Florida Ordinance Makes it Illegal for Homeless to Use Blankets to Protect Themselves from Weather

[MrScorpio]

February 8, 2014 By Allen Clifton

I think most of us can agree that life isn’t easy. So many Americans live in a perpetual state of fear about the future. Going paycheck to paycheck, one long string of bad luck away from total catastrophe. I remember when I was a server thinking sometimes that all it took was one wrong step, breaking my ankle, and I would have been absolutely screwed. What good is a server if you can’t walk?

Our lives can change in an instant. We’re brought up in different environments and have to overcome different obstacles. It’s why I try not to judge people (outside of their willful ignorance) because I really don’t know what they’ve had to overcome in life or what led them to their particular hardships.

This is especially true when I encounter a homeless person. Granted some homeless are in their situation in life due to their own decisions, but many aren’t. And like most things in life, once you dig yourself into that kind of a “poverty hole,” it’s really hard to get yourself out of it.

The last thing I’d ever support, or want to see happen, is for a city to pass laws that almost seem to be picking on homeless people. Laws or ordinances that make the lives of people who already live in extremely challenging situations even more difficult.

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/florida-ordinance-makes-illegal-homeless-use-blankets-protect-weather/

[ZombieHorde]

1. Our society creates homeless people,

and then "we" figure out new ways to fuck them over even harder. There is something seriously wrong with us, in my opinion. Just sick.

[IrishAyes]

22. But - but - it's the capitalist way!

[mzteris]

2. This is going to sound

Flip and disrespectful, but at least they're in Florida.

I live in Wisconsin. Negative and single digit temps. I've lived outside of Cleveland. Been to buffalo and Philadelphia and DC in the winter . . . So many homeless there. And jhc it is COLD.

Even when I lived in Raleigh, nc... Hell 30s & even 40s seemed cold to us.

My son around 9 at the time wanted to collect blankets and old coats, etc for the homeless we'd seen. He went and put little hand written notes. . . Dozens and dozens of them, saying he would come by on the following Saturday to pick up any donations they might have. He took his little red wagon up and down all the streets in our neighborhood for blocks in all directions. He collected so much he had to bring it home and make other trips out. Some donated money instead. He didn't want us (his parents) to help him, although he did deign to allow his little brother (about 5) to help pull the wagon. (And we surreptitiously followed and kept watch . . .)

However, we found out it was ILLEGAL to give to the homeless. Couldn't give them food or money or anything. We finally were able to donate them to a homeless shelter. But not to those sleeping in the parks.

The kicker on all this? Our youngest, as those of you on here know about me, is adopted. His birth mom is homeless. Still is. That "little brother is fifteen now 15 yrs old.

I blame Reagan. When he cut mental health programs, homelessness rose, as drug/alcohol abuse.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. They are in Pensacola, FL, which is not as warm and sunny as it is further south

In fact, this is what it looked like in that town last week:

http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2014/1/28/snow_in_florida.html

[mzteris]

6. Well, if you're

A packer fan, I assume you understand the difference between that and Green Bay.

Comparison? None.

That is not the point. Blankets. No blankets. Hot, cold. Wtfever. Though I would hope one could understand the difference in omg a dusting of "snow" and maybe for few seconds being in the 30s and well a whole hell of a lot colder than that. Lets just say, if I ever found myself homeless, I'd start walking south.

The point is . . . It's food and shelter and water and safety and medical care and a place to call home.

That's the real crime. Not that they don't have goddamn blankets. They don't have anything.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. It is the point. I was born in Wisconsin, and spent my married life in Michigan.

Last edited Sun Feb 9, 2014, 12:58 PM - Edit history (1)

I have never felt colder than I did the second year I lived here in TX, and the temps dropped into the low 20s. So yes, it is the point.

Without throwing curse words around, taking what little they do have isn't going to help them, now is it???

[mzteris]

19. Well I sure as hell

hope they get more than freaking blankets.

[ScreamingMeemie]

21. I meant to put 2nd year I lived here in Texas.

And I sure as heck hope they don't get what little they have taken away.

[jwirr]

20. You are right about raygun but what he did was close the facilities without creating community ones

to replace them.

My family in Iowa provided a home for my brother but most do not. When those of us who are parents made the same move to take our community members who were developmentally disabled out of those facilities we made sure that there were small community based facilities available for them. This was never done in most states for the mentally ill. Here in MN we are attempting to do it now.

As for the homeless vets that is something that the VA along with local communities should be addressing.

All in all we have not done enough to end this problem. It should be done by all levels of government from the city to the feds.

[DreamGypsy]

3. There but for Fortune, Go You or I ...

...Joan Baez removed the gender barrier from the Phil Ochs' song:

Show me the alley, show me the train,
Show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain
And I'll show a young girl with so many reasons why,
There, but for fortune, go you or I.

Young, old; female, male; white, black; old, young; demented, sane; Afghan, American - there, but for fortune...

...so, please allow me a blanket.

[struggle4progress]

5. Didn't Pensacola have some nights in the teens last month?

I don't regard this ordinance as a particularly good solution to the problem of homelessness, but a warm jail cell might be preferable to a cold street

[KentuckyWoman]

7. my family breaks the law.

