Stranahan Park. 

Downtown Disposium - The Tour!

As previously discussed, the DDA wants to impress its friends with its many accomplishments next week. We would like to impress our friends with its many failures, and the failures of the other cronies that make up Fort Lauderdale's upper crust.

On Saturday, September 24th, there will be walking tour of downtown Fort Lauderdale, starting at 3 pm at Stranahan Park. Food Not Bombs & company will be helping everyone take in the sights and stories of some of the most hotly contested parts of downtown. There's a lot more wrong with this City than the Mayor or the City Manager.

From FATS Village to Riverwalk, there's a lot of millionaires who are working closely to ensure that the future of downtown is one for the wealthy, and not for the homeless, the working class, or the Black community of Sistrunk. In the meantime, we have some infographics up as well as last weeks' introductory video,

Onward to the Downtown Disposium, next weekend!

All Aboard Florida/Brightline in Fort Lauderdale \ Downtown Disposium

Broward County Continuum of Care Board \ Downtown Disposium

Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority \ Downtown Disposium

Fort Lauderdale NW Progresso Flagler CRA \ Downtown Disposium

Stranahan Park \ Downtown Disposium

The Downtown Disposium

On Friday, September 23rd, The Downtown Development Authority of Fort Lauderdale will be hosting a "Downtown Symposium." Local developers and politicians will be rubbing shoulders with visiting DDA representatives from other states, and presumably touting the many exciting projects the DDA has been promoting in recent years.

In reality, the DDA is another piece of the problem in Fort Lauderdale; another City entity meant to serve the public interest, controlled by millionaire developers and property owners. They try to avoid the limelight, but there are plenty of stories out there about their recent efforts. There's their role in supporting the City's homeless hate laws. The money pit known as the Wave Street Car. Their attempts to privatize Huzienga Plaza. Their illegal campaign contributions to Fort Lauderdale City Commissioners. Another project, the "yellow shirt" Ambassador Program" is a low-security team recently implemented to make sure poor people don't bother wealthy people in the Riverwalk area. It also has a sleazy origin story within the DDA.

The biggest problem of all is that these entities don't even operate in great secrecy, but rather in a vacuum, deprived of public interest and oversight. Few can define what a Downtown Development Authority or a Community Redevelopment Agency is. Fewer still can explain how their relationship with the wealthiest interests in Fort Lauderdale can make incredibly toxic long-term consequences for the poor people of Broward County.

With that in mind, Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs welcomes the public to learn about these concepts, from a grassroots perspective, at their own Downtown Disposium at the end of September. We'll be throwing a lot of information on this blog between now and the end of the month to build this understanding.

On Friday, September 23rd, we encourage the public to help welcome DDA guests at the Broward Performing Arts Center.

Finally, on Saturday, September 24th, we're taking everyone on a tour of Fort Lauderdale for the Downtown Disposium. This walking tour of downtown will introduce everyone to concepts like DDA's, CRA's, and how it relates to rapidly gentifying streets, from Sistrunk to Riverwalk.

Lots of details will be announced later. For now, enjoy this educational video about the Downtown Disposium.

Homeless Board Doesn't Want Homeless Advocates & More

After a long delay, Broward County's Continuum Care of Board met again on Wednesday, September 8th, and there was much to discuss. One of the most surprising, and contentious subjects of discussion, was a proposal to reduce the amount of "homeless advocate" seats on the CoC Board from 4 to 1 and replace them with representatives from local Chambers of Commerce and other County administrative roles. The proposal also called for the seats reserved for the Homeless Providers and Shareholders Committee from 2, to 1, another seat that usually represents homeless services workers.

The overall effect was to replace almost all the homeless advocates on the board with even more bureaucrats, of which there are already close to 20. It would be misleading to say that this seemed like an overly popular idea amongst the CoC board, and frankly it's a bit of a mystery how this even came up in the first place. The proposal, which was not disclosed and voted on in a typical manner for the CoC, ignited yet another great debate at the meeting, and it was decided that the issue would be brought to the Broward County Commission sometime in the next month or two.

