Applause for Broward’s attitude — and action — on homelessness
It’s almost impossible to believe the homeless encampment is gone from downtown Fort Lauderdale. For making it happen in a humanitarian way, we offer a hearty round of applause to the city, county, business and social service leaders who made it happen. And we extend our encouragement to keep it up.
For years, this smelly, messy, rat-filled eyesore along Broward’s namesake boulevard stood testament to our community’s failure to address chronic homelessness.
Sure, other local initiatives have helped homeless families get off the streets. But the tents, bags and belongings-filled shopping carts in Stranahan Park, home to some of the toughest challenges, colored such successes.
Worse, the encampment kept residents from using the Broward County Main Library, members of the Fort Lauderdale Women’s Club from enjoying their center, and downtown employees and employers from enjoying and recruiting others to the county’s core.
Kudos to all for executing the clean-up without attracting the world’s scorn, as happened four years ago after Fort Lauderdale police arrested 90-year-old Arnold Abbott for feeding the homeless. And congratulations for making it happen without using bulldozers, as happened 19 months ago, when Fort Lauderdale raided the camp and rousted people’s belongings. For that, the city drew a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Legal Counsel, later settled for $82,000. And the raid didn’t solve the problem.
Before closing the camp last week, officials had a plan that represents the sort of cooperation on big issues that Broward County has lacked.
First, city and county leaders stopped pointing fingers and agreed to work together. Then business leaders got involved. The result is a roughly $4 million budget this year for a program that seeks to end homelessness in Broward County.
So what happened? How did attitudes change?
Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Ben Sorenson told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that a “fresh page” helped. Last March, voters elected a new commission majority, including Sorenson, who had pledged to solved the problem. The change led to a reset with county officials. The city also stepped up in a big way, allocating $1.2 million from its current budget.
“At first, we got to hear a lot about the wounds,” Sorenson said. “Then there was less talk about whose fault it was and more that we’re in this together. One entity can’t do it, and you can’t address this through ordinances. You have to address the underlying dynamic.”
Another key factor was new participation from business leaders, notably AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson and Castle Group CEO James Donnelly. “We wanted to see,” Donnelly told us, “if we could find a compassionate solution.”
Donnelly said roughly 40 executives traveled to Orlando for two days to study how that city dealt with its homeless problem. They took a bus trip to Miami. They toured facilities and studied best practices of other local governments.
“It became clear,” he said, “that the best way to deal with homelessness was to start with housing.” Obvious, yes, but once people know they have a place to live, they can start to deal with the issues that left them homeless. Homeless programs used to require people to be drug- or alcohol-free before they could get help.
Some residents got money to return to their homes in other states. Others who have jobs got money for apartment security deposits. Some lacked basic documents, such as a Social Security card, so when the camp was closed, caseworkers were there to help.
Besides money, Donnelly said, businesses can provide oversight of the program and employ some of the homeless.
And Monday night’s contentious city hearing about a proposed apartment complex for formerly homeless people showed the challenge of finding permanent, suitable housing.
Like officials in Delray Beach, which has made progress on sober homes and opioids, no one is declaring victory. “We still have a lot more homeless people in Broward County to reach,” Donnelly said. “This will not be a quick hit,” said Mandy Wells, deputy director of the county’s human services department.
Indeed, we already hear reports of homeless people around the park’s perimeter and on nearby bus benches. Clearly, the effort is a work in progress — but one that’s off to a great start.
Besides the city, county and business community, Donnelly cited the participation of United Way of Broward County and President/CEO Kathleen Cannon. United Way’s role is appropriate. It has calculated that 44 percent of Broward County residents live in poverty or paycheck to paycheck — one crisis away from homelessness.
There’s more. Under Chief Judge Jack Tuter, the Broward County Circuit Court soon will start a community court for nuisance crimes that can leave someone with a criminal record but do nothing to help the person’s life. “The way we are handling minor violations of the law,” Tuter said, “is not working.”
If Broward County can make progress in dealing with chronically homeless street people, perhaps the county can make progress on other seemingly intractable problems such as transportation, the 911 system and the need to address sea-level rise. But those problems are for tomorrow. Today, we want to salute the people working to make Broward a great place to live — for all.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O'Hara, David Lyons and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.