My sister for years has been leaving blankets, coats etc around Atlanta. Cops told it's illegal but don't try to stop her. This year she was too sick to take around the warm things she collected all summer. I ve been in some pretty rough neighborhoods to do it for her. Makes me appreciate my drafty old house in Kentucky even more.

[kwolf68]

8. the mere fact there is ONE single

homeless person on the streets of America is more a critique on this land than ANY EFFING thing.

We're a pathetic lot when we can't get these people (most of them simply incapable of getting off the streets) some goddamn help...but I guess they should "pull themselves up by the bootstraps"...fucking Nazi slogan that is.

[DeSwiss]

11. +1000

[DebJ]

13. and add to that the thousands of empty properties rotting away with the foreclosures....... n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

10. That's pretty f/cking cruel of Pensacola. Typical GOP hellhole.

[wickerwoman]

12. That's got to be some of the stupidest legislation ever passed in the US.

It sounds like if you go to your kid's soccer game and wrap up in a blanket, you're breaking the law.

[Ed Suspicious]

14. Fuck off to the pig who enforces this heartless law.

[WillowTree]

15. I'd be interested to see what the wording of the proposed law actually says.

Just hoping that someone's misinterpreting the real intent. It would be nice if that was the case.

[RedRocco]

16. here you go

Ordinance 17-13 AN ORDINANCE CREATING SECTION 8-1-22 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF PENSACOLA, FLORIDA; PROHIBITING CAMPING AS DEFINED ON ALL PUBLIC PROPERTY OF THE CITY PROVIDING EXCEPTIONS; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; REPEALING CLAUSE; PROVIDING EFFECTIVE DATE.

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Pensacola, Florida hereby finds that in order to provide for, secure and promote the aesthetics, sanitation, public health, and safety of its citizens, it is necessary and in the public interest to adopt an Ordinance prohibiting in part and regulating the conduct of camping on public property, as defined, within the city limits.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF PENSACOLA, FLORIDA:

SECTION 1. Section 8-1-22 of the Code of the City of Pensacola, Florida is hereby created to read as follows:

Sec. 8-1-22 Camping prohibited; exceptions

(1) For purposes of this section “camping” is defined as:

(a) Cooking over an open flame or fire out-of-doors; or

(b) Bathing in public for purposes of personal hygiene; or

(c) Sleeping out-of-doors under one of the following circumstances:

(i) Adjacent to or inside a tent or sleeping bag, or

(ii) Atop and/or covered by materials such as a bedroll, cardboard, newspapers, or

(iii) Inside some form of temporary shelter

(2) Camping is prohibited on all public property, except as may be specifically authorized by the appropriate governmental authority.

(3) Camping is prohibited on all property in the City used for residential purposes; provided, however that camping is permitted on such property with permission and consent of the property owner.

(4) An individual in violation of this ordinance, who has no private shelter, shall be advised of available shelter in the City of Pensacola or Escambia County, in addition to any penalties of law.

SECTION 2. In any word, phrase, clause, paragraph, section or provision of this ordinance or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid or unconstitutional, such finding shall not affect the other provision or applications of the ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid or unconstitutional provisions or application, and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are declared severable.

SECTION 3. All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict.

SECTION 4. This ordinance shall take effect on the fifth business day after adoption, unless otherwise provided pursuant to Section 4.03(d) of the City Charter of the City of Pensacola.

[newfie11]

17. It seems compassion for the less fortunate is overshadowed by fear.

Fear that they might not get a job, fear they are lazy moochers, just throw away folks!
In reality these folks would love to have a life, a home and money.

Many are mentally challenged and in this day and age many are unable to find work.

Yes this is what Reagan started and look how it's improved this country
We have become a heartless lot. No blankets for the poor slobs, off the streets as we don't want to be reminded of you, no shanty town made of boxes as this is America!
Sorry I'm done with my rant now!

[FrodosPet]

25. No one should be homeless

Almost no one would choose to live that way. And the tiny number who do obviously have a serious mental health issue, and should be in a hospital or controlled group home situation, with their movements controlled.

We need to reopen the mental hospitals and close the jails! Granted, once upon a time mental hospitals were even more barbaric and confining, than jails, but with sufficient funding, top level pay, strong regulation, and well publicized, frequent, and harsh prosecutions of abusive employees, they can be more humane than they were in the bad old days of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

[bemildred]

18. Blankets are free speech. nt

[IrishAyes]

23. 60 Minutes had a nice story on tonight about a city where they've figured out

that it actually costs taxpayers less to simply give the homeless decent furnished apartments than it does to have them dropping dead on the street. The matter of cost is not foremost to many of the people running the program, but they can cite that as a fact. Should appeal to the GOP's head if not their heart. What the hell, they have neither and never will.

[steve2470]

24. I hope these idiots get deluged with complaints nt

[No Vested Interest]

26. How about making Joe Scarborough aware of this defenseless ordinance?

That's his home turf and the area he represented in Congress.
He must know whose strings should be pulled.