Homeless in Sarasota Bradenton

2011-09-08T12:28:00.001-07:00

Suncoast Partnership Receives Grant from Gulf Coast Community Foundation
for Plan to End Homelessness in Sarasota County

Sarasota, FL - Early in 2011, prompted by Sarasota County Government, the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness initiated a process to develop a Plan to Prevent & End Homelessness in Sarasota County . With funding from Gulf Coast Community Foundation, the organization is moving forward to produce and begin implementing the Plan.
Gulf Coast recently awarded the Suncoast Partnership a $50,000 grant to complete a long-term strategic plan with goals, leadership, costs, and measurements to better coordinate and streamline efforts to prevent and end homelessness in the Sarasota community. The Suncoast Partnership will present the Plan for adoption by Sarasota County , municipal governments and other community stakeholders later this year.
"The Gulf Coast Board recognizes that homelessness is a multifaceted community challenge that impacts everyone," said Mark Pritchett, senior vice president of community investment at Gulf Coast Community Foundation. "High unemployment and foreclosure rates have resulted in a new economic reality. We need a smart, cost-effective approach to address this regional issue."
The face of homelessness has changed dramatically over the past several years, with 37% of the current homeless population experiencing homelessness for the first time. In 2010, Sarasota agencies provided financial assistance and other services to 4,283 people who were homeless and an additional 11,951 people at imminent risk of homelessness. Additionally, the State of Florida Department of Education recently reported that 1,259 Sarasota County schoolchildren were homeless during the 2010-2011 school year.
Beginning in January, over 600 community members, including many people experiencing homelessness or who had once been homeless, participated in community workshops in North Port , Sarasota , and Venice to learn about and address major barriers to preventing and ending homelessness. Following in the footsteps of communities nationwide, the purpose was to achieve a community consensus on goals and strategies to prevent and end homelessness resulting in reduced community costs for health care, public safety and criminal justice as well as improved quality of life for the entire community. The workshops were led by Sarasota County Commissioner Carolyn Mason and Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness Board Chairman and former public defender Adam Tebrugge.
"This is a community Plan," said Richard Martin, Executive Director of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness. "If we are to achieve excellence in our mission, community members from across Sarasota County need to be engaged. Everyone is both an ambassador and stakeholder in the success of the Plan." Martin, a former Sarasota mayor, is also Board President of the Florida Coalition on Homelessness.

2011-04-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

Advice from Richmond, California

2011-04-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

We need places like this in Florida.

2011-03-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

Homelessness: Ten years ago, Last Year. A comprehensive report on homelessness in Florida from ten years ago. http://edocs.dlis.state.fl.us/fldocs/commissions/homeless2001report.pdfedocs.dlis.state.fl.us 2010 report from the Florida Office on Homelessness. http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/homelessness/docs/2010%20Homeless%20Conditions.pdf www.dcf.state.fl.us

2011-03-26T07:07:00.001-07:00

A community meeting was held on the afternoon of Friday, March 25th, in South Sarasota County. More than 60 people participated and were heard from throughout the afternoon.
One valuable participant was Steve, a laid off union carpenter who is presently homeless. Steve told us about his daily challenges. For instance, there is presently no place in Southern Sarasota County where people who are homeless are able to take a shower. Nor was Steve aware of any place where he could get laundry done.
When Steve discussed his laundry issue, some very energetic women from North Port told us how they had addressed the problem. They had entered into an arrangement with a local Laundromat to purchase and distribute vouchers to homeless citizens. This model may have potential throughout the rest of the county. Learning about strategies like this has been one of the great benefits of undertaking the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.
Other matters that were discussed included:
--We need to do a better job getting the word out about services that are presently available. Probably the best resource that is presently available is the 211 service. People can call 211 and get information about agencies and resources. Some of this information used to be available in a printed book. The problem is that the material would quickly become dated. A representative from 211 pointed out that there are also many eligibility criteria for some of the services and that makes it difficult to make accurate and helpful referrals. For those with internet access, information about 211 can be found here: http://uw211manasota.net/ .
--Representatives from Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT) were present. They understand that SCAT buses are an important resource for citizens who are homeless. SCAT works with agencies to distribute vouchers. It was suggested that this voucher program could be expanded to serve more people, particularly if SCAT buses are under utilized. SCAT is also well aware of the popularity and limitations of the bike racks that most buses have been outfitted with.
--Shelter is lacking. Recently, successful efforts have been made to open a cold weather shelter. However, there is little to no available shelter space in Southern Sarasota for the rest of the year. Several participants noted that young men are in need. There is a population of homeless teenage or young males in need of housing. Mention was also made of the increasing issue of opiate addiction and the lack of supportive housing for those struggling to overcome their problems.
--There is tremendous support from the community for tackling these and other issues. I am very grateful to Mayor Holick and councilman Carlesimo from the City of Venice, and command staff from the Venice Police Department, who attended yesterday and listened with open minds. Sarasota County government remains supportive of our efforts and Commissioner Carolyn Mason again led and fully participated in yesterday’s session. And local service providers like Catholic Charities and Jewish Family and Children Services have also given us insight and knowledge.
A meeting like yesterday helps demonstrate the real potential of a group like the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness. Our success comes from the ability to gather compassionate and skilled members of the community together so that we can learn from one another, identify gaps in service, and avoid duplication of efforts. The next community meeting of the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness will be held on Friday, April 8th, at 2:00 pm, at the Church of the Redeemer, 222 S. Palm Avenue in Sarasota.

