It’s not illegal to feed people in Fort Lauderdale either. Based on what I’ve read of the new law, there are just limits on where it’s done and the facilities that need to be provided. Bathroom facilities are required so that the problem of human waste in public areas doesn’t increase.
According to this list, there are at least 16 food pantries in Fort Lauderdale that give free food.
Baed on this article published in 2014, here are a few things that Fort Lauderdale is doing or has done to deal with the homelessness problem:
So the guys who drive catering trucks, sidewalk vendors, etc., all provide places for their customers to answer natures call? Or is it different if you sell the food instead of giving it away?
Is this a rhetorical question? I don’t know the answer. Since you started the OP, do you know more about this?
From this article, truck vendors have to get special licenses to comply with city code and only sell in approved places, which in some ways, is similar to the new ordinance in that certain places are restricted.
I’m sorry to Bone that I got that angry. The thrust of what I said, that I don’t think putting money first is a good argument, is true, but the way I gave it was way overly hostile, even though this is the Pit.
And, since I said it public, I feel I need to give the apology in public. (And, no, I haven’t read anything else in this thread before I posted this. I felt bad on my own.)
Exactly my point. It’s not, as they’re implying, to discourage homelessness (which is kind of like discouraging cancer), it’s to encourage the homeless to be a problem in other cities.
Which he then immediately
[ul][li]Sticks in his pocket and forgets about[/li][li]Loses, or[/li][li]Trades for a bottle and a pack of cigarettes.[/ul][/li]Regards,
Shodan
I would think the purpose of that budget item is to have homeless people be homeless somewhere else, which would be defeated by just sending a homeless person on his way with a newly purchased ticket, instead of making him get on the bus in the guise of “keeping him safe” or “protecting his belongings” or something else to that effect.
The purpose is to reunite homeless people with family if they are available to care for them. If the barrier of a homeless person is the cost of transport and connecting with relatives, this item takes care of that. It really seems that simple and isn’t unique to Ft. Lauderdale.
There could be bad results with these types of programs, but if there is a way to reunite/reconnect people with a family or support structure, it does seem a humane thing to do. These programs aren’t always pushed by the local governments - non profits and other aid programs also provide these services to help those in need.
Well, I stand corrected on that point then. On a related note, why is the word “one-way” used in all those stories instead of just “Offered to pay for their bus ticket” or “Purchase a plane ticket”. Why is “one-way” always added? Using that term makes me think of old “one way ticket outta town” type scenarios, and when mentioned in the context of the Fort Lauderdale story, leads to a more dark reason for it, instead of what you have shown in your quotes.
I’m not sure what you call a “homeless feeding center”, but what I read is that he brought 300 meals to his location. Was he planning to lug all this all over the city finding 300 homeless people and giving them meals, or was he planning on parking himself with his 300 meals and having 300 homeless people show up? I assume the latter.
So, that’s where the homeless around here come from? New-York?
Seriously, I fisrt I was like :eek: Then, I thought, “you’re an idiot, :smack: , it’s Paris, Texas, obviously”. Then I looked at the ticket price, and , “no, that’s Paris, France”.
I guess it makes some sense, but I’m extremely surprised that homeless people are flown back to France (I’m assuming they’re French citizens, not sent there because they’d like to visit the French riviera) at the expense of the New-York tax payer. Also if they were illegals, I assume they’d be deported at federal expense, so who are these guys? Bi-nationals with more family in France? Weird, really.
He may prepare 300 plates on a given day (I did not see this), but as he’s not going to the same spot each time and has no fixed facilities at the points of distribution, no, I wouldn’t call that a “center.” And my assumption would be the reverse of yours. If you have 300 meals to unload and no fixed facilities, I expect you do have to travel it around some. I did something similar myself once upon a time in DC; given a windfall of perfectly good food, we lugged it around to various places until we’d found enough people to give it to.
Indeed, but none of this actually has much to do with the OP topic. Nobody with a relevant family/support structure in another city, who has been prevented reaching them for want of a bus ticket, is going to be dissuaded from making that move because they know that kind people will be allowed to sometimes give them free food in the city they’re in.
Also, Bone, nothing you say really refutes the idea that the core motivation of such ticket-out programs, for city governments, is to “have them be homeless somewhere else,” or make them another city’s problem, as opposed to helping them not be homeless. After all, homeless people with families generally become homeless in the city where their family is, to begin with. That they then ended up in Fort Lauderdale, or wherever–or their family went somewhere else–is probably secondary to the reasons for homelessness.
Seems like he sets up shop in a designated area - mostly the park - with his table and food and ladles it out to all comers. (See e.g. the end of the last link.)
Not necessarily no. But do you think it’s the primary motivation of the Salvation Army to have them be homeless somewhere else? That seems uncharacteristic. There could be multiple motivations of local governments, some good, some not good. It’s clear that some have taken advantage of the relocation willingly. That’s enough for me.
Yes - this is in response to the derision of the ticket purchase/move aspects of the city budget. It’s not meant as a comment toward the thrust of the OP. I’ve written on that separately in other posts.
, “no, that’s Paris, France”.