Do you think homeless people are like cats - the more you feed them the more will come? So is Fort Lauderdale Justified?

Recently feeding the homeless in Fort Lauderdale made the national news because the police arrested Arnold Abbot, the ninety year old gentleman pictured below, for feeding the homeless.  He faces jail time along with two others.  He runs a nonprofit organization called "love thy neighbor" and he says he has no intention to stop feeding the homeless.

The mayor, Jack Seiler  (jack.seiler@fortlauderdale.gov.), defended the action by the city as being necessary to protect local business that depends on tourists who obviously do not like to encounter a lot of homeless people.  Fort Lauderdale is part of Broward County which has 10,000 homeless people which is probably more than their fair share of the 600,000 homeless in this country estimated by The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development .

I was surprised to find out that 50 cities ban or restrict giving homeless people food either by making it illegal or by such practices as requiring a hard to get permit, etc.  Twenty two (22) states have similar laws on the books making it illegal to feed the homeless.  In some cases charities are prohibited from making food donations because the food may not be nutritious enough.  Really?

What do you think.  What values should guide our actions?  Please give us your opinions below and share (or not if you don't think it is an important question).  If we get a decent response we will publish the results and send them Jack Seiler the mayor of Fort Lauderdale. (You have to scroll down to see all three questions, thank you, Robert).