'This is an emergency': Lake Worth Beach leaders vow to tackle illicit activity in Cultural Plaza
City commissioners on Dec. 2 will consider establishing a public safety task force to address rising concerns about homeless people downtown
Lake Worth Beach city commissioners will consider creating a task force early next month to address rising concerns about public safety in the Cultural Plaza and other downtown places frequented by people experiencing homelessness.
“This is an emergency,’’ Commissioner Anthony Segrich said Nov. 19 when he broached the idea in response to what he said is a rise in complaints from residents and merchants alleging harassment by people in the plaza.
The task force, to be discussed Dec. 2, could be made up of city staff, law enforcement, neighborhood leaders, business owners and community members, including those who work with the homeless.
“This is vital to our city moving forward,’’ Segrich said. “I think we owe it to our residents and businesses to take discussion on this as soon as possibly can.’’
Earlier in the meeting, during public comments, a Lake Avenue business owner held up a poster-size photograph that he said showed a man defecating outside the city library across the street from the Cultural Plaza.
“The situation in ‘crackhead park,’ or as it’s known to you guys as the Cultural Plaza, has become completely unacceptable, unsafe and out of control,’’ said Michael Klein, owner of the Kavasutra Kava Bar at 508 Lake Ave.
“Every single day and night, the Cultural Plaza is filled with individuals openly using drugs, selling drugs, drinking, fighting, harassing people who simply want to walk though,’’ he said.
It’s a constant occurrence, he said.
“If you want to see it, there is now a 24/7 live stream on YouTube. You guys can go watch it,’’ he said, referring to Kavasutra’s YouTube channel. “People do not feel safe.’’
People hanging out in the plaza often try to charge their electronic devices from an outlet behind the Kavasutra building, Klein said. “They try to bathe with my hose. They recently pooped on my property,’’ he said.
When he tells the people to stay away from his building, “they get aggressive,’’ he told commissioners.
‘’The Cultural Plaza has become an open air drug market,’’ he said. “My customers and employees have been victim to harassment and theft from these hobos. Who would want to walk through an area that feels dangerous, especially at night?”
The task force idea was broached four days after Commissioner Mimi May, in a pre agenda work session, brought up concerns she was seeing on social media about unsheltered people downtown.
“I have actually spoken literally to other mayors and they have told me that they are sending their people here,’’ May said Nov. 14 without identifying the mayors.
Later day day, in response to questions from the Lake Worth Beach Independent, May clarified her comment by saying that other mayors “suggest” to homeless people that Lake Worth Beach “is where to go for free food and to be left alone.’’ She would not identify the mayors.
The problem can be seen just outside City Hall, Vice Mayor Sarah Malega said. She described arriving there one day last week to find “seven people sitting outside with all their stuff.’’
City employees have reported seeing homeless people leaning against the building as they relieve themselves.
“We are not going to be able to fix everything until we stop the feeding of the people who are coming in from other cities, Wellington, and feeding the people here,’’ Malega said.
“An entire busload of people were dropped off at Dollar General last week by Palm Tran,’’ she said. “Somebody paid for that, guys, and they don’t care that they’re dropping people off in our city.’’
Nearly six months ago, city commissioners directed the city attorney to draft a law requiring permits for organizations that feed homeless people in public parks. A draft of the proposed law is almost complete, Stewart Sword, assistant director of Leisure Services, said Nov. 14.
A new measure approved by commissioners in July to prohibit sleeping in public land overnight has resulted in Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies issuing 92 warnings. That number could approach 200 by the end of the year, said Capt. Terrence L. Carn of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
“Deputies are out there daily enforcing the ordinance,’’ Carn told commissioners Nov. 18. “People hanging out in parks overnight, that has decreased a lot.’’
He said deputies are “looking into” allegations about drug use in the Cultural Plaza.
Commissioners have suggested other measures, such as banning single-can sales of beers and prohibiting people from loitering in front of city buildings unless they have city business.
The city commission’s brief task force discussion on Nov. 18 came a few hours after the mayor read a proclamation recognizing National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week, Nov. 16-22.
The proclamation mentioned 1,520 homeless people in Palm Beach County and 192,000 residents struggling with food insecurity. The homeless number is taken from the most recent government survey, which also notes a 29 percent decrease from the previous year’s count.
Two deputies on the PBSO Homeless Intervention Team that patrols Lake Worth Beach have made contact with 367 unsheltered people this year, Carn said. Those people are offered help finding homeless shelters, treatment, clothes and other services.
Referring to the Kavasutra livestream, Carn offered caution about jumping to conclusions based on what’s seen in the video because “sometimes what you see on a camera is not always what it appears to be,’’ he said. (Klein did not respond to a message from the Lake Worth Beach Independent.)
At the end of the Nov. 18 meeting, Malega offered a reminder about a popular Cultural Plaza event: the city’s annual Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony Nov. 29.
Thanks so much for this balanced reporting.
The suicidal empathy of some people results in an increasingly unlivable city for the rest of us who just want to take our kids downtown or to the park or walk in our neighborhood and not have to see fentanyl zombies everywhere. But if people continue to vote for softies, I guess they get what they vote for, and I'll move my (law-abiding, tax-paying) family somewhere else.