Ninety-year-old Arnold Abbott has been providing meals to the homeless in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., since 1991 through his organization, Love Thy Neighbor.
But in October, the Fort Lauderdale city commission passed a law that restricts where you can feed homeless people in outdoor public places. That didn’t stop Abbott, however. So in early November, while dishing out food, he was given a citation for breaking law. His crime: He was feed the homeless without providing a Porta-Potty.
Seriously.
It appears that Fort Lauderdale officials don’t want homeless people gathering in their city. Mayor Jack Seiler was quoted by CNN as saying, “I’m not satisfied with having a cycle of homeless in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Providing them with a meal and keeping them in that cycle on the street is not productive.”
Because if you let them gather in public, they might … what? Bother people? Look not as spiffy as the other residents of Fort Lauderdale? Because if we give hungry and hurting people a hot meal, it will keep them homeless forever?
Similar warped thinking applies to Denver: If you put a big fence around an area where homeless people hang out downtown, maybe you’ll stop them from being homeless.
Or, like some cities have done, if you add concrete spikes to the underpasses and nooks on the city streets, you’ll force people to find homes.
This is beyond stupid. Homeless people are homeless for many, many reasons and exactly none are because a kind man and some pastors feed them sometimes.
Homelessness comes from a bad turn in life — an injury, divorce, DUI, etc. — or from being a runaway or from seeing your parents struggle to hold on or, believe it or not, by choice. Yes, there are some folks on the street because they prefer living off the grid.
I know it’s hard for us, while we read this article in a tony coffee shop or from the comfort of our cozy kitchen, to believe there are some out there who make the choice consciously to be homeless, but I assure you, it’s true. If you gave some of the folks on the street a free house, they might actually turn you down.
So, when we hear that war veteran Arnold Abbott in Florida wishes to spend his own money and time feeding folks who need a little help, we should let him do so.
The matter is now in the courts: A Broward County judge last week asked prosecutors to delay filing formal charges against Abbott for 30 days pending mediation.
What is wrong with this country that our hearts and compassion go out the window because we don’t want to see a few folks who don’t look as spiffy as we do? Why is it wrong to help them simply because there isn’t a Porta-Potty next to the food table?
The simple answer is we should help people. All people.
Marijo Tinlin is a writer and small-business owner in Superior.
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