What will the Broward County Commission say about that? We hope to have more insight on that later.

County & City Dance Around Anti-Homeless Laws
One CoC Board Member who has not been seen much this summer is Broward County Commissioner / Vice Mayor Barbara Sharief. The Vice Mayor was actually pretty vocal this time, and, when weighing in on the ongoing quagmire that is the Fort Lauderdale Storage Ban Saga, said that she felt the County should do something right away to resolve this issue. But, she also felt the first step would be for the City of Fort Lauderdale should repeal the storage ban. And Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Dean Trantalis agreed. 

This is not the first time we have reported Commissioner Trantalis as saying that the anti-homeless laws of Fort Lauderdale should be gotten rid of. However so far very few people have continued to push the Commission on this issue and it just seems to be all talk. At this time, the homeless hate laws are not going anywhere until there's a little more pressure on the people involved.

Fort Lauderdale's Brightline/All Aboard Florida station

Fort Lauderdale's Great Homeless Displacement Master-Plan Isn't Looking So Good

Also worth mentioning is a fantastic new article by the Florida Bulldog. Martin and Indian River counties have been suing All Aboard Florida, the commuter train line that has been putting in huge new train stations in Broward, Miami, and Palm Beach counties this year. The case is not going well for All Aboard Florida and has led to speculation that AAF is running out of money.

This creates a peculiar scenario for the City of Fort Lauderdale. The All Aboard Florida station in downtown Fort Lauderdale is at the center of a development plan to completely re-make the areas that have been the primary spot for chronically homeless people to stay in the area for decades. What would become of this massive, half built train station, and the retail and condo properties planned for the surrounding blocks, if AAF collapses? What would the City, DDA, and other elite interests do if their primary scheme for permanently displacing homeless people in downtown, results in even more un-used and half-realized properties in the very area that was to be gentrified?

Our only insight at this time is that the train station facade would make for a lovely new homeless shelter.

Commissioner McKinzie Really Doesn't Like The Sistrunk Sharing

Last year, the Sistrunk Sharing was created as a synthesis between Food Not Bombs and Black Lives Matter activists. On the first Wednesday of every month, the sharing takes place at Lincoln Park on Sistrunk Avenue, and usually has some vegan and vegetarian breakfast foods, baked goods, juice, coffee, etc.

Much like Stranahan Park, the Sistrunk area has its own issues over what classes are best served and where. And so for the 2nd time this year, Commissioner Bob McKinzie dropped by the Sistrunk Sharing to let people know that he wasn't happy about us being there.

McKinzie and the rest of the City Commission

"We don't want this here." He then went on to let everyone know they were illegally parked.

This attitude towards food sharings from the Fort Lauderdale City Commission is not exactly news worthy. Yet it is quite rare that one of them would feel the need to come to the sharings in person, not once but twice, to express this.

McKinzie, for anyone keeping track, was appointed to replace Bobby Dubose during the sharing ban controversy, and so far has mostly distinguished himself as being perhaps the most overtly nepotistic Commissioner in the City. You can read, among other things, about McKinzie's cozy arrangement with the new caretakers of the troubled "Fort Lauderdale Chronic Homeless Housing Collaborative" here. He's also recently run into trouble for taking illegal campaign contributions from another long-time frenemy of the homeless advocacy community, the Downtown Development Authority. McKinzie is also one of the only City Commissioners who is not term-limited to 2018.

Sistrunk Sharing September 7th, 2016

For anyone even mildly curious, sharing food in the City of Fort Lauderdale in a public park is still quite legal. Despite the millions of dollars going into the Sistrunk area, things aren't changing that much for the community. It seems like we need more things like the Sistrunk Sharing and less things like politicians that serve the whims of corporate and developer interests.

DDA Extortion For Huzienga Plaza Begins

A shadow has been hanging over one of the "public" spaces in downtown Fort Lauderdale: Huzienga Plaza/Beaubier Park is at risk of being privatized. The Downtown Development Agency, facing a large shortfall over many of its projects, has been threatening to sell the property unless the City of Fort Lauderdale rents it out.

