Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Acts Surprised by a Crisis FAC Warned Him About Years Ago

Today, FAC sent a letter to Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis in response to his comments during a recent Local 10 News investigation into homeless registrants sleeping at a Fort Lauderdale shopping center.

The Mayor claimed he was surprised to learn 180 people were living homeless in this parking lot. Frankly, we found the Mayor’s statements difficult to reconcile with reality, considering FAC has been sounding the alarm to him about this crisis for years!

Now that television cameras are shining a light on the problem, we hope city leaders will move beyond expressions of feigned shock and finally confront the consequences of the policies they have supported or tolerated for years. It’s time for Mayor Trantalis to accept responsibility for his own inaction.

We copied Local 10 News on our letter because the public deserves to know that this crisis was not only foreseeable—it was foreseen. FAC, researchers, advocates, and even government reports have been warning about the impact of residency restrictions for decades.

You can read a copy of our letter by clicking on this link.

If anyone wants to share your own thoughts with Mayor Trantalis (please keep them polite and respectful) or contact Local10 News and ask them to please do a follow up piece on this story, contact information is:
Mayor Dean Trantalis: [email protected]
Jeff Weinsier: [email protected]
Local10 News Desk: [email protected]

We’ll continue fighting for evidence-based policies that enhance public safety rather than create homelessness.


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9 thoughts on “Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Acts Surprised by a Crisis FAC Warned Him About Years Ago

  • July 1, 2026

    Is this mayor connected to Ron and Layuren Book in any way?

    Reply
    • July 1, 2026

      Yes. As senator, Lauren Book represented portions of Fort Lauderdale.

      Reply
    • July 1, 2026

      Hey, I’m just checking. I copied and pasted two emails to send an email to the mayor into the guy from the news is coming back as not a valid email. Just wanted to let you know or maybe you can directly email me the correct one.

      Reply
  • July 1, 2026

    They also need to stop creating fake child predator cases with their fraudulent sting operations, further adding to that problem.

    Reply
    • July 1, 2026

      As if the mayor or any city officials check FAC message boards for advice. Sex offenders love to feel morally superior, even if it’s just for a few seconds.

      Reply
      • July 1, 2026

        Frank, Respectfully, if you read the post and letters, you will see that there have been numerous letters sent, meetings, testimony at City Commission meetings, etc. We’re sure they don’t check our site for advice, but they received the communications and sat in the meetings coherently. Give the Mayor some credit for having basic comprehension skills!

        Reply
      • July 1, 2026

        And yet here you are . No one on this site is claiming that. At a certain point the arbitrary bs communities impose has to stop. Most of us have completed our punishment and have tried to move on.

        Reply
      • July 1, 2026

        Frank at this point, after all these years, if they (politicians, general public, law enforcement) haven’t received the message through letters, people speaking out at local levels and Tallahassee, multiple studies done over decades then it is either willful ignorance, illiteracy, malice, or some combination of the three. The fake halos these politicians have placed upon own their heads have lost their shine through lazy legislating and political theatre. Their chickens have come home to roost and now they have to explain why they’ve made the public less safe.

        Reply
  • June 30, 2026

    Clutching of the pearls seems to be the act of surprise in politics as of late.

    Reply

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