A Florida city is playing children’s songs overnight to dissuade homeless people from sleeping outside an event venue, a move that many are calling “immoral” and “inhumane.”
“Baby Shark” and “Raining Tacos,” which are repetitive and considered annoying by some, are currently played on a constant loop outside the Waterfront Lake Pavilion all night long, according to Good Morning Tampa Bay.
City spokeswoman Kathleen Walter said in a statement to CNN, that the music is meant to “encourage people to seek safer, more appropriate shelter.”
“The music volume complies with City code, and is a temporary measure, as we are exploring the possibility of having set hours for the Great Lawn and Pavilion,” Walter said, per the outlet.
Walter did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The Waterfront Lake Pavilion brings in more than $240,000 every year from events held at the location, West Palm Beach Parks and Recreation director Leah Rockwell told the Palm Beach Post.
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The city’s plan seems to have more critics than champions.
“There is a fine line between being humane and inhumane when trying to deal with the homeless,” city commissioner Richard Ryles told Good Morning Tampa Bay. “All of us are probably just one paycheck away from being homeless. And so I want someone to be compassionate with me.”
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Megan Hastings, the interim director for the National Coalition for the Homeless, told CNN that the city’s plan “shows a lack of concern for our community members who are struggling through a very tough time.”
“Responding with this kind of discrimination and disgust instead of compassion is … really immoral. It’s disturbing,” she told the outlet. “We’re all humans, and we need to sleep.”
The Palm Beach Post reported in June that homelessness in the county was up slightly from last year.
from PEOPLE.com https://ift.tt/2Y93arb
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