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- THE WEEKSOCIETY, Page 23Zone, Sweet Zone
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- A federal judge orders Miami to create arrest-free homeless
- havens
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- A house is not a home when you're living in a cardboard box.
- Or when city officials want to sweep you away like litter when
- the tourists come to town. In a ruling designed to offer some
- civil rights, if not civility, to the homeless, a federal judge
- in Miami has ordered the city to set up two "safe zones," where
- those without addresses can eat, sleep and bathe without being
- arrested. Although the decision applies to Miami, similar legal
- challenges to anti-vagrancy laws are under way in Las Vegas, San
- Francisco, New York and elsewhere, and the Miami case breaks
- ground. Miami officials say they'll appeal the decision, and
- Vice Mayor Miriam Alonso says the judgment is bad for the city:
- "Homelessness is not the best image for tourism or business or
- the community at large." Miami also faces a shot in the
- pocketbook: the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking
- damages for the homeless of as much as $50 million.
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