How an open-container violation
led to a homeless man's death
Charlie Shafer died after he was hit by an Orange County deputy's patrol car -- just minutes after he was released from the Orange County Jail.
Shafer, a 56-year-old homeless man, was crossing John Young Parkway about 3:17 a.m. when the deputy pulled out of the jail parking lot and accidentally ran him over. He died at a hospital.
Shafer had been arrested last year on a
open-container violation. He was sentenced to two days in jail and fined $230. He didn't (couldn't?) pay the fine, so a writ of bodily attachment was issued and he was arrested again. He was hit by the deputy's car as he left the jail.
Court records show an amount due of $282, including a $20 charge for the writ.
Read the
Orlando Sentinel report
here.
Americans stand firm
behind government-paid legal aid programs
Americans overwhelmingly back the provision of legal services for those facing serious legal and financial problems who could not hire a lawyer.
More than two-thirds (68%) say it's extremely or very important that Americans have access to legal resources and advice when they are in crisis, according to a survey commissioned by the
American Bar Association.
Americans also strongly support the existence of, and federal funding for, legal assistance. Eighty-eight percent agreed that it is essential that a non-profit provider of legal services is available to assist those who could not otherwise afford legal help. Two-thirds support federal funding to help Americans who need that assistance.
“For many Americans, their financial problems are becoming legal problems,” noted ABA President H. Thomas Wells, Jr. “In many circumstances, legal assistance can prevent families and individuals from going into a financial free-fall that could lead to homelessness, bankruptcy or dropping out of school.”
Read a one-page summary of the results
here and the full study
here.
Teen charged with killing homeless man in Orlando
Murder victim Ora James Light, 51, a homeless man, worked odd jobs for a living. Police said he was homeless by choice.
"Everybody that met him said he was the nicest person you've ever met. He would give them the shirt off his back, he wouldn't confront anybody," a detective said.
The policy here is to publish photos of the homeless victims, not the people who attack them.Orlando police have arrested an 18-year-old in the killing of a homeless man found on an embankment beneath Interstate 4.
Tyler A. Sturdivant faces first-degree-murder and attempted-robbery charges in the death of Ora James Light, 51, a homeless man, Sgt. Barbara Jones said. Light was found dead along South Orange Blossom Trail at about 1:45 a.m. Monday. He had been stabbed in the neck.
Sturdivant admitted to the stabbing but told detectives it was self-defense.
Read the
Orlando Sentinel report
here. And see previous post
here.
The first state to protect the homeless
from hate crimes is ...
Maryland is on track to become the first state to protect the homeless in hate crime statutes.
The state legislature this week approved adding extra penalties for violent crimes against victims singled out because of gender, disability or because the person is homeless.
Read the NewsChannel8 report
here. And read the bill
here.
I hope it's not somebody I know
You didn't have to be close to the body to see blood splattered on the concrete.A body was found this morning on the concrete embankment under Interstate 4 at Orange Blossom Trail.
The man's identify has not been released.
So I'm worrying about Charlie and Bruce and Frank and all the other men
I know who live on the streets of O-town.
The
Orlando Sentinel has a
little info, but not much yet.
Grading Obama for his work on poverty
This week, President Obama
earned a D for his work on poverty, says
clevelandhomeless.
The blog has been grading the Administration on its attempts to fight poverty. For the first eight weeks, the Obama Administration has averaged a solid C in fighting poverty.
Most of the low grades come from a lack of attention to the issues of poverty and homelessness, not from doing something that hurts the cause. And, yeah, Obama does have a lot of balls in the air.
New poverty measure? Maybe later
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama
endorsed the idea of updating the federal poverty measure, which just about everybody considers
out of date and close to useless. Now that he’s the president and dealing with an economic meltdown, though, his White House team is a lot less enthusiastic about the idea.
In a
Webcast interview with Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden’s economic adviser, tried to play down expectations that Obama might push for a change this year. His basic message was, it’s a great idea, but we’ve really got a lot on our plate right now.
Read more at CQPolitics
here. And see previous posts
here,
here and
here.
Gainesville wonders: What should be the rules
for feeding homeless?
Many laws in Gainesville regulate how and where the homeless and destitute may be fed and sheltered, but those laws have been uniformly ignored for many years -- until now.
Some proposed changes to how those laws govern places of religious assembly will come back before the City Commission, including a recommended end to the no-feed zone around the University of Florida campus and placing no limits on the number of lunches that can be served in single-family neighborhoods
Commissioners also directed staff to analyze meal limits that were enforced for the first time on the
St. Francis House homeless shelter and soup kitchen, when the agency attempted to renew its permit as a nonreligious organization.
"Basically what this has done now is create a feeding frenzy," said Kent Vann, executive director of the shelter, which now serves exactly 130 meals per day. "Now everybody knows we're going to close that door, so they are all showing up early."
Read the
Gainesville Sun article
here.
Panhandling is protected by the Constitution,
another judge rules
A
panhandling ordinance that prohibits solicitation of money at intersections and other locations is unconstitutional, an Oregon judge has ruled.
The judge found that the city of Medford's ordinance violated the
Oregon Constitution, which prohibits passing any law restricting freedom of speech.
"I think it's important for government officials to understand that they cannot prohibit expression because they find it offensive," said David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. One of the ACLU's members filed the
lawsuit.
The city will decide whether to rewrite the law to bring it in line with the judge's ruling or appeal the decision, said Police Chief Randy Schoen. In the meantime, officers already have been told to stop citing panhandlers in light of the judge's ruling.
"We're disappointed," said Schoen. "We were looking out for the majority of folks impacted by this."
Medford created the ordinance in January 2008 after receiving complaints from citizens about panhandlers at intersections and at freeway off-ramps. The police chief said Medford's efforts to ban panhandling received overwhelming support from citizens worried about safety concerns at intersections.
The judge did uphold a portion of the ordinance that prohibits aggressive panhandling, which the ACLU didn't oppose.
Read the
Mail Tribune report
here.
Housing for homeless alcoholics
saved taxpayers $4 million
Providing housing to homeless alcoholics, regardless of their sobriety status, reduces health-care use and costs, U.S. researchers report.
They evaluated a type of program called
Housing First, which removes the usual housing for homeless requirements of sobriety and mandatory attendance to alcohol treatment programs.
In the year before the study, the 95 housed participants had median costs of $4,066 per month per person for services and legal costs such as shelter and sobering-center use, hospital-based medical services, publicly funded alcohol and drug detoxification and treatment, emergency medical services, Medicaid-funded services, jail bookings and days in jail. The total cost for all 95 participants over one year was $8,175,922.
After entering the program, the per person costs per month declined to $1,492 after six months and $958 after one year. The total cost for all 95 participants for one year was $4,094,291, a reduction of more than $4 million.
Read the
U.S. News & World Report article
here.
Food stamp benefits increase about $20 per person
More than 1.8 million Floridians will receive an increase in food stamps starting today as part of the federal economic stimulus.
Food stamp benefits will go up by about $20-$24 a person per month. All food stamp households will benefit.
In February, 1,863,588 Floridians received food stamps — 31% more than in February of 2008.
Read the
Bradenton Herald report
here.