2011-03-24T05:47:00.001-07:00

The next community meeting of the Ten Year Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness will be held on Friday, March 25th at 1:30 at the Sarasota County Commission Chambers in the R.L. Anderson Complex, 4000 South Tamiaimi Trail, Venice, Florida. Join Sarasota County Commissioner Carolyn Mason and the Chair of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness, Adam Tebrugge to let us know your ideas, concerns and strategies.

2011-03-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

23% of the homes in Sarasota County are vacant.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/18/real_estate/florida_vacant_homes/index.htm

2011-03-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

Ending Homelessness: A Model that Just Might Work

A special report from NPR http://www.npr.org/2011/03/07/134002013/ending-homelessness-a-model-that-just-might-work&sc=nl&cc=es-20110313

2011-03-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

Second Community Workshop on Ending Homelessness in Sarasota

This afternoon, Friday March 11, was the second community workshop in support of the ten year plan to prevent and end homelessness in Sarasota county. We again had a strong turnout of people willing to work, including lots of newcomers and a number of citizens who are presently homeless. The Church of the Redeemer was again our most gracious host and I thank them

Five work groups met for 90 minutes while I led a discussion group made up of three people sleeping in the woods and seven folks who had shelter. Both men who are presently homeless were eager to work despite suffering recent long term unemployment. One gentleman had a successful career as a surveyor but now can’t find work of any type. The other man had recently secured employment, saved enough for rent, but couldn’t afford the deposits. He’s still homeless, as was a plucky sixty-three year old woman who told us about living in her tent, how she spends a cold night, and the lack of anything productive for her to do during the day.

The work groups reported back at the end of the afternoon and everyone seemed to have made significant progress. There is a lot of talent in the room and good ideas are emerging and assignments given out and completed. For the next community meeting, we will be in Venice at the South County commission chambers located in the R.L. Anderson complex, on Friday March 25^th at 1:30. Then we will be back in Sarasota on April 8^th at the Church of the Redeemer again.

2011-02-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

ACTION NEEDED!

Among the budget recommendations submitted by newly-elected Florida Gov. Scott is an elimination of all funding for homeless grants, programs and services, the elimination of the state Office on Homelessness and Governor's Council and the purging of the homeless statute form the books. If successful, Florida would be one of only two states (the other being Wyoming) without a state Office on Homelessness.

Over the past years, the Florida Challenge Grant have been awarded through the Suncoast Partnership to local homeless service providers to provide an array of support services to people that were homeless or at-risk of homelessness. Last year's included Gulf Coast Legal Services to provide counsel to Manatee and Sarasota homeless residents and to families at-risk of eviction; Jewish Family and Children Services to provide new case management services to establish their award-winning Building Strong Families program in Manatee County, Catholic Charities to provide utility assistance to those in need throughout both counties, and Manatee Glens to provide street outreach to homeless men and women who were suffering from mental illness.

This year, HOPE Family Services and SPARCC (Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center) will use their Challenge Grants to serve victims of domestic violence, The Manatee Salvation Army will provide bus passes to residents to get to and from work, and Catholic Charities will again provide services through both counties, in particular to men and women with HIV/AIDS.
The Sarasota-Manatee community has also received three Florida Homeless Housing Assistance grant to construct a 26-bed apartment building for a year-long program that assists young families with children at the Sarasota Salvation Army. The resulting F.A.I.T.H was awarded the Salvation Army's "Best Social Service Program" in the nation last year, an award given only once every three years; purchase and renovate 18 units of housing for homeless men and women who suffer from mental illness; and build two 10-bedroom homes to house up to 40 men in recovery at Harvest House. Both buildings received Florida Green Building Council and, with the recent award of Veterans Per Diem Grant, most if not all these beds will be dedicated to house homeless veterans.

