Dear Mayor Dyer and City Commissioners:

As you know, the Orlando City Council has recently passed a controversial ordinance that effectively bans the serving of food in city parks. The ordinance in question is another example of an unfortunate trend in our country to use the criminal justice system to deal with the problem of homelessness. The adoption of the ordinance, which now criminalizes the homeless and the kind people who feed them in public parks, has qualified Orlando as one of the top meanest cities in the country according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. In criminalizing compassion, Orlando now discourages activists and people of faith from a vital community service. In criminalizing homelessness, Orlando makes it more difficult for homeless people to transcend their circumstances.

As a superficial criminal ordinance, it does not seriously address the topic of homelessness per se. The S.T.O.P. coalition suspects that the reason for passing the ordinance was to please a small, but powerful minority of well-heeled Orlando residents and business owners in the Lake Eola area. These affluent people do not hide their desire to evict the homeless from what they consider to be Œtheirı public park. Following our analysis of e-mails and public pronouncements by Orlando citizens in general and Lake Eola residents in particular on the topic, for every eight citizens that oppose the ordinance, only one is in favor of it. This is evidence of the undemocratic influences at work behind the passing of the ordinance.

The ordinance only serves to disguise the problem of homelessness and to displace feedings of the homeless to other parts of the city. The ordinance also implicitly accuses the homeless as a group of being a criminal, unaesthetic, and diseased element that must be stopped from congregating in public areas for purposes of public safety, health, and visual attractiveness. In marginalizing and criminalizing the homeless, the ordinance places the homeless at risk of more verbal and physical attacks, like the recent attack and murder of August Felix. What is worse, the City Councilıs proposal to relocate public feedings of the homeless to the very area (Sylvia Lane) where August Felix was murdered is a testament either to benign ignorance or to deliberate bad faith.

As you also know, a grass-roots community organization has formed in response to the passing of the ordinance. Known as the Stop The Ordinance Partnership (S.T.O.P.), the organization is composed of a number of religious and secular groups as well as interested individuals ­ all from the local community. S.T.O.P. supports the repeal of the unconscionable anti-feeding ordinance in favor of more effective and less counterproductive alternatives to the growing challenge of homelessness. In the last City Council meeting of July 24, 2006, Commissioner Sheehan mentioned that attempts had been made to consult the local community about finding solutions to the problem of homelessness. Unfortunately, none of the groups in attendance at the meeting were consulted in any such dialogue. However, the S.T.O.P. partnership would like to initiate an open dialogue with the City Council regarding the critical issue of homelessness.

Instead of criminalizing homelessness, the City Council, together with business groups, and law enforcement officials should work with homeless people, providers, and advocates for solutions to prevent and end homelessness.

Orlando should dedicate more resources to more affordable housing, shelters, and homeless services. To address street homelessness, Orlando should dedicate more resources to outreach programs, such as the ones highlighted below. Further, Orlando can set up programs to help homeless individuals apply for federal benefits to which they are entitled but may not be receiving, such as Supplemental Security Income benefits for disabled individuals, food stamps, or the earned income tax credit.

Local business groups can also play a positive role in helping to address the issue. Instead of advocating for criminalization measures, business groups can provide resources for solutions to homelessness, such as the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement Districtıs day center.

As Orlandoıs criminalization measures will move people away from services, make it more difficult for people to move out of homelessness, and cost more due to incarceration and law enforcement costs than more constructive approaches, the City Council would be wise to seek constructive alternatives to criminalization. When the City Council decides to work with homeless persons and advocates toward solutions to homelessness, instead of punishing those who are homeless or poor, everyone will benefit.

Here are a number of concrete proposals for addressing the issue of homelessness in Orlando in lieu of the ordinance:

• Immediately establish a single Drop-In center or a series of smaller centers to provide 24 hour services for the homeless including food, first aid and basic medical care, mental health services, job training, drug and alcohol treatment, and sleeping accommodations;
• Immediately cease the criminalization and arbitrary targeting of the homeless on the part of local law enforcement since our criminal laws are an ineffective solution to the problem of homelessness;
• In the short-term establish an affordable housing and transitional living program that will provide the homeless with life management skills and affordable accommodations.

In the interests of brevity, we have not provided a more detailed explanation of the above proposals. However, we believe that these proposals in their current form represent a reasonable and serious first step at establishing a dialogue with the City of Orlando.

We look forward to working together with you in finding effective and humane solutions to the problem of homelessness in our city.

Sincerely,

George Crossley
for the Stop The Ordinance Partnership