Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Official moves office to homeless camp
A Fort Lauderdale city commissioner moved his office to a homeless camp on Friday to draw attention to one of the city’s most nettlesome problems.
Businessmen and activists meeting with Commissioner Ben Sorensen sweated it out under a tent in front of the Main Library downtown. Behind them, the residents of the small tent city went about their daily routines.
The commissioner left his air-conditioned office in City Hall behind for a few days because he said he wanted to draw on as many minds as possible for solutions, and keep the homelessness problem “top of mind for me.”
Jesse Banner, a 66-year-old who lives in the tent directly behind Sorensen’s makeshift office, said he simply can’t afford rent in Broward County.
Asked what it’s like living in the encampment, he summed it up in one word: “Hell.”
In a county that stands out nationally for high rents and housing costs relative to salaries, Banner couldn’t make it with his $436 a month Social Security check, he said. He moved to the camp five months ago, saying that after spending 12 years in prison in his younger years, he thought living in a shelter would be worse than that.
The city and county continue to struggle with how to relocate homeless people from the prominent downtown property, and where to allow Good Samaritans to feed them. A year ago, the city surprised the camp’s inhabitants with front end loaders, dumping piles of personal belongings into the trash and pushing the tents closer to the library, to the county’s side of the property.
The city is being sued for it.
Sorensen held his usual office hours Friday, simply sending a map to what he called his “new satellite office” to those who had appointments. It directed them to the homeless camp, in the block south of Broward Boulevard and east of Andrews Avenue. He said he’ll be back Monday and Tuesday.
Sorensen, elected in March, is a founding member of Mission United, a United Way effort to reduce homelessness of military veterans.
As two businessmen sat waiting to speak to Sorensen, he asked Banner if he’d consider leaving the tent for a real home, if he had the opportunity. Banner said yes.
Activist Paul Chettle said he met with Sorensen at noon, then walked through the camp with him.
“He stopped at a couple of different tents and shook their hands,” Chettle said, “and if they wanted to speak to them he did.”
Sorensen invited pastors and United Way case workers to help connect people with help that’s available. He did it quietly, without alerting the media.
“I think he wants to bring better visibility to the situation,” said Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward Economic Development Alliance, noting that some people don’t realize “how critical the situation is.” Swindell’s nearby office gives him a bird’s-eye view of the camp, and he walked over.
Swindell said the business community has a renewed focus on getting people into permanent housing. In the coming days, he said, a new Broward Business Council on Homelessness will be launched, with business leaders like Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation Inc., and James Donnelly, chairman of the Broward Workshop of business CEOs, involved. The United Way will host the new council, he said.
To date, the city’s efforts to resolve the problems have not been well received, particularly when in 2014 the city repeatedly cited then-90-year-old Arnold Abbott for feeding homeless people at the beach.
Former Mayor Jack Seiler cited the city’s failures to address the negative impacts of homelessness as one of his only regrets when he left office in March.
“We can do better by these folks that need help,” Swindell said. “Forcing them to live in a park is not the solution.”