On Tuesday, the City Commission of Fort Lauderdale will formally vote on the request to rent the park from the DDA for $100,000 a year. The undercurrents of this situation are sad but predictable. The DDA has engaged in a series of boondoggles that have gone nowhere for years, including the WAVE streetcar, anti-homeless programs such as the "Ambassadorship program" and supporting the City's anti-homeless laws, and trying to get a new Federal Courthouse built.

The DDA claims they have to get this revenue from the Park to make up for the lack of taxes that they are collecting from downtown businesses, and have even suggested that if the City does not rent it that they will sell it to a developer. The DDA themselves are a veritable cabal of millionaire developers and property owners, appointed by the Fort Lauderdale City Commission.

What the fuck gives them the right to extort the City for $100,000 a year for one of its parks, or risk it being privatized?  Homeless hate laws take on many forms, and this is surely one of them. The DDA has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars the last few years making sure Riverwalk and Huzienga are well-guarded against unsavory homeless people. They've also made a spectacular effort to revitalize and gentrify the area, a noble effort if at any point there was any provisions made for the indigent people who already live in the area.

Will the City support this effort? In the past they have not acted particularly happy with the DDA's demands for help with their budget problems. But we're now closing in on the last year of Mayor Seiler's tenure, and how many times have we seen this City Commission get a proposal forwarded to them by the City Attorney, and supported by downtown's 1%, that they did not like?

Stranahan Society Pt 2 - A New Shelter? And More

Following up on our recap on the first meeting of the CoC's ad hoc committee to address Stranahan Park issues...

Board Member Frank Pontillo talked at length about San Diego's ePATH program, which provides a full service shelter and sharing program. The real question is, is anyone else really serious about this? The City of Fort Lauderdale has staved off a new shelter program in downtown for 20+ years. Properties such as "The Tree," which is already a gathering place for homeless people, has languished for decades and is perfectly positioned. The Federal Courthouse is supposedly being knocked down and replaced. There are a number of interesting possibilities, but will anyone actually allow it to exist? It seems very unlikely.

Another thing that happened Friday was discussion over the "Broward Local Coalition." Mason Jackson of Career Source suggested that the business community should lead it. The business community, of course, wasn't there, but if you flip over the Downtown Development Authority's meeting notes you will see that they do seem interested in the issues - encouraging the sweeps of homeless people's property and discouraging downtown businesses from letting their employees share food with the homeless. Few would be against the reformation of the Local Coalition, which fell apart in 2009 or so, but leaving it in the hands of the same people who created the Homeless Hate Laws of Fort Lauderdale is abominable. We'll be keeping a close watch on that one, particularly considering how closely the DDA seems to be connected to the storage ban enforcements of the last few months.

The Stranahan Society Speaks, Part 1

On Friday afternoon, the Homelessness Continuum of Care Board (CoC)  tried something a little different. They held a meeting that focused solely on the alleviation of the woes of Stranahan Park.

Friday's Homelessness CoC meeting took
place in County Commission Chambers

Although much of the CoC's business is done yards away from the largest population of chronically homeless people in Broward County, it is not a frequent topic of discussion for them. In fact, since many only meet once or twice a month and are constrained by Florida's Sunshine State Law, the CoC does not communicate directly with one another in the way one would expect executives from major homeless providers that collaborate together would. Some have staff for that sort of issue, but it remains a problem.

Friday qualified as a well attended CoC assembly with an audience at around 30. Homeless people and homeless advocates spoke about many things, including endemic problems in the HAC system that are well known to the homeless community (shelter representatives were in attendance but mostly silent). Also mentioned were property confiscations, the criminalization of homelessness, and complaints of over-policing. Relatively few homeless service providers or advocates from the Stranahan area were present. Absent was anyone from the Fort Lauderdale Women's Club, or any of the other homeless-bashing residents or business-people that frequented similar City meetings in the past.

Afterwards, CoC Board members addressed most of these issues amongst themselves. Ultimately, the Board chucked any vote (which would have to pass 2 more levels of County Government before having any possible legal authority) to an as-yet unscheduled 2nd meeting of the "Ad Hoc Central Fort Lauderdale Committee."

