Addicted to the Bottle, Homeless in Miami

Homelessness: Miami’s shadow city - 05/28/2013 | MiamiHerald.com: "Like many of South Florida’s chronically homeless people, Ronald Poppo spent years living in the shadows, addicted to the bottle and unwilling to seek shelter or reach out to family. A gruesome and bloody scene last Memorial Day weekend (2012) thrust Poppo out of his quiet anonymity. He fell victim to an unfathomable assault on the MacArthur Causeway that left him blind, with most of his face gnawed off. The world turned its attention to Miami’s “zombie” attack and — for a brief moment — its ongoing struggle with homelessness, an issue for which the city has long served as a model for cities across the country. But in a move that advocates say could dent the city’s progressive image, Miami commissioners last month voted to ask a federal court to alter the terms of a landmark settlement that bolstered the rights of the city’s homeless. The 1998 settlement of Pottinger v. Miami bars Miami police from arresting homeless people for “involuntary, harmless” acts without first offering them a bed in a shelter. . . ." (read more at link above)

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