(The key point is not so much about more space, beds, food, shelter, etc., as it is a deep, deep desire to make a difference in the city and beyond. I’ve lost count of so many homeless folks who wouldn’t mind checking into a shelter if there wasn’t so much corruption and cruel treatment at the hands of its workers…makes you wonder, doesn’t it?)
Phila. more tolerant of homeless than other
cities
By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer
With Center City parks like Rittenhouse Square filling up with homeless people this summer, other cities, too, are struggling with similar situations.
And many of those cities are taking a considerably harder line than Philadelphia.
Increasingly, the response elsewhere has been to make loitering, sleeping in parks, and panhandling crimes, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington.
That is in contrast to Philadelphia. Officials here have taken a more laissez faire approach to the dozens of homeless who have taken to using Rittenhouse Square as a campground, sleeping on benches and bathing in the fountain.
More and more cities, too, are clamping down on groups trying to help by banning them from handing out free meals in parks, the coalition reported.
Las Vegas has outlawed mass feedings in parks.
Dallas has fines of $2,000 for groups that hand out meals without permits.
“When cities pass these laws, they’re tired of the homeless problem. They want it to go away,” said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
In a 2006 survey of 224 cities, the coalition found that 44 percent had some form of ban against “camping” – either in particular spots or citywide.
With begging, 64 percent had bans – again, either targeted or citywide.
In Philadelphia, the number of homeless people encamped in the city’s parks and public spaces dipped in the spring to 291 but started to rise in the summer, police say. Parks such as Rittenhouse Square, JFK Plaza, and the greenway along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway are particular hot spots.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said in an interview that he saw no need to ramp up enforcement of laws that ban sleeping in parks and public places.
“We can make people move along. We can’t arrest them for simply being homeless, nor should we,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said he also saw no need to increase the police presence in high-profile parks such as Rittenhouse Square, where about three dozen people encamp on any given night. “My focus right now is violent crime,” he said.
Ramsey added that the approach to homelessness “has to be much broader than just police. There has to be alternatives – housing, other forms of shelter, places where people can feel safe.”
Here is how some other cities deal with homeless populations in parks.
Orlando
Orlando has some of the toughest rules in the country when it comes to regulating the activities of homeless people.
Someone begging has to stand in a 3-by-15-foot “panhandling zone,” painted blue on the sidewalk. Those who stray beyond the zone face arrest.
Sleeping in parks is banned.
Most recently, the city has clamped down on food handouts to the homeless, particularly around Lake Eola Park.
“Lake Eola is our Rittenhouse Square,” said Jacqueline Dowd, a lawyer and homeless advocate for Legal Advocacy at Work.
Two years ago, the city passed an ordinance requiring a permit to serve food to more than 25 people. But a group can only get two permits a year per park.
Dowd said a police officer went undercover, posing as a homeless person, to videotape the food handouts in Lake Eola Park by a nonprofit called Food Not Bombs.
Dowd said a volunteer was arrested for serving food without a permit, but later was acquitted by a jury.
The group is suing the city to stop the ban on food handouts. Until there is a decision, Food Not Bombs continues with its weekly feedings, which attracts 40 to 100 people, Dowd said.
Dowd said the rules against the homeless were “vigorously” enforced by Orlando police.
Dowd said homelessness was becoming a bigger problem in Orlando. The three-county metropolitan area has about 8,500 homeless people, but only 2,000 emergency shelter beds.
“I don’t think criminalizing homelessness is the way to deal with the situation,” Dowd said.
Washington
The U.S. Park Police has responsibility for patrolling the parks in the capital.
No one – homeless or not – is allowed to sleep in the National Mall or take a dip in the Reflecting Pool.
But homeless advocates say park police, as well as the city’s Metropolitan Police Department, are generally restrained in enforcing rules about loitering, panhandling, or sleeping in parks.
“Police officers don’t enforce the laws and only do it when they get a complaint,” said Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
The nation’s capital has about 400 people living on the streets, according to the last homeless census.
The only park where police have zero tolerance for loitering or sleeping on benches is Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, Stoops said.
Stoops said people tend to congregate in two “homeless parks” – Franklin Park and McPherson Square – because they know they can receive donations of food and clothing.
Stoops said he walks through McPherson Square, north of the White House, about three nights a week and sees at least 25 people asleep on benches.
“Homelessness is very visible here,” Stoops said. “It’s become part of the downtown landscape.”
New York City
Central Park has a curfew of 1 a.m. and, according to groups who work with the homeless, police are strict about enforcing it. But with 843 acres, there are plenty of places to hide.
“It’s very hard, given the size of Central Park, to enforce an outright prohibition against sleeping in the park,” said Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the New York Coalition for the Homeless.
New York, she said, has a citywide prohibition against sleeping in parks. She said enforcement took a very strong turn when Rudolph Giuliani became mayor in 1994. Giuliani threatened to arrest people who refused to go into shelters.
Today, Brosnahan said, there is a tacit understanding between police and those on the streets that they must be gone by the morning.
New York has about 4,000 people who live on the streets, with about 60 percent of them in Manhattan, according to a census earlier this year.
Brosnahan said the enforcement of the ban against sleeping in parks tended to “follow the money.”
“There are many forgotten parks in the Bronx where people are sleeping and living 24/7,” Brosnahan said.
