The Fort Lauderdale City Commission is debating ways of providing shelter for the chronic homeless in response to a new state law, House Bill 1365, which prohibits people from sleeping in public. Options include tent encampments, paying motels for housing and spending $1.4 million to buy 40 “mini-houses.”
The homeless who are camping on public streets and who refuse assistance or treatment can ultimately be arrested under the new law, but Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has stated that “a day in the county jail costs taxpayers more than $200. Broward County jails are currently understaffed and underfunded. Telling residents that placing a homeless person in jail will allow them to receive mental health and substance abuse treatment is not reality-based.”
There’s another option: Broward County has dozens of sober living facilities that could easily accommodate the chronic homeless. These residences provide clean, safe group housing with meals and access to treatment for $250 per week. There’s just one sticking point: These residences have rules.
- Drugs and alcohol are strictly prohibited.
- Sobriety and good hygiene are required.
- There is a 10 p.m. curfew and no smoking on premises.
- Residents must have a job, or be actively seeking one.
Is it proper to force draconian rules those experiencing homelessness? (Disclaimer: I currently reside at a house with a strict code of conduct and the rules noted above. These are enforced by the iron-fisted director who lives on site: My wife.) The question remains: Should the homeless be forced to comply with strict rules that aren’t imposed on other residents of the city? Sociologists at U.C. Berkeley object to moralistic restrictions on the unhoused, but experience shows this mindset leads to an urban dystopia. Is there a legal right to live on the sidewalk or beach of downtown Fort Lauderdale? (That is, to sleep, drink, defecate and use drugs in public?) We know that at least 20% of the unhoused will reject structured housing and mental health treatment. For that subset, it’s preferable to clear $50 panhandling, buy smokes, beer and McDonalds, and sleep in Holiday or Hardy Park with no fear of arrest for vagrancy.
Recent history shows that homeless encampments without rules become filthy, violent, drug-ridden sites. This occurred in 1993 when Fort Lauderdale established an encampment for the homeless just west of Parker Playhouse in Holiday Park. That tent city debacle is a blueprint for what not to do. The residents were allowed to govern themselves, just like the children in “Lord of the Flies.” The results were all too predictable.
The new law doesn’t target those who seek help finding shelter. It allows arrest only after all other options have been exhausted. The Fort Lauderdale public camping problem will persist until the chronic offenders fear arrest.
Gerard S. Williams was a Broward prosecutor from 1991 through 2001 and has been a criminal defense attorney since then.