Fort Lauderdale Mayor Defends Homeless Feeding Restrictions: ‘It’s the Right Thing to Do’
Homeless advocate Arnold Abbott, 90, of the nonprofit group Love Thy Neighbor Inc., left, is fingerprinted by a Fort Lauderdale police officer on Nov. 5, 2014. Lynne Sladky / AP Photo
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But a 90-year-old World War II vet who recently attracted major media attention vows to continue to fight the city’s ordinance in court.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler defended his city’s controversial homeless feeding and housing ordinance against alleged “distortions” in a recent interview, describing the rules as “a quality of life issue,” and “the right thing to do.”
“It was so interesting talking to some of the national media,” Seiler said in an interview with the Tripp Scott law firm that was posted online Thursday . “Once I explained the ordinance and actually went through it with them, they were like, ‘Wow, this is common sense. This is reasonable.’”
The South Florida city’s approach to homelessness was the subject of intense national and international media scrutiny in November when 90-year-old World War II veteran Arnold Abbott was detained by police after organizing an outdoor feeding event .
Fort Lauderdale’s homeless ordinance places restrictions on outdoor feedings and makes it illegal for the homeless themselves to maintain property or live in outdoor public spaces. Violating the ordinance comes with the threat of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
On Wednesday, Abbott appeared in a South Florida courtroom and said he was prepared to fight the city over its ordinance. “I assured the city the only way we are going to resolve this is through the court system and it’s begun and I’m prepared to go all the way through," he said, according to NBC Miami. In 1999, Abbott successfully sued the city over a similar restriction that blocked homeless feedings on public beaches.
However, Seiler vigorously defended his city’s approach to aiding the homeless, saying that the city’s ordinance has actually increased the number of feeding locations and strengthened what he called “progressive” outreach programs aimed to help the homeless.
“One issue over a feeding on one block, rather than another block, has somehow tried to distort the city’s position on this,” Seiler said in reference to news coverage of Abbott.
“It’s a quality of life issue—for everybody, including the homeless,” he continued. “There’s a quality of life issue when you suddenly overwhelm one block, one park, one area. It’s not sanitary. You have issues in terms of trying to maintain it, trying to keep it clean. So, the outdoor feedings are regulated in a very reasonable way.”
Seiler, a Democrat and former four-term member of Congress, was the target of intense criticism after video of police detaining Abbott went viral.
In interviews about the incident, the mayor initially struck a harsh tone, telling a local ABC affiliate: “We enforce the laws here in Fort Lauderdale.”
Seiler has enjoyed broad popularity during his first two terms as mayor, winning his 2012 re-election campaign with more than 75 percent of the vote . However, the Abbott story and the city’s homelessness policies put Seiler on the defensive.
Striking a more compassionate tone in his Tripp Scott interview, Seiler said the criticism was unwarranted, noting that Fort Lauderdale has two full-time police officers exclusively working on homelessness issues and that the city has formed homeless outreach initiatives with several national organizations including the American Red Cross and the United Way. He said that more than 50 religious organizations provide feedings to Fort Lauderdale’s homeless population every day of the week.
“The most interesting thing about this whole debate has been the experts from Miami who have come up here and said, ‘Fort Lauderdale’s doing the right thing, you shouldn’t have outdoor feedings, you should have indoor feedings, it’s more safe, it’s more secure, it’s more sanitary, it’s healthier’” he said in the interview. “’And, in fact, it’s the right thing to do.’”