Lawsuit filed for homeless
Fort Lauderdale destroyed their belongings in raid, complaint claims
Sixteen men and women who were living in a homeless encampment in downtown Fort Lauderdale are named plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit accusing the city of violating their constitutional rights by seizing and destroying their personal belongings after a surprise raid on May 19.
The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Southern Legal Counsel, seeks a jury trial, dam- ages and an injunction preventing the city from confiscating and destroying personal property without due process.
City spokesman Chaz Adams denies the city threw away personal belongings at Stranahan Park, visible to all on Broward Boulevard, between Andrews and Southeast First avenues. He said only items left unattended and identified as garbage by the homeless were destroyed.
“With practically no warning, these individuals had their personal belongings — in some cases everything they owned except literally the clothes on their backs — destroyed,” said ACLU attorney Jacqueline Azis.
“Some of what our clients lost in the city’s raid include work clothes, identifications, bicycles and medicines. These items were what little foothold they had to create a better life,
and now they’re gone.”
The city conducted the raid in response to a complaint about unsanitary conditions from the Department of Health. But as the Sun Sentinel reported, records show Fort Lauderdale told on itself, complaining to the state health agency that “there are a number of rats running around.”
The city then stunned about 60 homeless people by rumbling into the downtown camp with front-end loaders, surrounding the park with orange, plastic fencing and closing it for a rodent extermination.
“I came back from church and stood there in tears, my eyes popping, when I saw what happened,” said Nancy Howells Grant, 73, a former Dania Beach antiques dealer and one of the plaintiffs.
“I had boxes, all neatly packed, of clothing, paintings, a laptop, jewelry, all gone,” said Grant, who has been homeless for about two years.
About 30 of those rousted from the area accepted the city’s offer of a free week in a motel. But when that week was up, most of those who went to the Rodeway Inn in Fort Lauderdale had returned to downtown, and with others recreated the encampment just south of the park on a plaza in front of the library.
As the raid began, the men and women who had been staying in the area were given only a few minutes to put personal belongings into blue bins fromwhich property could be reclaimed later, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit alleges that the city ignored its own ordinances regarding outdoor storage on public property while violating constitutional protections against unreasonable seizures of personal property.
The city has made numerous attempts in recent years to discourage openair camping at Stranahan Park. But advocates for the homeless have been quick to react, alleging civil rights violations.
At a City Commission meeting Tuesday, Mayor Jack Seiler defended the sweep of the park. “I haven’t received a negative comment from a single member of the business community, or a single homeowner association or civic association,” he said.
He said the city should make sure that when Stranahan Park reopens, no one is allowed to store belongings there and leave them unattended.
Commissioner Dean Trantalis is the only official who has publicly complained. He expressed dismay Tuesday that the city will have to spend “tens of thousands” fending off the lawsuit while and attractingmore negative publicity for a citywhose reputation has already been battered over its handling of homeless issues.
“If we took the tens of thousands and took care of the people sitting there,” Trantalis said, “we wouldn’t have that problem.”
According to the complaint, the “city indiscriminately destroyed personal property that it knew belonged to homeless individuals.”
Anthony Stone, for example, lost “all that he had — four bags of clothes, mail, family photos, his grandmother’s jewelry and his reading glasses,” the suit says.
Azis said she hopes the lawsuit will serve as a catalyst for change. “I hope all the publicity will emphasize how critically important it is for the city to take a real look at solutions,” Azis said.