According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in February of 2010, the number of homeless living in shelters in the suburbs increased from 23% to 32% (Sanders, Adam).
With the increase in homelessness and poverty it brings more need for donations to shelters, for clothing and food but in July of 2006 The City of Orlando passed a law which made it illegal for any group to distribute food to homeless citizens in public parks and anyone who wants to give food to groups larger than twenty-five people in parks within two miles have to get a permit.
The permits will come from the parks department and will only be handed out to each group twice a year. Now, not only are the homeless in need of food but now by law groups can’t give away food (Orlando: Please Do Not Feed the Homeless).
Even though now that this “do not feed the homeless” law has passed and it makes it harder for the homeless to get food from non-profit groups, it could be for a good purpose.
The law came about from business owners in the Downtown Orlando area who complained that the homeless people who gathered for weekly meals in the nearby Lake Eola Park caused sanitary and safety problems for their businesses (The Associated Press).
Downtown Orlando is attempting to attract many tourist and locals looking for a prime place to hang out and go to have nice dinners/lunches and the sad truth is that when large groups of homeless people gather in the same area that the nice businesses are turns away customers which inevitably will cause issues.
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This law doesn’t mean that the homeless won’t get fed but it just means that it will be harder for the homeless to get to the food that is being given out. The law states that to use a park for the purposes of giving out food to the homeless you must have a permit and these permits are only given to each group for each park twice a year which will force the groups to go to different parks (Schlueb, Mark. Judge).
This will keep the number of homeless people from sleeping on the same benches and washing their clothes in the same restrooms constantly and give the joggers and dog walkers of the parks their privacy as well.
But what about the charitable organizations, where do they stand in all of this? In 2008 The American Civil Liberties of Florida won the case of First Vagabonds Church of God vs. City of Orlando. This case was based on the fact that the church felt like government was going against their constitutional rights to free speech, free assembly, free association and freedom of religion so they took it to court. The judge stated: Rather than address the problem of homelessness in these downtown neighborhoods directly, the City has instead decided to limit the expressive activity which attracts the homeless to these neighborhoods…
Although some incidental restrictions on First Amendment freedoms must be tolerated, the Court concludes that the restriction here goes too far. This case ended with the judge saying that the groups should be allowed to do what they want through their religious groups (Federal Judge Strikes Down Orlando).
Even though in 2011 it was voted unanimously by federal court that by not feeding the homeless in parks didn’t go against any constitutional rights (Schlueb, Mark. Appeals).
In my opinion it does have a feel of going against the right of assembly. Why shouldn’t people be allowed to gather in a public area?
