Homeless man defends church against burglar
A homeless man became an unlikely hero — and victim — by confronting a man who broke into the storage shed of a Boynton Beach church.
Dave Wilbur has been living at the church property, said the Rev. Renwick Bell. Wilbur was beaten — police said it was a metal broom handle, but Bell thinks it was a shovel -- and suffered cuts on his arm but didn't require stitches.
Willie Jamison, 23, of Boynton Beach, broke into the shed some time before 3 a.m. at the MCC Church of Our Savior, when he was confronted by a residential challenged individual who objected to the church being victimized," a Boynton Beach Police briefing log said.
Jamison "was a fellow who has come by the church on many occasions," Bell said. "We've fed him and given him money."
Read the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel report
here.
A city provides space for food-sharing
(no, no, it's not Orlando)
Marina McKinley, 14, and her mother Lori distribute clothes as part of the weekly One Meal food-sharing for the homeless in downtown Mobile.Concern for the well-being of their homeless clients in the wake of Mobile's new citywide ban on panhandling had the people behind One Meal
thinking about stopping, but an agreement with the city will allow the weekly meal to continue in a new location.
The weekly Sunday meal will be served in a vacant city-owned building just north of downtown.
One Meal started in spring of 2009 after Marina McKinley attended a gumbo cook-off and told her father about her concern for the homeless people she had seen looking for food at the park.
From that concern, One Meal came to be.
The McKinleys have fed meals to the homeless every Sunday since at
Bienville Square, a historic city park in the center of downtown Mobile.
Read the
Mobile Press-Register report
here.
More on the Orlando food fight
Abstract Appeal (back after a hiatus) takes a look at the 11th Circuit's decisions in the Orlando food-sharing lawsuit. Read the post
here.
I sure hope she's right!
The legal fight over
Orlando's food-sharing ordinance got the spotlight recently over at the Constitutional Law Prof Blog.
In a vigorous dissent from the 2-1
ruling in favor of the city,
Judge Rosemary Barkett argued that
Orlando Food Not Bombs' distribution of free food to hungry and homeless persons in a downtown park constitutes expressive conduct entitled to First Amendment protection
A majority of the Eleventh Circuit judges have voted to grant en banc review, indicating that Judge Barkett's views will be seriously entertained by the full court, Professor Ruthann Robson wrote.
I sure hope she's right about that.
Check out the
post at Constitutional Law Prof Blog.
Released from jail at night,
homeless man killed by hit-and-run driver
Dominic Amodeo was killed less than an hour after he was released from jail.
A vehicle theft charge against Amodeo was set to be dropped upon the completion of a pre-trial intervention.
"This was his first brush with the law of any significance," said Norma Wendt, his public defender. "And all I can say is, wow."Less than an hour after he got out of jail, a homeless man was killed when he was hit by a car.
Dominic Amodeo, 22, was released from the St. Johns County Jail at 9:10 p.m. and apparently had no choice but to walk toward town along the side of a dark road where there are no sidewalks.
A judge had ordered his released nine hours earlier. Jail officials said the nine-hour wait wasn't unusual.
Charges are pending against woman who was delivering pizza.
Inmates released from state prison are given a bus ticket and $100. People released from county jails get nothing.
Read the
St. Augustine Record reports
here,
here and
here.
Something very much like this -- a late-night release from jail and a deadly car crash --
happened in Orlando last year.
Caught on video: teens attack homeless man
Three high school students are expected to be charged with an attack on a homeless man in Huntington, West Virginia. Police were alerted to the crime after a video of the incident was posted on Facebook.
"It's shocking and it's sad," said Lt. John Williams. "Individuals just target an individual they possibly feel is lower in society or they don't have regard for and just carry out an attack to make themselves feel better."
The video shows two boys, ages 14 and 17, kicking and punching the man, while they and others laugh and joke about the incident.
One the video was posted to the popular social website, friends who had received the video started reporting what happened to police. Williams has seen the video and says the evidence is crystal clear.
Police plan to charge one of the teens with malicious wounding, which is a felony, one will be charged with battery, and the 14-year-old girl who filmed the attack will be charged as an accessory.
Read the
West Virginia MetroNews report
here.
Lakeland targets homeless with new camping law
-- but says the city isn't criminalizing homelessness
Lakeland has a
new ordinance on the books that bans unauthorized camping in the city limits. It’s aimed at the homeless.
The City Commission voted unanimously to approve the ordinance, which prohibits homeless people from sleeping on the street or in parks. It takes effect immediately.
Mayor Gow Fields said the city hears the fears of the homeless who are worried they'll now be taken to jail by police enforcing the ordinance, but he said that's not the purpose of the new rule.
"It is not our intent to round up every person that we believe to be homeless and take them off to jail. That is not our intent. That is not the intent of this ordinance," Fields said.
Lakeland police also say they don't expect to flood the county jail with homeless people in violation of the ordinance. Deputy Chief Bill LePere said violating the new ordinance is a misdemeanor, and "it is not the city's desire to criminalize homelessness."
Read
The Ledger report
here.
Mayor, what
is the intent of the ordinance? The obvious intent of this law is to get the homeless off the streets. If they don't, they go to jail. It's as simple as that. Why do one thing and say another?
Pinellas Hope adds apartments
to its community of tents and sheds
Pinellas Hope II offers 80 new permanent efficiency apartments, in addition to its 250 tents.Pinellas Hope, which already houses more than 250 people in temporary tents and small wooden sheds, has opened 80 new permanent efficiency apartments.
The newest addition, called Pinellas Hope II, cost about $4 million. Pinellas County, as well as the cities of St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Largo, contributed $1 million for construction. The remaining $3 million came from a state housing grant.
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster said the city is fully committed to supporting Pinellas Hope financially.
"The city of St. Petersburg has the largest homeless population of any city in the county and we need Pinellas Hope to assist us in helping people get off the streets," Foster said.
The efficiency apartments will be open to anyone in the county on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants must meet low-income requirements and be able to pay rent.
Pinellas Hope opened about three years ago as a temporary camp for the homeless. And in that time it has served about 2,300 people and has a 55% success rate (based on the number of former residents now living self-sufficiently or with family).
Pinellas Hope II plans to begin accepting applications next month.
Read the
Tampa Tribune report
here.
Shelter to stop serving evening meals,
so advocates will offer dinner downtown
St. Augustine's only homeless shelter plans to stop serving hot evening meals to the public after Oct. 1.
To fill that void, a coalition of groups is planning to serve evening meals to homeless and needy people downtown.
Mary Lawrence of
People United to Stop Homelessness said, "We're prepared to take up the slack. We're already gearing up."
John Benoit, vice president of the St. Augustine Society, said
St. Francis House cannot afford to continue serving dinners now or in the future at its proposed new location on Old Moultrie Road.
"There's pressure to end (evening) feeding to the public entirely," Benoit said. "That's appropriate and makes sense as a compromise with our opposition at the new site."
St. Francis House board members don't want homeless men camping near its Old Moultrie Road site at night, waiting for dinner. Those camps could heighten fears at St. Gerard House, a high school, day care and foster care facility for young, unwed mothers and their babies.
Read the
St. Augustine Record article
here.
