Illegal Now For Homeless To Use Blankets?

FL Ordinance Makes it Illegal for Homeless to Use Blankets

This was part of a series of ordinances which prohibited using public restrooms for washing your face, panhandling, and “camping”. Though the mayor’s office and members of the city council tried to say that these ordinances were not targeted at the homeless, email correspondence between them and other city officials proved otherwise.

The anti-camping ordinance went the furthest in it’s limitation of basic civil liberties, making it essentially illegal, not only to cover yourself for any reason, but also effectively making it illegal to be homeless. It was a tough ordinance to fight, because if you opposed them, it gave the impression that you were supporting blight in the city. Not to mention the city council wasn’t interested in having the discussion. The then council president either would cut people off or have them thrown out during the public discussion.

The ordinances were passed, in spite of the public outcry.

One of the arguments that was constantly used during the limited debate about the ordinances, was that there was a “silent majority” that wanted to see these laws passed. So these people didn’t show up to the meetings or send emails that could be presented as part of the public record. Instead, they might have stopped a council person on the streets, so they claimed it had more weight than the hundreds of folks in the council chambers in protest. I decided to see how true this supposed silent majority was.

This comes from a clergyman in Fl but I was hoping there would be more links to the reports/public outcry he refers too. Please feel free to post here if you find them. This is pretty outrageous and apparently it includes anyone! When will it stop?

This reminds me of the outlawing of homeless, the indefinite detention of them in one state and also the time a paramedic was arrested in Detroit because he covered someone up in a blanket...

Ok here is my perspective on that.

I live in Michigan, snowing to beat hell. I want to vacation in florida but can't afford the resorts. Can I set up tent in your front yard? No.

Business owners are the same. People have compassion but you get people sleeping in front of a business its going to hurt business.

reply to post by tinner07


Ok, I get that, and agree to an extent. (Not the snow part, I'm with you there!)
But does this mean the homeless can't cover up, in a box in an alley, out of the way, bothering nobody?

Is the city going to approve opening more shelters, for the homeless to go? I doubt it.

Homelessness isn't going to disappear just because those in authority suffer from " not in my back yard" syndrome. If anything,I see it growing to the point where the scales of middle class,and below poverty level,tip. The gap between the rich and middle class has grown. You can only shun so many,move so many outside of your state lines,before they run out of places to go.

It is just a continuation. Just another angle of attack on humanity. The disgusting act of marginalizing those who exhibit any level of compassion for less fortunate souls.

Business deserves to be hurt. The blight and decay of our society is a glaring reminder that the talking heads and their delusional optimism is a blatant propagandized mistruth.

These same vile "silent majority" would be the first to call for the merciful killing of undesirables so as to sweep the lie away and never be faced with their own fraud.

we dont want to see it..
but there it is, ever increasing.

reply to post by tinner07


You make a good point.

I think people should build special little low-budget cabins to house these poor guys. That way they don't sleep in front of a business building and they have a roof over their head.

reply to post by chiefsmom


IDK there is no easy answers to these problems. I don't see homeless people where I live but I was head cook at a "soup kitchen" in the city for a couple years so I know they exist. But I don't want to feed them in my town. I will gladly feed them in yours.

It's not exactly outlawing the homeless, it says come here during the day but when time for sleepy sleepy, get out of town.

I'm not sure I have a problem with that

reply to post by tinner07


we, it's getting closer to them being made illegal.
get out of town? where???

sad, so very sad. :\

reply to post by Kmhotaru


Hmm, at the risk of being really unpopular.

The majority of homeless people in the Uk have real mental health problems and/or substance abouse issues, which is what puts them on the streets. You really need ways to contain them. The sane, non criminal ones are a minority. You need to find a way to discourage them from hanging around in the city centres and bugging the straights.

reply to post by Kmhotaru


I totaly disagree with this. What ever happened to humanity???

When the 2010 olympics came to Vancouver, the city took all the homeless put them on buses and shipped them out of town, also the government bought up alot of the really low income housing ( cheap hotels) and evicted all the tenants and shipped them out of town aswell.

The only way we can bring humanity back to the world of government is to take the money out of government. There should be a law that states that you must be poor to be a politician. Why would I say that? Its simple really. People who do not make alot of money tend to be more humble, loving, they are not greedy like rich people, They know what is right and what is wrong, they have more humanity, and they also know their politics as they are always the ones getting screwed the most ie OP.

People treat homeless people like they are animals.. WAKE THE # UP LADIES AND GENTS!!!! THEY ARE HUMAN JUST LIKE YOU AND ME.

They have all the same wants and needs as the rest of us, They want to be loved, they want to have shelter and they want to eat.
You know its not like they choose to be homeless either. Each one of them has a story, each one of them got screwed in one way or another and had no where else to go but the streets. Now I know some people are going to say "Well they drink and do drugs all the time, why should we help them?" Well what I say to that is this...

WELL DUH!! I dare you to live on the street for 1 month and not have the earge to leave reality or to numb your self because your so damn cold!

The government should set up a system to end homelessness. How? By first putting them into a non religious Rehab program that will help them conqur any addictions and all so to prepare them for the working world again. Then the government should, apon completion of the rehab, supply these people with a home. It doesnt have to be big either, they could be small apartments or even develop a small comunity of small ecofriendly houses that only cost about 5 grand a piece to build and ship. Now after that they set them up with a job, a job that pays at least minimum wage.

