{"id":40166,"date":"2023-12-16T13:38:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T18:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=40166"},"modified":"2023-12-16T13:38:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T18:38:47","slug":"arrests-of-homeless-people-for-camping-on-lakeland-city-owned-property-is-not-solving-the-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/12\/16\/arrests-of-homeless-people-for-camping-on-lakeland-city-owned-property-is-not-solving-the-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrests of Homeless People for Camping on Lakeland City-Owned Property Is Not Solving the Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Being Homeless is not a crime<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Lakeland Police have increased patrols of certain parts of the city at the behest of the Community Redevelopment Agency \u2014 and have charged almost a dozen people experiencing homelessness with camping or trespassing on city-owned property over the past two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local governments across the U.S. have been punishing people for being poor and not having a home. Is this not the definition of cruelty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Supreme Court signaled its agreement by refusing to consider a petition to overturn the Ninth Circuit\u2019s Martin v. City of Boise<\/a> ruling. The case\u2019s central holding is: \u201cAn ordinance violates the Eighth Amendment insofar as it imposes criminal sanctions against homeless individuals for sleeping outdoors, on public property, when no alternative shelter is available to them.\u201d In other words, fining or jailing a homeless person, because they have no place to stay, violates the U.S. Constitution\u2019s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, city, county, and state governments across the country, along with business associations, chambers of commerce, and law enforcement associations, filed\u00a0amicus briefs\u00a0asking the court to reverse the Martin decision and effectively empower governments to criminalize\u00a0homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Steve Turbeville, president and CEO of Lighthouse Ministries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe streets cannot be the solution for permanent housing,\u201d said Steve Turbeville, president and CEO of Lighthouse Ministries. \u201cAs a provider for caring for the homeless, we need the help of law enforcement to be able to protect everyone in our community including the homeless, the businesses, and property owners who need to avoid risk that creates liability for them or their families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turbeville said the most viable and financially feasible solutions to help the homeless are life-learning campuses, opportunity centers, and housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a process and we must be strategic to offer dignity and a better quality of life,\u201d Tubeville said. \u201cLet\u2019s work harder and smarter to bring people indoors and actively engaged in their rescue and recovery. Shelters and residential campuses with opportunity gateways are a better solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue of homelessness has hindered city leaders for decades, particularly as Lakeland has worked to revive its downtown over the past 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City leaders, business owners, and concerned residents say plans to revitalize Munn Park cannot move forward until the city creates a viable alternative for homeless people.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Julie Townsend, executive director of the LDDA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Julie Townsend, executive director of the LDDA, said she does not like to use the word homeless and called it a behavior issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do we create a level of expectation of behaviors?  Arresting people over and over again for their behaviors is not the answer,\u201d Townsend said. \u201cHomelessness is not a crime<\/strong>. How do we mitigate the bad behaviors?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The constant cycle of arrests and fines does the opposite. Money spent on police, courts, and jails as a response to homelessness takes away resources that the government could direct to housing and services. The criminalization of homelessness is part of a larger\u00a0pattern\u00a0in this country of turning to law enforcement to solve societal problems, such as substance abuse, mental illness, and poverty \u2014 a pattern that has made the U.S. a leader in incarceration while only\u00a0exacerbating\u00a0those problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being Homeless is not a crime Lakeland Police have increased patrols of certain parts of the city at the behest of the Community Redevelopment Agency \u2014 and have charged almost… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[7055],"class_list":["post-40166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-arrests-of-homeless-people-for-camping-on-lakeland-city-owned-property-is-not-solving-the-issue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}