HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Homeless people in Hollywood, Fla., will not have to provide proper identification to get food at a soup kitchen, the city's board of commissioners has ruled.
The 6-to-1 vote Wednesday rejected a proposal from Commissioner Beam Furr to withhold funding from the Jubilee Kitchen unless it forced patrons to show identification.
Furr -- whose official bio says he once directed the Henderson County (N.C.) Hunger Coalition, where he helped establish a food co-op for low-income families -- told commissioners requiring proper identification would help provide "tools" so poor people could receive other social services, such as housing and food stamps.
But several commissioners called the requirement "immoral," The Miami Herald reported.
Mayor Peter Bober said requiring identification would serve no purpose other than to turn hungry people back into the streets.
"We ask them to write down their ID. So what? What's done with it? It's not put into any data base," the Herald quoted Bober as saying.
Police Chief Chadwick Wagner said homeless people have the same civil rights as other citizens -- even if some residents feel uncomfortable having them in their neighborhood.
"I can tell you I have a 15-year-old daughter in high school and there are times she can't even find her ID to get her lunch," he said.
