7/20/2006

HAPPYTOWN

Last month, the Orlando City Council voted to make it harder – nay, near-impossible – to feed the homeless in public parks downtown. Though not specified in the ordinance, the law targeted Orlando Food Not Bombs, a group that feeds homeless folks vegetarian meals every Wednesday afternoon in Lake Eola Park. Homeless people congregating for a meal did not thrill nearby businesses and residents. They complained to commissioner Patty Sheehan, who pushed for the law, which passed on a 5-2 vote June 19.

On July 24, the ordinance comes back for its required second – and final – vote. While it's almost certain to pass, we thought it might be interesting to note some of the subtle changes the city has made to the law since the first reading.

For instance, no longer are the feedings restricted in parks and public areas included in the city's downtown Community Redevelopment Agency district; now they're restricted in something called the Greater Downtown Park District, defined as any city-owned park within a two-mile radius of City Hall. And in the new version of the bill, feeding homeless people isn't just a danger to "the health and welfare of citizens"; now, it's a threat to birds and animals too. (As opponents of the ordinance point out, when this law passes it will be legal to feed pigeons in Orlando parks, but not people.)

Originally, groups that fed more than 15 people would be covered under the ordinance, which requires permits for the feedings. (Two a year are allowed per group.) Now the threshold is 25 people in a group, including those serving the food.

Originally, the ordinance read, "The city has provided for and set aside reasonable, ample, alternative land space" to feed the homeless. Now it says the city is "committed to and has provided" such space. We asked commissioner Robert Stuart – whose full-time job is helping homeless people in Parramore – what space the city is referring to. He didn't know.

6/22/2006

HAPPYTOWN

For the last year and a half, Orlando Food Not Bombs has fed homeless people vegetarian food in Lake Eola Park on Wednesday afternoons. No more. At least not legally.

At the June 19 Orlando City Council meeting, the board approved a new ordinance that would effectively shut Food Not Bombs down. Even though the ordinance doesn't mention Food Not Bombs specifically, it's easy to read between the lines. Follow along: Under the new law, which passed by a 5-2 vote on its first reading – to be followed by a likely slam-dunk second and final vote in two weeks – large "group feedings" in public parks and facilities around downtown would require a permit. And those permits would be limited to two per group per year. In other words, two Food Not Bombs feedings a year, not 52.

This isn't the first time the city has tried to run service providers for the homeless out of Lake Eola. Three years ago, the city forced out The Ripple Effect, another feed-the-homeless nonprofit. But our fair city didn't do it by force of law – they just harassed Ripple Effect until the nonprofit decided to move their feedings to a less-visible public spot – America Street and Silvia Lane, to the west of the 408, about a 10-minute walk from downtown – one that didn't offend the city's ban on blight. (Ripple Effect executive director Bob Decker reports that their current feeding site doesn't have any bathroom facilities, which Lake Eola Park does.)

After Food Not Bombs started dishing out food downtown in January 2005, it didn't take long for a fresh round of problems to arise. Last May, members told Happytown that they were chased out of Heritage Square Park by overzealous cops who told them the group needed a permit and that downtown was a "no feeding" zone. Neither of those things was true at the time. But that fact, to city commissioner Patty Sheehan, is why pencils have erasers.

Responding to the complaints of downtown business owners who found the unsightly swarm of homeless disruptive, Sheehan proposed the rule change, saying she doesn't think it's fair for city parks to be a "24/7 soup kitchen." Supporters of the anti-homeless ordinance, residents and businesspeople alike, complained that the feedings attract homeless people to the area who don't leave after they're done eating – what nerve! – which in turn increases crime and hurts tourism. They say the homeless people make them feel unsafe and that they leave trash behind.

Food Not Bombs members showed up in force too, first in a pre-meeting protest outside City Hall and then inside the meeting itself, where nearly two dozen activists pleaded their case to the council, while scores more applauded them loudly (even after the mayor told them not to). They disputed the reports that their feedings leave messes and argued that access to food is a right, not a privilege. Orlando's favorite anarchist, Ben Markeson, told us in so many words that the ordinance was only going to help snooty, rich white folks who don't like having to see bums on their morning jog.

Five hours into the meeting, the council finally voted. The two newest members, Sam Ings and Robert Stuart, voted no. Ings opposed it because he thought the problems could be remedied without an overarching ban, perhaps by fining groups that don't clean up. Stuart, who himself runs a charity that helps the homeless, said that, at the ordinance's second reading, he'd offer an amendment to sunset it after one year. And more to the point, he told the council the new law was unenforceable and only looks at a symptom of homelessness, rather than attacking the problem in general.

Stuart's right. As many of the speakers noted, the city has for so long taken an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to its growing homeless problem that it now glosses over the real, deep-seated issues. One homeless man, Daniel Abernathy, put it best: "The feeding is not the problem," he said. "The problem is they're homeless."

The battle isn't over yet. The ACLU will probably sue, and at least one Food Not Bombs member told the Orlando Sentinel that they're going to keep feeding the hungry and homeless in Lake Eola Park, whether the city likes it or not.

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