Posted Dec. 31, 2006

The City of Orlando, in July of 2006, enacted its "large group feedings" ordinance, which effectively bans groups from sharing food with hungry and homeless people inside more than three dozen downtown parks. At that time, in an attempt to deflect growing public criticism of its inhumane policies towards the homeless, the City pointed out that it had made what it considered adequate provision for groups that share food by providing them with an alternate location for doing that. This was the Sylvia Lane site, a fenced-in parking lot located behind the Orlando Utilities Commission building in the Lake Lucerne neighborhood. In the preamble to the ordinance, the city claimed that it was "committed to" providing this space, although it did not mention Sylvia Lane by name, and called it "reasonable [and] ample ... for large group feeding of the homeless by religious and other organizations."

Not only did City officials state orally that Sylvia Lane would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that the gates would always be unlocked, they also said that no permits would be necessary in order to use it. Attorneys for the City even repeated part of this in writing, in their responses to the federal lawsuit against the ordinance that was filed in October by the First Vagabonds Church of God and Orlando Food Not Bombs. In a motion for dismissal of the lawsuit –which the judge declined to grant, City attorneys Martha Lee Lombardy and Kenneth Hebert stated that "Sylvia Lane...can be used seven days per week and 365 days a year at no charge, and can be used without a permit." (emphases added by us)

The Orlando police on Nov. 17 forcibly evicted homeless individuals camping under the S.R. 408 overpass on Sylvia Lane and by the CSX railroad tracks near there. At that time, City employees illegally confiscated and destroyed the personal possessions–including clothes, personal papers, family photographs and even prescription medications–of those homeless individuals, which created a considerable hardship for them. (In one case, a homeless epileptic has suffered at least six major seizures due to the loss of his medication on Nov. 17, and the loss of his medication may have been a factor in the death of another homeless man in early December.) A couple city employees were even observed laughing as they relieved these homeless individuals of their few pitiful belongoings. (And when the homeless put up too much of a fuss, the police even called out the S.W.A.T. team!) Subsequently, around 40 of the homeless people who had been evicted began camping inside the Sylvia Lane site because they had nowhere else to go, owing to the chronic shortage of shelter beds for the homeless in Central Florida.

Following the outcry resulting from the shameful abuse they had directed at homeless citizens, certain city officials made verbal representations to S.T.O.P. members that they would begin following the requirements of Florida Statute 705.103, which requires property that is considered to be "abandoned" to be inventoried and held for safekeeping for a period to give the rightful owners an opportunity to reclaim it. City officials also claimed that when they did evict the homeless individuals inside Sylvia Lane that employees from the Central Florida Coalition for the Homeless would be on hand to help them find shelter.

The City on Dec. 18 did evict the homeless from inside Sylvia Lane, padlocked the gates and proved once again that its promises and assurances are worthless. While employees from the Coalition for the Homeless were on hand, they freely admitted that there was no room for male/female couples in its shelter (instead suggesting that couples separate, with the men sleeping in the Coalition's already overcrowded and unsafe Men's Pavilion while the women would have to fend for themselves). When that proved unacceptable to many of the homeless, for understandable reasons, all the Coalition employees could do was hand out brochures listing local resources supposedly available for them.

In another example of a broken promise, a few days before the Dec. 18 evictions, the City began posting signs around Sylvia Lane stating that its new hours of use were 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily (which creates a hardship both for the working homeless and groups that wish to share food with them) and that prior registration of feedings with the Orlando City Clerk's Office would be necessary in order for the gates to be unlocked. That is, in effect, a requirement for a permit.

Lastly, the City again failed to obey the state statute when handling the personal possessions of the evictees. Instead of immediately inventorying and impounding their possessions, city employees stuffed them into large black garbage bags which were dumped by the sides of Sylvia Lane and America Street. City Clerk Alana Brenner claimed their possessions were handled in this manner because police and city employees did not have the time to follow the provisions of the statute. A day or two later, police taped a signed notice to each bag stating that if the items were not moved within five days they would be "disposed of" and that the owners would "be liable for costs of removal, storage, and publication of notice." (That makes sense, of course, because everyone knows the homeless can afford to pay government fees.)

In the days following the Dec. 18 evictions, many of the homeless who had been camping inside Sylvia Lane were then sleeping outside of it because they still had nowhere to go and did not wish to abandon their possessions, which they were unable to transport. Orlando police also began showing up again, threatening to come back and take the homeless people's possessions. On Dec. 25 and Dec. 29 to help these homeless individuals avoid confiscation of their belongings and harassment by Orlando police, S.T.O.P. members transported those who wished to leave and their property to an undisclosed location.

Undoubtedly, in its neverending campaign to drive out the homeless, the City of Orlando will continue to break up homeless encampments whenever it finds them. S.T.O.P. will endeavor always to be present to monitor the conduct of the police and city employees and to provide whatever assistance it can to homeless individuals struggling to survive in our community.