Several things of interest were discussed by CoC Board Members that should not escape notice.

Of perhaps greatest interest was discussion around the controversial enforcement of Fort Lauderdale's storage ban law - one of the original "homeless hate laws" that this blog was made in resistance to. Most present were in agreement that Fort Lauderdale needs to seriously revise the way in which they are carrying out these enforcements. Commissioner and Board Member Dean Trantalis claimed that this is already in progress, but did not say anything to suggest that these enforcements would stop anytime soon. In a separate comment, he did say that these laws were not working and were a mistake, but said nothing about simply repealing them.

Several others complained specifically about anti-homeless laws. The Board ultimately gave little focus to this issue, and one even suggested that there was nothing at all that they could do. (The Board has in fact been sitting on a letter that they have been intending to send to the Cities of Broward County discouraging them from creating or enforcing homeless hate laws, for about a year.)

Fort Lauderdale City Attorney Lee Feldman was present and apparently communicating with Commissioner Trantalis from the audience. After Feldman left, Trantalis said that he had been told by text by the City Manager that no enforcement actions resulted in anyone's property being thrown out. This is quite simply not true. The City Attorney should certainly be asked that question again sometime.

Representatives of the Broward ACLU and Public Defender's office were also present to register their discontent over how this situation has been handled. CoC Chairman and BSO employee Scott Russell said he would facilitate a meeting between law enforcement and these civil rights attorneys. The CoC largely waxed apologetic about the storage ban, but they still are not doing much about it.

Showers and restrooms were a topic that seemed to have some traction in the form of the Live Fresh Shower Truck program. Hope South Florida suggested that they would be willing to operate this program locally, and Commissioner Trantalis said he thought the City may be interested in paying for it. This would be an incredible investment for the City of Fort Lauderdale, which has not put any significant funding to new homeless services in years. Will the City really decide to spend half a million dollars a year to give homeless people showers while doing everything they can to get rid of the same people?

More or less glossing over the notoriety of our current shelter system, focus went towards the idea of asking the County to support a new homeless shelter in Fort Lauderdale. One Board Member envisioned a full service facility, with mid term and permanent housing, full time food services, and intake and social work specialists. Other board members felt the need to remind everyone that nobody is ever willing to propose a space for such a project and its too unrealistic, which felt a little like they weren't really there to look for solutions at all.

Incredibly, Commissioner Trantalis suggested that the City of Fort Lauderdale would support this initiative. He elaborated that he thinks that the City has learned from its mistakes in creating the anti-homeless laws of 2014 and that they were coming around to discussing alternatives. This would be quite a sea change if there were any merit to it...what few public statements the City has made about the homeless this year have not been encouraging. All sharing ban court proceedings are still dragging on, and will enter their 3rd year in November.

In fact, on the same day the Sun Sentinel reported that the City may put up to $176 million to renovate its parks in downtown. While the potential sales tax funds may also go towards programs like public transportation, that help the homeless, so far there is no indication that any of the money focused towards public parks would be used to create the very services that Friday's CoC meeting was talking about.

We're going to have some more analysis on this some time later in Part 2.

Call to Action: Stranahan Committee This Friday

The first meeting of the "Ad Hoc Central Fort Lauderdale Committee" of the Broward Homelessness Continuum of Care Board is Friday, 2:30 pm in Government Central - 115 S Andrews Room A337.

This committee has been set up in response to several months of complaints and hand-wringing at CoC meetings over the lack of progress on many issues in Stranahan Park, which has led to several enforcements on issues such as the storage of homeless possessions in the area. Although the advisory board is a limited bureaucracy that rarely takes fast action on much of anything, we hope that advocates for the homeless are able to stir some changes in this quagmire by attending and adding their outside voices to this meeting.

