Police have brought charges against a homeless man in Maine who helped himself to an outdoor electrical outlet to charge a pair of cellphones.
A Bangor police officer checking downtown businesses discovered 23-year-old Shaun Fawster charging his cellphones in an outlet hidden behind some flowers.
Pensacola priest to protest Orlando’s homeless-feeding rule
An Orthodox priest from Pensacola is coming to Orlando to lead a demonstration in support of a group that has faced legal trouble for feeding the homeless in Orlando’s Lake Eola Park.
“The criminalization of public service to the poor is to criminalize poverty itself,” said the Rev. Nathan Monk. “The continued efforts of the City of Orlando to prevent distribution of food to the poor is a violation of the constitution at its highest form. To prevent one human from reaching out to help another human in need is contrary to the decency we have all been taught from our youth.”
Monk, of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, has scheduled the protest for Saturday, July 9, at 4 p.m. at Lake Eola Park. He also plans to distribute a hot meal of bread loaves and fish to the people present.
Police have cleared out 11 homeless camps throughout Titusville in a push to remove people who are trespassing on private property.
Titusville Police Department and fire officials say the camps are a safety hazard, and a growing problem in the city, partly resulting from the increased unemployment.
Locations where the property owners didn't want the homeless camps removed were not disturbed, said Police Lt. Jeff King. People who lived in the homeless camps that were targeted received warning of trespassing before the camps were cleared, he said.
Of course, just clearing out camps doesn't solve the problem. There should have been some effort to connect the camp residents to housing and other needed services.
Advocates for homeless disrupt Rhode Island legislature
Advocates for the homeless disrupted the Rhode Island House of Representatives on Thursday to protest what they called devastating cuts to an affordable housing program.
Six people were escorted from the House chamber by Statehouse police after they refused to leave. The incident followed a protest by nearly 200 people in the Statehouse rotunda.
"We respect the law," said Jim Ryczek, director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless and one of the six ejected protesters. "But when social justice demands that someone break the rules ... we're willing to stand up for the rights and the needs of homeless people."
Read the Boston Globe report here and the Providence Phoenix report here.
A recent onslaught of city policies designed to drive the homeless from downtown has come to a head in Sarasota, with dozens of local activists chiding officials for what they called blatant discrimination against the city's poorest residents.
"Frankly, I'm ashamed that this agenda has focused so much on the elite, the rich and the powerful and punishing the poor and the powerless," said Richard Martin, director of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness. "This is an evening about restricting human rights."
Monday's agenda — which among other things included a measure to outlaw "peddlers and solicitors" from panhandling near the city's new parking meters — drew fiery and divisive debate between wealthy downtown condo owners and homeless advocates.
A Broward County judge gave a penniless mother a priceless gift this week: freedom.
Angel Smith, 41, had been arrested for leaving her two children in a hot car for two hours while she gave blood to earn money to feed them.
She was paid around $30 for giving blood, but when she left the center, cops were waiting.
A security guard at the blood donation clinic saw the children -- ages 4 and 7 -- alone in the car and called police, who arrested Smith on child neglect charges. The children had been left unattended for about two hours and were not harmed.
But Judge John Hurley said that life had given the desperate mother enough hard times.
She had $28 in the bank, was living out of a hotel and had just been laid off.
"I realize it's difficult for you, I'm not trying to be hard on you. I knew when I read this (affidavit), life is not easy for you," Hurley said before choking up and nearly crying on the bench. "I don't look at you as a criminal, all right, but at the same token, ma'am, you can't leave your children in the car, that length of time, unattended."
Smith was released from jail with no bond, but her charges currently still stand.
By month's end, St. Petersburg will begin enforcing a ordinance that bans sleeping or reclining on public sidewalks, and will take violators to jail or to Pinellas Safe Harbor.
Mayor Bill Foster said he has seen fewer homeless people downtown after he announced the crackdown.
Stricter enforcement is part of a broader tactical approach that Robert Marbut, a city consultant, calls "the velvet hammer." The premise is that until some of the homeless are forced by ordinance to leave city streets and parks for the confines of a shelter, they won't. Until some of the groups and agencies that organize public feedings are forced to stop, they won't. Absent tougher enforcement, the homeless population will persist.
The total number of people seeking shelter last year grew by more than 2%, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD assistant secretary Mercedes Marquez says it's surprising the numbers didn't go even higher. She credits a $1.5 billion program in the economic stimulus bill for helping hundreds of thousands of people avoid homelessness or quickly find new homes, with things such as rent subsidies.
Orlando police have arrested three more activists who violated the city's restrictions on sharing food with the homeless at Lake Eola Park.
The arrests included a Gainesville man who came to Orlando to be arrested as a way of protesting the city's controversial law.
Pat Fitzpatrick, 61, was arrested along with two local members of the group Orlando Food Not Bombs, Ashley Albinson, 24, and Palmer Harrell, 22. The three had just finished distributing pancakes, grits and potatoes to more than 35 people, most of them regulars at the twice-weekly food-sharings by Food Not Bombs.
Read the Orlando Sentinel report here and the Orlando Weekly report here.
A city loses patience and considers stricter rules for the homeless
A blue-ribbon committee on the homeless in Modesto, California, is talking about stricter rules for people living on the streets and the charities that help them.
