Photo curtsey of Sun Sentinel
By Cristina E. Garcia/Columnist
In case you didn’t hear, Fort Lauderdale has a vendetta against Arnold Abbott, a retired 90-year-old World War II veteran, and anyone else who insists on feeding homeless people in major public spaces without following rules and regulations. Abbott has been heavily criticized and lionized for his actions; yet something remains to be said about homelessness. We need to talk about policies and programs function in real life.
According to the Miami Herald’s Fred Grimm, “For years now, Miami and Fort Lauderdale have wrestled with the tension between the individual rights and needs of itinerants and a tourist-dependent community’s right to control the safety, sanitation and aesthetics of parks, beaches and public plazas.”
In an attempt to answer the issue, Fort Lauderdale officials declared a city ordinance that states organizations must obtain written permission from the property owners, be 500-feet from any residences and must have toilets available for visitors whenever organizations want to feed the homeless, according to Grimm’s article.
I assume this makes it difficult for compassionate individuals and groups to help their neighbors in need. What if a group of grannies wants to take a basket full of sandwiches to the needy people lingering at the park?
“They’re using law to make people on streets less visible for promotion of tourism. They’re not addressing the root of the problem,” said Matthew Marr, assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies. “There needs to be more ways to address structural problems: affordable housing, living wage employment and health and welfare services.”
Andy Cagnetta, owner and operator of Transworld Business Advisors that has helped feed the homeless for the past 13 years, feels having these unregulated public feedings distracts homeless people from finding shelter and other city-approved programs.
Marr doesn’t agree.
“Public feedings provide a chance for people to serve the community not just by providing food, but [by performing] community outreach activities. People living on the streets could learn about services they hadn’t known about before,” he said. “It’s also a way to develop trust.”
According to Marr, people living on the street have a hard time trusting police and other officials, but they trust the people feeding them.
Rayid Sakib, a senior biomedical and mechanical engineering major that has volunteered with a similar program for the last four years, could attest to that. Project Downtown was started several years back by students sick with the treatment of homeless and needy in Miami. It’s about “treating people like people,” as stated on their Facebook page.
“They don’t have anyone to talk to. If you give them time, they talk. Some go to school. One studies accounting, another computer science,” he said of the people he serves every Friday by Government Center Metrorail Station. “The majority of them are people like us. They were educated, some of them lawyers, but something happened and now they’re homeless.”
Some programs that are meant to help the homeless are forced to turn some people away because they’re not in enough “need.”
“Healthy people wouldn’t qualify for housing because many of the programs and services, due to available funds, mostly focus on people with disabilities and problems,” said Marr.
Among the homeless that Marr interviewed in Overtown, he found some were physically healthy, but couldn’t find work because of competition. For example, one person wanted to work in construction, but couldn’t because he couldn’t speak Spanish.
According to Sakib, that’s why Project Downtown was needed: to fill the gap.
“The fact that they’re waiting in line in the sun for hours says [other programs] can’t provide enough food,” he said. “They know Project Downtown is going and even if it’s storming out, they wait for us to arrive.”
Sakib said there are usually 80 to 90 people waiting for the group of six or seven volunteers to arrive with supplies. Lately, the volunteer attendance has significantly dropped.
Supplies are gathered using a humble program budget or donations from families, friends, or those sympathetic to the cause. The group doesn’t just take food; they bring clothes, sanitary products, (non-prescription) medicine and an empathetic ear.
“Organizations are generally feeding people that haven’t been able to access services,” said Marr.
Sakib noted one homeless person that was ill with what he believes is bladder cancer. His wheelchair has been broken and stolen, as well as his money and medicine. The group always tries to help him as best that they can.
“Good services and housing are there. So far, it’s been successful in reducing the number of homeless, but there is not enough subsidized housing. Not enough supply to meet demand; people have to wait a long time,” Marr said. “They’re told to call a number, then as they wait in the streets and one-day shelters – often disabilities get worse.”
It’s a waste of our tax dollars and our manpower.
Marr said there is research to confirm that “it’s cheaper to put people with problems in subsidized housing and provide them with services – they’re physically going to get better. It’s cheaper to do that than have them go through cycles of emergency shelters and jail.”
Instead of sending police to crack down on Abbott and people/organizations like him/his, the State could be sending the police on more important assignments and bank on the fact that money that isn’t theirs is being used to help these people.
“As for the drugs, alcohol and violence, that could be found among the population that has housing as well,” said Marr. “For that, the best place to go is South Beach.”
Homeless people are much more than a stereotype. They’re a population that deserves to be invested in.
“They’re smart, you know. They know a lot about what’s going on in the country. They just don’t have the opportunity, they’re always being suppressed,” Sakib said.
Project Downtown is currently collecting supplies for winter. If you want to contribute, you can contact Rayid Sakib at 305-923-2079 or visit www.projectdowntown.org for more information.
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