SPEAK OUT AGAINST PANHANDLING ORDINANCE

S.T.O.P.--Stop the Ordinance Partnership http://stop-orlando.org strongly encourages local concerned citizens and homeless advocates to attend tomorrow's (Mon., Sept. 17) Orlando City Council meeting, which starts at 2 p.m., to speak out against the City's new panhandling ordinance. This measure bans panhandling anywhere within the City limits "after sunset or before sunrise." It is being justified by exaggerated claims about "aggressive panhandling." What it really does is give the Dyer administration and the Orlando police another tool which they can use to harass and punish homeless people by further making their status as homeless people a crime. It sends the homeless the message that they are not welcome in Orlando. It stigmatizes the homeless and marginalizes them, which encourages people to see them as less than equals, as people who are inferior and socially unacceptable and undeserving of respect and dignity. This in turn will lead to further instances of violence against the homeless (a real problem throughout Florida including Orlando).

This measure attacks a symptom of homelessness rather than the problem's roots causes--low wage jobs, not enough affordable housing for working poor people, the lack of a homeless drop-in center (where they could get services), the chronic shortage of shelter beds in Central Florida (2,000 for a homeless population estimated at 9,000), a shortage of mental health and substance abuse treatment programs for the homeless, etc. It also represents another black eye for the City of Orlando since it shows that Orlando--at least its politicians, its civic elite and the developers and business interests they represent--lacks compassion for the least among us and would rather push them aside than provide the sort of substantive assistance they need to become self-supporting and domiciled. This ordinance is authoritarian to its core--it criminalizes free speech (asking for alms or charity) and takes away the autonomy of the homeless to survive as best they can without breaking the law since giving money to a panhandler is totally consensual; this ordinance seeks to change that by interfering with interactions between panhandlers and the panhandled and seeks to make an act of compassion--giving spare change--into a socially unacceptable act, which is wrong. Finally this ordinance shows that while Orlando may aspire to be a "world-class city" (one of the rationales for spending more than $1 billion on the three venues), it's really a small town at heart that wants its downtown to resemble main street at Disney World rather than the urban corridors one finds in real cities, teeming with people from all walks of life.

Enforcement of this ordinance will require the use of scarce police resources that could be better used to deal with an ever-increasing violent crime rate in Orlando and will not result in any improvement in the quality of life for residents or visitors in downtown Orlando. It will not even probably noticably reduce the level of panhandling downtown since laws designed to prohibit certain behaviors have a dismal track record of compliance (drug laws and America's failed experiement with the prohibition of alcohol are two good examples). Undoubtedly, many of the homeless people arrested and convicted for violating this ordinance will serve a few weeks to two months in the county jail, using taxpayers' money to incarcerate non-violent offenders who pose no threat to society. Those arrested will undoubtedly accumulate fines (and penalties for not paying them) that will pose another barrier to their ability to reintegrate into the mainstream of society.

Speaking against this ordinance is not going to change the outcome of the second vote (only one commissioner, Robert Stuart [to his credit] voted against this measure at first reading). However, it's still important that our voices be heard. The City Council and Mayor Dyer need to know that they're actions are being monitored by citizens who believe that respect and compassion for the homeless and respect for civil liberties and finding real solutions--ones that are humane, effective, and constitutional--to the problems of homelessness in our community are important.

Pleas be warned that speaking out against this ordinance will require some patience since it will require sitting first sitting through many other items on the Council agenda. It may not come up for discussion, citizen input and a vote until at least some time between 3-4 p.m.

The ordinance (which is described as "An ordinance amending Chapter 43 of the City Code - Section 43.86(5) and Section 43.87(2)(c). Time of Panhandling") is the LAST item on the agenda (under the heading Ordinances/2nd Read). It comes after the Opening (which includes the invocation, Pledge of Allegiance, etc.); awards presentations; Mayor's Update (which has items A-L); Hearings/Ordinances/2nd Read; and Ordinances/1st Read.

For more information, e-mail stop-orlando@stop-orlando.org or call 407.252.1379.