What Should Fort Lauderdale Do for the Homeless?

By Leslie Minora Mon., Jan. 24 2011 at 6:33 AM

Stranahan Park

Have you walked through Stranahan Park lately -- or ever? It's a nice place. But with throngs of homeless people living there, it's also a reminder that Broward County has a significant problem: About a quarter of the 3,225 homeless people in the county did not have a bed at a shelter when the last analysis took place in 2009, and officials expect an increase when updated data are released this year.

In this week's cover story, we addressed the issue of homelessness in Broward County and brought you inside the Homeless Voice shelter in Hollywood, an unconventional facility because it is privately funded and has much looser rules than government-funded shelters. The recession has increased the number of homeless people in our area, and the deluge on the current system is more than it can handle.

Stranahan Park has become an unavoidable talking point when this issue of homelessness is addressed in Fort Lauderdale. Downtown businesses complain about the presence of homeless people there while charities provide meals in the park, giving people reason to stay. To ease the problem, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler is working to establish two feeding centers, one north of the New River and one south. This project was covered last week in the Sun-Sentinel, and it has been an ongoing discussion among city officials for years. Each time a location is proposed, the neighborhood opposes the measure.

New Times caught up with homeless advocate Laura Hansen of the Broward County Coalition to End Homelessness to hear her perspective on the issue.

What does your organization provide?
On a community level, we do education, we do advocacy, we work with the representatives and the senators in Florida and in D.C. to try and create awareness for the issue and what might be a better way of handling the issue.

Give us an o

Tags:

fort lauderdale, Homeless, Stranahan Park

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Ms. Hire_Me

I moved to Fort Lauderdale with the inclination of finding work quickly and found it challenging even with a college degree and ten years of work experience in professional settings from that of being a middle school teacher to an office manager. Nothing has panned through for me. I currently live out of my truck with only foodstamps to sustain me. With no money for gas I am stuck and considering suicide. Broward County is a hard place to start over without support networks in place to assist unless you are willing to go to NA and AA when you are not an addict or alcoholic. Even then there seems to be much more that can be done to help a struggling young woman get back on her feet.

Aaronshaw127

I'm not sure what part of Broward was covered but there are some points of interest that have been missed. You have those that frequent the Fort Lauderdale beach, those that crowd the bus terminal, those that parade around downtown searching aimlessly for clues as to how to better themselves and not be homeless. This is a big issue as for the county due to the fact that much about homelessness is still uncertain. Especially where to look when trying to put a handle on the problem. Homelessness is every where!

lifelongyankfan

The word "data" is plural. It's Latin, as are bacterium/bacteria, stratum/strata, memorandum/memoranda, medium/media, etc. You know "data" is plural because a database full of data doesn't have just one thing in it.

Leslie M

All better.

ftl

What about the guys begging sitting on the bus bench just south of broward blvd, on andrews ave?

every dog gone day, there are 'homeless' walking thru the parked cars begging.

do you think our visitors and tourist will want to come back after that?

Googoo

"New Times caught up with homeless advocate Laura Hansen of the Broward County Coalition to End Homelessness to hear her perspective on the issue.

What does your organization provide? On a community level, we do education, we do advocacy, we work with the representatives and the senators in Florida and in DC to try and create awareness for the issue and what might be a better way of handling the issue."

Here above is precisely what much of the public finds problematic about homelessness - there is no emphasis on curing those who are homeless due to addiction problems, but there is a great emphasis on "gov't level advocacy", which I think is another way to say "lobbying" & "give us money". Not sure how much money Ms. Hansen's group collects & is budgeted annually, but it must be substantial if they go all the way to DC in the name of "advocacy". Money much better used to treat & cure the root causes of homelessness, vs maintenance of the status quo.

Most people are very sympathetic, compassionate & generous, even in tough economic times as these. However, most do not find the homeless they encounter as "unthreatening" & they do not want to "socialize" with them in public parks.

KennyPowersSays

Be advised it is a total waste of resources for "good intentioned" citizens to call 911 because they see a homeless person sleeping in the park. They are not dead. They are homeless. That is the most costly method of getting them out of your offended sight. Do something constructive if you feel the need.

Sir Jeremiah Kennedy

You would thing the Church would find money to shelter them. With all the empty buildings the city should buy or rent one and make a shelter. The City is hoping the economy will get better and will go away. It wont. The Mayor is at fault so is each church in broward county. Sir Jeremiah Kennedy