Thursday, November 09, 2006

Sarasota homeless ordinance
ruled constitutional

A Sarasota ordinance that prohibits sleeping in public places is constitutional, a judge has ruled.

Bradenton passed a nearly identical ordinance in August. See previous post here.

The measure was meant to allow officials to steer homeless people who sleep in public spaces to services, city officials say, by giving them the option to go to a shelter or face jail time. But check out the numbers: so far this year, police have responded to 132 complaints, arrested 124 people and transported 14 homeless people to shelters.

The ordinance offers a fair notice of what conduct is forbidden and does not penalize innocent conduct, the judge ruled.

Chris Cosden, the attorney who argued against the ordinance, said he will appeal the ruling.

Read the Sarasota Herald-Tribune story here.

1 Comments:

At 7:24 AM, Anonymous Ronald said...

This cannot really work, I feel so.
here

 

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