ABSTRACT
The City of Miami has a policy of harassing homeless people for sleeping, eating, and performing life sustaining activities in public places. By the early 1990s, homelessness had become a serious problem in both Miami and Orlando. In both cities, it seemed, homeless people were everywhere, and alarmed citizens were loudly demanding that something be done. From these shared beginnings, however, local policies and politics towards the homeless took divergent paths. The result, some twenty years later, is that Miami is a nationally recognized center of excellence in the provision of homeless services whereas Orlando struggles to fund even its rudimentary feeding and shelter programs. In 1996, Orlando responded to public demands to "do something" about panhandling by enacting an ordinance that required panhandlers to obtain a permit from the municipal police department in order to panhandle legally.
