ACLU LETTER DEMANDS CITY STOP EVICTIONS OF HOMELESS FROM PUBLIC PROPERTY, CONFISCATION OF THEIR PERSONAL POSSESSIONS

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George Crossley, president of the Central Florida Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. tomorrow --Wed., Nov. 22-- in front of Orlando City Hall, 400 S. Orange Ave. Crossley will make available copies of an ACLU letter written on behalf of local homeless advocacy group, S.T.O.P.--Stop the Ordinance Partnership-- and its member groups, which include Orlando Food Not Bombs and The First Vagabonds Church of God.

The letter, to Orlando city officials, demands that they, City employees, and Orlando police refrain from any further evictions of the homeless from public property and from what it alleges has been the illegal confiscation and destruction of the personal property of homeless individuals. The ACLU says that sometime after the Thanksgiving weekend its lawyers will file a request for injunctive relief ... in the federal district court in Orlando.

The ACLU says its action was prompted by the City's forcible eviction on Nov. 17 of several dozen homeless individuals camping under the S.R. 408 underpass and by railroad tracks near the 408 underpass (both areas are in Orlando's Lake Lucerne neighborhood). In that incident it and S.T.O.P. allege that City employees illegally took the personal possessions of homeless people, including clothes and prescription medications. The ACLU says it has collected more than 20 statements from the evictees detailing the loss of their property last week. Central Florida's homeless population is conservatively estimated at 7,000 individuals while, each night, only 2,000 shelter beds are available, leaving the homeless with no alternative but to seek make-shift shelter in any secluded spot they can find, say homeless advocates.

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in October against the City over its "large group feedings" ordinance that bans sharing food with the homeless in more than three dozen public parks and spaces in downtown Orlando. The lawsuit alleges violation of civil liberties guaranteed by the Florida and U.S. Constitutions, and violation of Florida's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Orlando Food Not Bombs, The First Vagabonds Church of God, and individual members of those groups. S.T.O.P. says that its attempts, prior to the lawsuit, to initiate dialogue with City officials over the ordinance and solutions to problems of homelessness in Orlando were unsuccessful.

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