The ideas include restrictions on feeding programs, using safety officers to patrol city parks and advising the public not to give money to panhandlers. The panel members also favor outreach programs focusing more resources on temporary and permanent housing for homeless people who want to change their lives.
These days, Modesto seems divided between people whose focus is helping the homeless and those who've lost patience with problems of loitering or public drunkenness. The panel seems to be talking about proposals more appealing to people in the second camp.
The committee could recommend that the city limit outdoor food programs to a single park, although it hasn't reached a consensus. City officials believe that food donations in parks contribute to loitering, litter and sanitation problems.
Community activist Robert Stanford said it seemed to be a ploy to move the homeless from downtown and he doubted the legality of such a restriction. "I don't understand how you could pass a law making it illegal to feed a hungry person," he said.*
Read the Modesto Bee report here. --------------- * Maybe he should talk to somebody in Orlando.
Anchorage Parks and Recreation's Community Work Service Program disposes of items left behind after sweep of homeless camps.
The outlaw campers left behind dirty blankets and a picture album. Beer cans and a Bible. All collected in growing piles along a wooded area east of downtown Anchorage by workers tasked with cleaning up and closing down some of the city's more notorious illegal campsites.
Officers looking to displace homeless squatters from parks and greenbelts had come through the makeshift campgrounds about two weeks earlier posting notices: Time to move.
The police sweep follows a legal battle over just how aggressive the city can be when it comes to closing what police call illegal campsites. A 2009 city law allowed police to toss out campers and throw away their belongings with as little as 12 hours notice. But a lawsuit brought by the ACLU argued that the short time frame violated individual property rights.
A judge struck down the law, and the Assembly in April approved new rules that say police must give the illegal campers 15 days to clear out, or as few as three if the city stores their stuff.
St. Augustine found a collaborative solution to the homeless feeding issue
Contrast what's going on in Orlando with St. Augustine's approach. A year ago, after seeing Orlando Food not Bombs' appeal fail, groups serving food to homeless and hungry people in the Plaza de Constitucion asked for and got a meeting with City Manager John Regan to avoid the legal expense, fear and confusion for our area's hungry.
This quickly ramped up to a partnership with Home Again St Johns, the county, the city, various agencies, St. Francis House, Second Harvest Food Bank, numerous restaurants, many churches, and the United Way to generate healthy dinners shared with our neighbors, seven nights a week, in a clean and dignified place, with tables and chairs.
Read the letter from Mary Lawrence, the co-founder of PUSH (People United to Stop Homelessness), here.
Homeless activist and lawyer jailed for six months for Sleeping Protest
Two men arrested during a lengthy homeless protest last year on the steps of Santa Cruz County Superior Court and City Hall have been sentenced to six months in county jail.
Homeless activist and attorney Ed Frey, 69, and Gary Johnson, 47, were "remanded into custody" directly from the courtroom.
The case began July 4, 2010, in what activists called Peace Camp 2010. Initially, a group of more than 50 began sleeping and holding signs and more on the courthouse steps. It lasted roughly three months, before sheriff's deputies began warning, ticketing and arresting protestors under a criminal misdemeanor law for unlawful lodging and the protest died.
The judge offered a sentence of community service and probation plus an agreement they don't camp at the courthouse. But the two men declined. Johnson said he could not abide by the probation directive to "abide by all laws," asking "How can I take probation to obey all laws, when you've defined 'sleeping' as lodging to the jury, making it a misdemeanor crime? How can I not sleep for six months during probation?"
Because the law targets sleeping in public for those who don't have a home, Frey had challenged its essence on constitutional, human rights and other grounds.
Read the San Jose Mercury News report here. For a lot more detail, check out Becky Johnson's post at One Woman Talking here.
The stabbing death of Paul Anthony Bowlin was captured on video by a Winston-Salem business.
The video shows Bowlin, 44, walking casually in front of the business. A man in a striped shirt runs up behind him. The victim turns at the last minute and holds his arms out to the side, in a manner as if he's asking something like "What's the matter?"
The atacker has a knife or some sharp object in his right hand. He doesn't break stride as he approaches the other man, punching him with his left hand, then making an uppercut motion with his right hand as the victim reels backward.
That's where the clip ends, as the two men reach a part of the parking lot that slopes down toward a creek. Bowlin's body was discovered by passers-by just before 6 a.m. at the bottom of the parking lot.
Derrick Bernard Watson, 40, has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon. He is being held in the Forsyth County Jail with no bond allowed.
Police arrest 5 more activists for feeding homeless
Orlando police arrested five more activists from behind a makeshift buffet table at Lake Eola Park on Wednesday evening, bringing to a dozen the number charged in the past week with violating city restrictions on feeding the homeless.
Read the Orlando Sentinel report here and the Orlando Weekly report here.
A poverty lawyer (and, by the way, law professor) comments on social justice issues, news and court decisions ... with a few other random thoughts thrown in here and there
Help support IDignity! People without photo ID have difficulty accessing the critical services and benefits that help move people off the streets and out of poverty. Help us eliminate the barriers that are forcing people to live on the streets. Make a donation that will help one person – or 10 – get the photo ID that will enable them to access critical, life-sustaining services.
This blawg is a exercise in journalism, not legal advice. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for the advice of a qualified attorney, obtained in an attorney-client relationship, with respect to any actual legal issue or dispute.
Nothing on this web site should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating an attorney-client relationship.
