THIS IS DECISION TO NO LONGER DENY OUR HOMELESS THE RIGHT TO SLEEP ON PUBLIC PROPERTY HAS FINALLY COME TO A LARGE METROPOLITAN CITY IN FLORIDA. JUST LAST YEAR THERE WAS A JUDGE IN VALUSIA COUNTY WHO RULED THAT IT WAS INHUMANE & UNCONSTITUTIONAL TO DENY A HOMELESS PERSON THE RIGHT TO SLEEP ON PUBLIC PROPERTY. MY FELLOW ADVOCATES AS WELL AS THE MANY VOLUNTEERS WHO WORK WITH OUR HOMELESS CHILDREN, FAMILIES, VETERANS & INDIVIDUALS I ASK YOU ALL TO ADVOCATE FOR THESE RIGHTS FOR OUR HOMELESS. AND IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE RUNNING INTO ROAD BLOCKS, JUST INBOX ME AND I WILL PLUG YOU INTO THE LAWYERS WHO WILL HELP US WITH THIS FIGHT. Gainesville agrees to revise trespass policy for public parks Dan Walters was banned from the Gainesville Downtown Plaza for one year. His crime? Sitting on a plaza bench less than a half hour before it “opens” at 7 a.m. A city police officer told him he could not return to the plaza under penalty of arrest and potential jail time of up to one year. SLC represents Mr. Walters and two other clients, Michael Straggus and Michael Grubbs, who also had been banned for one year from the downtown plaza for minor infractions. They were not given written notice, or an opportunity to challenge their year-long exclusions from the plaza. SLC wrote to the Gainesville City Attorney detailing legal problems with the City’s parks trespass procedure and its enforcement. Within two days, the City had rescinded all trespass warnings issued under this policy, impacting approximately forty individuals. The City also dropped pending prosecutions for violations of these warnings, and ceased issuing new trespass warnings under the policy. Now, anyone who was impacted by this policy can return to public parks and plazas without fear of arrest. The City Attorney’s Office also agreed to revise the policy and is discussing with SLC necessary changes to the policy. SLC seeks the following changes: 1) people must receive written notice and an opportunity to challenge the warnings; 2) the policy must be written in a way to ensure that the trespass warnings are not issued in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner to exclude homeless people from public places; 3) trespass warnings should only be issued in cases when there is a legitimate threat to public safety; and 4) the policy should allow a person to apply for a temporary suspension of the trespass warning for purposes of exercising their First Amendment rights in public places.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 01:12:20 +0000
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