Edit: With the rehab process people can be trained to for certain jobs like trades or what ever. If it is done properly it will erradicate homeless numbers, there will be far less if not 0 panhandlers, people sleeping infront of stores, and a lower crime rate.

With that we could end homelessness. Now your probly saying "well thats fine and dandy, but how will the government pay for all that?"

Its easy, Legalise Marijuana and end the war on drugs. Did you know that something like 80% of the money being spent on that "war" is being spent on the only drug that is proven to be very good for your health, The only drug that has NEVER killed anyone, the ONLY "drug" you cant overdose on (its physicaly impossible as you have to consume your entire body weight to od on weed).
Did you know that colorado in its first week of legalised marijuana sales they made over $5,000,000!!!!

If its legalised we can end homelessness, end the war on drugs, We stop dealers from selling drugs to youth and we will stimulate the economy by creating # loads of jobs that create un-imaginable amount of gross revenue for the government and the people of North America. Just think how fast that deficite could be paid off with marijuana sales??????? *hint hint*wink wink*

Sorry I rambled and got off topic, but we need more humanity in our world. I believe that North America can be so much better then what it is.

Where did all the humanity go in this world?

reply to post by chiefsmom

chiefsmom
reply to post by tinner07

 

Ok, I get that, and agree to an extent. (Not the snow part, I'm with you there!)
But does this mean the homeless can't cover up, in a box in an alley, out of the way, bothering nobody?

Is the city going to approve opening more shelters, for the homeless to go? I doubt it.

edit on 7-2-2014 by chiefsmom because: addition

Exactly. The article goes on to describe that. No viable options. Cities everywhere are sweeping them out - then what? I realize a lot of them have drug problems so what then? just lock them up? There is one city (I believe in the carolinas) that is detaining them indefinitely - they call it 'tough love'. Problem - they can't leave. And they can't better their situation.

But here's what I want folks responding like tinner to think about - this ordinance...actually applies to everyone there!

Hey Cuba..

Looks like a good time to Nuke Florida.

You wanna encourage folks not to sleep on the streets dont do it by taking away the thing that will KEEP THEM ALIVE, do it with programs and incentives to get those folks Off the streets and into a new home and new life. You murdering bastards.

On the other hand..

I do not subscribe to our social engineering - what you guys call a Society. The concept itself of a Society is social engineering. It's a brainwashing that makes people believe they have to live and act within certain criteria and certain limits. People should be able to live anywhere they please in any manner they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else. I don't see these homeless people hurting anyone. Let them have the blankets.

reply to post by snypwsd


Well said, wish I could give you a flag ) shame more folk are not like you

Who cares about a majority, silent or not? Individual rights and personal liberties never reside in the majority. They reside in the individual.

"F" the majority.

disclaimer: the letter "F" brought to you by Florida.

reply to post by snypwsd


"They" are so human that if the roles were reversed, nothing would change.

Yes, "poor people" tend to be more giving. But remove that poor state from their finances, and they become the same scumbags that we are decrying here.

Behavior is 10% individual outlook, and 90% human nature.

AccessDenied
Homelessness isn't going to disappear just because those in authority suffer from " not in my back yard" syndrome. If anything,I see it growing to the point where the scales of middle class,and below poverty level,tip. The gap between the rich and middle class has grown. You can only shun so many,move so many outside of your state lines,before they run out of places to go.

edit on 7-2-2014 by AccessDenied because: (no reason given)

Guess what other gap is closing? The gap between middle-class and poor people. We used to have a population of INVISIBLE POOR....
you know,they were dressed sort of normal, didn't stink and had some relatives/ or other sleeping arrangement to keep them out of the public eye.

Our poor are starting to be conspicuous....we have to see them now.

Poor people sleeping in front of businesses where they work or setting up camp-like settlements near town is NORMAL EVERYWHERE in the world except here.

Also, we have deluded ouselves that we have outlawed slavery because we don't see it everywhere.....we only exported our slavery to the third world along with our factories and jobs.....

reply to post by Kmhotaru


Can't cover up with a blanket? Are you freaking kidding me? I've been to football games where people used a throw to block the cold from themselves and/or their kids.

And what about baby blankets??? I didn't see anything about an age limit. Will parents be arrested now for tucking a baby blanket over their kid in an infant carrier? Don't say "Oh no, that's different" because a blanket is a blanket and they didn't specify an age range far as I can tell.

This is just ridiculous!

I worked in a homeless shelter many years ago. We made a decision to not apply for or accept government funding. In the end it doesn't cost as much as many might think to provide a warm place to sleep, food and clothes for people.

I really don't think in the United States we have any excuse for not making these minimums available to everyone who needs them.

Televisions, booze, cell phones and etc . . . that's a different story.

I am from Florida and I can tell you many cities are very anti-homeless. For example in Tampa you can get arrested for feeding a homeless person. There are a plethora of laws that give LEOs a bunch of reasons they can arrest a homeless person. Also if arrested most homeless will get an automatic 30days in jail because they can not afford to be bailed out. 30 days is how long the state has to formally charge someone if in custody for a misdemeanor, since most homeless have a weak case against them the state often will drop the charges after 30 days and that person is released from jail.

That said because there are so many homeless in Florida there are also a lot of charities that cater to the homeless.