(AP) — A judge has suspended enforcement of a South Florida city’s law that restricts the public feeding of homeless people for 30 days and ordered mediation on the issue.
The ordinance is aimed at keeping people from feeding the homeless in parks and other public places in Fort Lauderdale. Nationwide, people have objected to the ordinance and on Monday, hackers with the Anonymous group shut down the city Internet sites temporarily in response.
The decision Tuesday by Broward Circuit Judge Thomas Lynch came in a challenge to the ordinance by 90-year-old homeless advocate Arnold Abbott, who has been arrested after defying it repeatedly. Lynch wants the dispute resolved through mediation or trial by the end of the year.
City attorneys indicated they may appeal Lynch’s ruling. More lawsuits are challenging whether the ordinance is constitutional.
Fort Lauderdale was one of the latest U.S. cities to pass restrictions on feeding homeless people in public places. Advocates for the homeless say the cities are fighting to control increasing homeless populations but that simply passing ordinances doesn’t work because they don’t address the root causes.
In the past two years, more than 30 cities have tried to introduce laws similar to Fort Lauderdale’s, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The efforts come as more veterans face homelessness and hunger and after two harsh winters drove homeless people south, especially to Florida.
The Fort Lauderdale ordinance is in contrast to an Illinois state law that was approved last year. That state law has been dubbed a homeless “Bill of Rights” and people without places to live have the right to public spaces and other protections.