Joe CapozziTo avoid losing in court, city studying West Palm Beach’s recent attempts to regulate public feeding.
In a move aimed at cleaning up Lake Worth Beach’s downtown waterfront park, city officials are planning to require permits for organizations that feed homeless people in public spaces.
Similar measures in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale have been successfully challenged in court in recent years by the homeless advocacy group Food Not Bombs, forcing those cities to change or scale back their rules.
Lake Worth Beach Mayor Betty Resch has asked the city attorney to study those cases and draft rules that won’t violate the constitutional rights of food-sharing groups.
The move comes as the Gulfstream Hotel, a historic landmark across the street from Bryant Park, continues long-anticipated renovations. The hotel opened in 1925 but closed in 2005. A soft reopening is planned for December and a formal ceremony early next year.
In recent years, Bryant Park has become a hang out for homeless people, prompting safety and sanitation concerns by local residents. City officials say the influx has led to vandalism in public restrooms and other park areas.
“We have replaced sinks in the bathroom so many times just in Bryant Park, people kicking toilets off walls. It’s nonstop. It’s costing us a lot in budget and staff time,’’ Interim City Manager Jamie Brown told city commissioners on June 3.
“We don’t have staff to keep everything clean and it’s gotten to the point where it’s hard to handle,’’ he said.
Situation ‘has become unsustainable’
Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies clear the park every night, using a new state law preventing people from sleeping overnight in public spaces. But homeless people usually return the next morning, knowing they can find a free hot meal at or near the park every day of the week.
“The current situation in Lake Worth Beach parks, especially downtown and along the waterfront, has become unsustainable,’’ Lawrence Cassenti, the new general manager of the Gulfstream Hotel, wrote to city officials.
“Multiple feedings a day, often by outside organizations with no ties to the community, contribute to a worsening cycle of encampments, drug use and public safety concerns,” he said.
Some advocacy groups say permit requirements will hurt the community’s most vulnerable residents including elderly on fixed incomes and working people priced out of the housing market.
“If you prevent us from feeding our neighbors, do you think they will stop being homeless?” asked Sasha Orenstein of the Palm Beach Democratic Socialists of America.
‘Treat our neighbors with dignity for an hour’
The group recently took over Food Not Bombs’ twice-a-week food shares at Bryant Park. Each food giveaway, on Thursday and Sunday, lasts no more than 90 minutes.
“We are not asking anything for our city. Just the decency to treat our neighbors with dignity for an hour,” he said.
Palm Beach DSA is one of at least five groups that offer hot meals in Bryant Park five days a week. On Tuesdays and Wednesday, free meals are offered at nearby churches.
“I hear the same thing: You go to Lake Worth, seven days a week there’s food here,’’ Resch said.
And while homeless advocates have told her that “we feed people because they’re here,’’ the mayor said, “There’s a counter argument to that that says they’re here because they get fed seven days a week.’’
The mayor and three commissioners voiced support for considering regulations. The rules could allow the city to limit the number and frequency of feedings. Permit fees could differ for local and out-of-town groups.
“I don’t want to see it in Bryant Park anymore. I know that might shock some people,’’ Commissioner Sarah Malega said.
“We are trying to improve our quality of life. We have a multimillion-dollar investment in a historical building that people in this city screamed to have saved,’’ she said.
Feeding as a ‘protected activity’
But an outright ban of food-share groups from Bryant Park could open the city to a legal challenge.
Attorney Christy Goddeau, whose law firm represents Lake Worth Beach, said she will study the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale cases before drafting a proposal for city commissioners to consider this summer.
“We can learn from those cases … and write it in a way that allows the activity,’’ she told commissioners. “We want to treat it as a protected activity for purposes of avoiding a lawsuit.’’
Chris McVoy, the only commissioner to voice opposition to the permitting efforts, told his colleagues they were “trying to put lipstick on a pig.’’
“I don’t see how we’re going to come up with a structure that says, ‘You can get a permit, but you can’t.’ What’s going to be the legal defense for that?’’ he asked.
City officials said they also want to encourage churches and other charities to feed the homeless on their own properties, not city land. But that could lead to other problems.
Last year, Restoration Bridge International moved its free groceries program handout to Boynton Beach after Lake Worth Beach residents complained about traffic clogging roads around its previous site, downtown at the Church by the Glades parking lot.
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020. He publishes the Lake Worth Beach Independent on Substack, covering the town where he lives.