Afterwards, homeless advocates with Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs will be having their usual weekly food sharing in Stranahan at 4:30, followed by a debrief on the Stranahan Committee at 6 pm. We predict a unsatisfying and, at best, semi-productive meeting at Goverment Center and would like to follow up and hear people's thoughts on the meeting and what other actions can or should be taken to resolve Stranahan Park's many long-standing issues around homelessness, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and police actions.

"The Stranahan Committee," Property Thefts, and More

As reported in New Times, more confiscations of homeless property took place last week. This time the police were not involved, underscoring the inconsistency with which these seizures have occurred since April. Since the items were hauled away in dumptrucks, recovery would seem to not be an option at this time. Fort Lauderdale Food Not Bombs is still collecting containers and luggage to try to keep up with the seizures.

If the reason was that the Women's Club wanted to clean things up for another weekend wedding, that must not have turned out as expected; aside from the usual Saturday afternoon piles of whiteboxes and water bottles piled up all along the fence, there was an extremely large and vocal Black Lives Matter protest happening at the same time as the Women's Club event.

#BLM954 protest at Stranahan Park 7.10.16  courtesy Dream Defenders

While the City seems content to drift into another summer session without re-addressing the mostly abandoned sharing ban, or the controversial storage ban, County homeless services seem to be taking a different approach.

Although the County's Continuum of Care Board has not had much of a response to the storage controversy so far, at the last monthly Board meeting, it was decided that an "ad hoc" Commitee would be established to specifically address issues at Stranahan Park. The Stranahan Commitee's first meeting will be Friday, July 22nd, at 2:30 pm at Government Center, and voices from outside the local government bureaucracy will be sorely needed.

BSO Captain, and CoC Chairman, Scott Russell, learning about
Live Fresh courtesty Sun Sentinel

A little over a week, the Live Fresh shower truck did a demonstration at Saint Anthony's Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the fluff stories on this welcome idea did not discuss the fact that this program does not currently have a means to move forward in Broward County. There would need to be a locally based non-profit to generate the donations or funding for the project, and to work out contracts with the various municipalities as to when and where they would perform their services, dump wastewater, and so on. At this time, there are not a lot of non-profit programs in Broward County that would take on such a task. Even if they would, it would probably take a better part of a year before this handful of toilets and showers would be available to anyone in the County.

We'll be holding on for a day when we can announce actual "progress" on these issues as opposed to "updates."

Storage Ban Recovery Updates

As previously reported, at least 6 people had their belongings taken from the sidewalk outside Stranahan Park last Friday. New Times wrote a report about it, however we are going to go into a few more details.

Food Not Bombs activists brought homeless people to recover their belongings on Monday, as reported, and again on Wednesday, this time recovering a bike that was put in the evidence room. Unfortunately several people whose belongings were taken seem to have already given up on getting them back and many things are still at the police station.

In both cases, activists reported that FLPD seemed to be clueless about how to handle situation, even going as far as saying that they did not know how to go about enforcing these laws on the street.

 As one activist put it, "My first interaction in helping someone get their property back was a cold unknowing indifference by the people who illegitimately stole it. The front desk didn’t have a clue, the evidence room didn’t have a clue, and we were forced to sit and wait for someone, anyone, who could help. Eventually, after nearly an hour of waiting, a sergeant strolls in, embodying the essence of flippancy and indifference, allowed our friend to rejoin himself with his blue huffy bicycle while seemingly lecturing him how “he must remember to behave himself” by virtue of his homelessness."

LAPD removing homeless people's property in Skid Row, 3.2016
from the LA Times

At this time, it would seem that the City isn't even enforcing the sharing ban law they passed but using existing laws about "abandoned or lost property" to clear things away when the Women's Club is having an event. As we've mentioned before, enforcing anti-homeless storage laws have been a lawsuit-riddled minefield for other cities. While we are NOT legal experts, it would seem that mis-applying even more laws to discriminate against homeless people is probably not going to work much better.

Will the City try this again, on a regular basis, or just when the Women's Club has a check to cash? Time will tell. While the City and County have both recently claimed that they are taking action on these issues, at this time that action has yet to manifest. July will be Month 3 for the City of Fort Lauderdale's attempts at enforcing a storage ban on Stranahan Park.