They do require more than a once in a while feeding. Yet many of these groups have been feeding the poor on a daily/weekly basis since the 90's. I would never get behind any ordinance that makes it illegal to give someone that is hungry something to eat.
It also doesn't escape my notice that many of these cities are doing everything they can to get them to leave, not to fix any underlying issues. The idea being, lets make it VERY difficult to be homeless in (insert city here). What they need to do is build, staff and maintain proper facilities to provide treatment, rehabilitation, and education to help these individuals get back on their feet and become contributing members of society again, or at least be treated for the issues that put them on the street in the first place.
If you become homeless tonight in Ft Lauderdale there is no place open that will take you.
1. You must call 211 and they will direct you to wait at 2:30pm at a designated spot and a bus will take you to a shelter. If you have a job this of course will be a problem because you are at work at 2:30PM.
2. Lets say you decide to skip work and get the bus. The bus will take you to one of three places. The first may be salvation Army and you will wait in a long line and if they have a spot you will get a cot in a non-air-conditioned open area with 45 other people. You will be let out at 5am without a shower or breakfast. if you have a job or are looking for a job you will show up to work or try to get work and you stink. Oh and you have to figure out how to get to this job.... on foot.
3. You may be shipped out to Hollywood or Pompano for a temporary stay and there is no guarantee you will get in and so you could get stranded off MLK blvd. Most do not want to chance that kind of help because taking them out of their familiar area is not desirable especially if they have physical or mental problems or are elderly or women.
Again, not good if you have a job or are looking for a job.
So after a few days and nights of no AC, walking the streets and no showers you become one of the chronically homeless.
But lets say you actually get into a shelter!!! WOOOHOOO!!! Oh wait....
Its for three days only and this process starts all over again the next day. Securing a roof over your head and looking for food ends up taking a good part of the day and pretty much eliminates job seeking or job keeping.
Ft. Lauderdale is not the only city to embrace new ordinances that criminalize people for being homeless. Scores of cities, including Columbia, Palo Alto, Miami, Raleigh, Tampa, Harrisburg, and others have enacted measures that render homeless people, simply trying to survive, as criminals.