Two days ago, the city of Orlando, Florida, attempted to ban its homeless. Of course, it couldn't quite do that because, as Mayor Glenda Hood admitted, that "would be unconstitutional." However, she succeeded in the next best thing: she passed an ordinance creating about two dozen small zones throughout the downtown area where panhandling would be allowed. Anyone soliciting outside of those zones would be arrested.
This was clearly an attempt to gravely restrict the homeless, who are forced to live off the generosity of others, and make them feel as unwelcome as possible in Orlando. Although Hood may argue that these laws do not violate the letter of the Constitution, it is obvious that they violate the spirit of the First Amendment. By this action, Orlando's city government has shown its lack of compassion for the homeless, and its overriding concern for, in Hood's own word, "image."
Orlando is not alone. All across America, cities are responding to the homeless by criminalizing rather than trying to help them. In Sacramento, homeless people are given one-way bus tickets out of town. In Seattle, anyone caught sleeping in a park can be banned from it. In Roseville, California, police actually go undercover to catch and arrest panhandlers. In Atlanta, 9,000 homeless people were arrested just prior to the 1996 Olympic Games for violating "quality-of-life laws" which make sleeping, lying, or even sitting in public an offense punishable by jail. And in San Francisco, the city confiscates shopping carts which homeless people use to carry their belongings. The message rings out loud and clear: "Homeless Go Home!"
What has happened to our compassion for those who have fallen through the cracks? Paul Boden, director of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness, explains, "Homelessness has gone from being a societal problem to being a messed-up individual's problem."
Of course, not everybody shares these views. Just before the big meeting in Orlando on Monday, a local homeless advocate group called Food Not Bombs was in front of City Hall handing out leaflets expressing their opposition to the proposed begging zones ordinance. They declared, "Our homeless brothers and sisters deserve tolerance, respect, and compassion, not punishment." Member Benjamin Markeson pointed out that this new law is one more in a series of local laws which burden and criminalize the homeless; as an example, he referred to the recent sleeping ordinance which makes it illegal to sleep in public if you have no home.
Kyle Folsom, of the Boston chapter of Food Not Bombs, was disgusted to learn how Orlando was treating its homeless; but he was not surprised since his native Boston does no better. He said that all cities need to reevaluate the way they relate to the homeless because "taking away their human rights to make a living [is just] totally wrong."
This was a view shared by a homeless man named James Wade who was looking forward to addressing the council. He pointed out that these begging zones would interfere with another law which makes it illegal to panhandle in a group. Therefore, there could be no more than a single person per zone and, in his words, "that ain't gonna get it," considering how many homeless people there are in the area.
In fact, in Central Florida alone, it is estimated that there are 12,000 to 13,000 homeless people. Not all are single men; many are single mothers and abused women. Suzanne Lander should know; she works with them on a daily basis. Lander is the manager of the eye-care clinic in Orlando's Health Care Center for the Homeless. Although she is approached all the time, she doesn't see panhandling as a problem. "I believe these people are fairly harmless," she says.
She believes that the zones won't work. She points out that wherever the zones are, there will always be someone who is not happy. It is the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome; everyone wants the homeless to go somewhere else.
What is really driving all these attempts to get rid of the homeless? Markeson believes that it is the economic factor. It would seem that images of homeless people tend to scare away some potential customers of downtown businesses. As Markeson explains, the corporate interests want to make the downtown area "as artificial and sanitary as Disney [World]. … The city wants to sweep the problem of homelessness under the rug and outside the city limits rather than finding real solutions because those aren't in accord with its pro-business … agenda." Perhaps panhandling may make some profit margins go down a little but, as Markeson says, "human needs and human interest should always take precedence over private profit."
It certainly seems to me there are better things police could do with their time than continually arrest people for their misfortunes. Aren't these people victimized enough without the government placing more burdens on them? If a society is to be judged on how it treats its least fortunate members, than we have a real problem.
The problem, of course, is not the homeless, but homelessness. What can we do? Since the government will not help, Lander suggests we all work together and help privately. "If everyone could just volunteer two hours a month, anywhere, it would really help."
It might also help for city governments to reevaluate their policies to those less fortunate than the officials.