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Mayor’s Message continued

It’s not that we want to make arrests. But if people disobey For those who do end up being cited for violating the
and reject offers of assistance, we have no other option but to encampment law, we have been working with the sheriff
engage the power of the police. Even then, our goal would then on an action plan. At first, the sheriff said he was not going
be to get them the needed help after they’ve been detained. to take those charged with municipal offenses any longer,
That could be substance abuse treatment, mental health care, changing a longstanding practice of past sheriffs. But now, he
medical assistance, job training or family reunification. is willing to work with us.
We can do it. We did it before. When I became mayor Our hope is that maybe there could be a separate place
in 2018, one of our first acts was to close the homeless in the jail for those charged with violating public camping
encampment by the main downtown library. The people living ordinances and that service providers could go there and
there were helped to find housing and assistance. develop assistance plans with individuals. A municipal
ordinance violation is not considered a criminal offense so
To accomplish our goals, we are currently looking for a location
for a full-service homeless assistance center downtown. these people would not end up with a criminal record.

We could move to this location our community court program We have also re-tooled a city mobile app — FixIt — so the
where judges work with homeless individuals charged with public can help us. The app will allow individuals to report a
minor offenses to get the help they need. We could also bring potential public camping violation so our police and homeless
in all the assistance providers to direct people to available outreach team can address it promptly.
programming and housing. And to be clear, emergency responders and our homeless
outreach team are out on the streets daily dealing with
The plan is to have a location set in the fourth quarter of
this year. homelessness already.
Last year alone, the homeless outreach team, the Police
We also are coordinating with community partners in the
private, public and nonprofit sectors to secure additional Department and Fire Rescue responded to more than 11,000
shelter space. calls related to homelessness. Until the new ordinances,
though, little could be done if an individual refused help
Homeless assistance and sheltering is supposed to be a duty unless they were violating some other statute, ordinance or
of county government, not individual cities. But unfortunately, park regulation.
our county is woefully lacking in shelter availability.
We recognize the seriousness of this issue and are addressing
There are only 612 shelter beds available countywide, but it head-on. Just as the city has always done.
the county’s own fact-finding work shows that there are
2,487 homeless individuals in Broward. So, it’s not just a Sincerely,
Fort Lauderdale problem, it’s a Miramar problem, a Sunrise
problem, a Lauderhill problem and a problem for all the rest of Dean Trantalis
Broward’s 31 cities.
We are in direct communications with the county to work
toward immediate action. We are also actively leading on the
issue by providing ideas for temporary shelters where pallet
homes or tents could be set up.
While the county has in the past rebuffed the use of BSO’s old
stockade, we believe there is new traction for that option.
We also could consider land that the city owns in
unincorporated Broward’s Broadview Park. We have
been working on plans with the Housing Authority to build
workforce housing there, but we could first use it as a
homeless sheltering site or merge the two projects together.

That’s just an idea. But, nothing should be off the table
for consideration.

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