The city is trying to balance its tougher new laws that try to curb undesirable activities with programs designed to help the homeless.

Not a lot has changed since the city launched a crackdown on the homeless two years ago, following complaints from downtown businesses and visitors.

The homeless still panhandle at busy intersections, sleep downtown on public property, leave belongings unattended and relieve themselves outside when restrooms aren't available.


Until they have places to live, the issues aren't going to go away, said Michael Wright, who oversees the county's Homeless Initiative Partnership.

"No law or expansion of emergency shelters is going to reduce homelessness," Wright said. "Even if they're homeless in a shelter, they're still homeless. They need somewhere to go."

The city is trying to balance its tougher new laws that try to curb undesirable activities with programs designed to help the homeless. The initiatives include:

• The police department's homeless outreach unit made about 11,100 contacts during the first eight months of the year, connecting 6,100 individuals with access to housing, critical medical care and social services.

• The city is providing one-way bus tickets so the homeless can be reunited with family elsewhere in the country. In four years, the program has served 326 individuals and there is $25,000 to continue the program in the new city budget.

• Officials are coordinating a federally funded Housing First program that provides permanent housing and social services to individuals. The number of people being served by the program has doubled to about 40 over the past few years.

• A new program next year will help 50 additional homeless families with housing and support services, using a $500,000 state grant and a $100,000 city match.

The Housing First program, combined with others like it in the county, has helped reduce the number of county homeless by about 5 percent over the past year, Wright said.

In the meantime, police must balance the need to help homeless individuals who may suffer from mental illnesses with keeping public spaces available for everybody to enjoy.

"It really is a sensitive issue," Police Capt. Frank Sousa said. "Our goal, arrest is a last resort. Offering services is a priority."

The city is not enforcing the most controversial law that it passed, one that regulates outdoor feedings. The law was criticized for burdening those trying to feed the homeless by requiring permits, portable restrooms and limiting how close the feedings could be to homes.

The law was voluntarily suspended because of court challenges and a no-win public relations war with 92-year-old Arnold Abbott, whose Love Thy Neighbor group feeds the homeless on the city's beach and downtown.

Abbott was one of the first charged under the new law and he is challenging it based on Florida's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He claims the feedings are protected because they are outward religious expressions.

"I don't know any religion that doesn't say feed the poor," Abbott said.


Abbott's attorney, John David, said 11 citations were issued before the city stopped its enforcement and they may finally be moving toward resolution. He expects four Broward Circuit judges involved in the different cases to hold a joint hearing in the next month.

In September, Food Not Bombs, a group that each Friday shares food at Stranahan Park, lost its federal challenge, which was based on the First Amendment. U.S. District Judge William Zloch ruled the city wasn't stopping the group from gathering, only requiring that it follow the outlined procedures.

Commissioner Dean Trantalis said more programs are needed to help the homeless, not laws that punish them. He is advocating programs at the city and county level that would create daytime respite centers, mobile showers and evening sleep centers, among other items.

He opposed the outdoor feeding restrictions and said a more comprehensive approach is needed to produce lasting results.

"If the goal was to eliminate the homeless from Stranahan Park, nothing has changed," Trantalis said. "But to the extent we have been able to find permanent housing for some of the homeless, we have succeeded in incremental change in some part."