This is a sampling of what this drastic proposal will mean locally, with similar repercussions throughout the state as outlined below.
Governor Scott's budget proposal:
1) eliminates all Challenge Grant funding which supports local homeless and prevention services. This year 28 continuums received a total of $2,031,354 to provide these desperately needed services.
2) eliminates all staffing grants for local homeless coalitions. This year homeless coalitions each received $12,600 each to support office operations with a total of $345,729 provided state-wide.
3) eliminates the Office on Homelessness along with two (2) staff positions and funding for the Governor's Council on Homelessness. This year the funding level is $436,353 to provide the state support necessary to make local CoCs and coalitions successful.
4) eliminates the Homeless Housing Assistance Grant program. This year $3 million was granted to 6 local communities to create 348 units of housing for homeless individuals and families.
5) does not restore the Homeless Grant-in-Aid program which had provided 80% of all state funding to local CoCs until it was de-funded 2 years ago.
6) prohibits state funding from being used to support Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Programs throughout the state.
7) raids and eliminates the state's (Sadowski) affordable housing trust fund; instead an estimated $37.5 million in documentary stamp revenue in the trust fund for 2011-2012 would be funneled into the General Revenue.
8) and in a final blow, the Governor's proposal actually repeals the authorizing legislation for the State Office of Homelessness, the Council on Homelessness, Challenge Grant program and Homeless Housing Assistance Grant program. If adopted, these innovative, progressive homeless initiatives--10 years in the making--would come to an end on July 1, 2011.

But, all is not lost. The Florida Coalition for the Homeless, Sadowski Coalition and others are working overtime to defeat these Draconian proposals and we need your help.
Rep. Roberson represents a part of Sarasota County and Rep. Steube represents a part of Manatee County and both hold key positions on the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee, with Rep. Roberson serving as vice-chair and reportedly not in favor of these cuts.We ask that CoC agencies and members meet or otherwise contact Rep. Roberson and Rep. Steube and explain how this assault on homeless funding, programs and services would impact our struggling communities.

While you're at it, you may also call Governor Scott's office at (850) 488-7146 and other House and Senate Subcommittee members (click on links below for contact information). In particular, Sen. Negron is the chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Subcommittee and we understand that he, Sen. Gaetz and Sen. Oelrich are concerned about homeless veterans, and that may be the tact to follow when you speak with them or their aides.
Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee 2011

House Heatlh Care Appropriations Subcommittee 2011
Please share this email with everyone in your agency community that cares about homelessness in our community, and ask them to contact these legislators and especially their local legislators. Legislators will be home the 1st week of March prior to the opening of the legislative session, and this would be a good time to also meet with them personally.
Thank you for your dedication to those most in need in our community.

Sincerely,
Richard Martin, Executive Director Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness

2011-02-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

JUST NEIGHBORS MEETING:

Are you interested in what Englewood is doing to help the less fortunate in our community? Do you want to join a group of dedicated people working together to help the less fortunate and end homelessness? One person can make the difference in the life of someone struggling to make ends meet. Come join us and see how you can help.

What is wrong with this picture? Our new governor wants to cut out all funding for homeless shelters. Now more than ever we need to help families who have no place to go when they are losing their homes. Your voice needs to be heard, come join us.

The next meeting is Tuesday, February 22 at 6:00 at St. David's Episcopal Church, 401 S. Broadway, right off 776. Topics to be covered, The Ten Year Plan To End Homelessness and the Feed The Harbor, food drive by Publix for our food pantries. For more information call Pat Knox 828-7489 or St. David's Episcopal Church 474-3140

2011-02-21T13:18:00.000-08:00

Orlando public feeding issue back in court, has cost taxpayers $150,000 so far:
After five years of protracted legal wrangling and back-and-forth rulings over an Orlando city “public feeding” ordinance, which restricts the sharing of food with groups of 25 or more within a two-mile radius of city hall, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal on Tuesday heard arguments in a rare rehearing of a case that has so far cost Orlando taxpayers nearly $150,000 in legal fees. #
The plaintiffs in the case are Orlando’s chapter of Food Not Bombs, an international anti-poverty activist group that provides vegetarian meals to the homeless twice a week in downtown Lake Eola Park, and the First Vagabonds Church of God, whose congregation is made up of mostly homeless individuals. #

Both groups, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the city for infringing on their First Amendment rights to free speech. Atlanta’s 11th Circuit Court of Appeal agreed to throw out the original ruling made by a three-person panel and allowed attorneys to present their arguments before the full court, with no witnesses or jury. The issue now hinges on one central question: whether or not feeding the homeless in a public park is “expressive speech” and as such protected by the Constitution.

In September, ACLU attorney Glenn Katon explained the rationale for the lawsuit in an interview with The Florida Independent:
That [ordinance] went into effect in August of 2006, and we challenged it right away, filing the lawsuit in federal district court, and inserted six different legal claims as to why the ordinance should be invalidated. After lots of procedural wrangling, we went to trial in May of 2008, before Judge Presnell in Orlando, and several months later got a ruling in our favor on a couple of the claims that invalidated the ordinance.
The claims that we won on were that the ordinance is unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech, because some of the plaintiffs were going out of their way to do these events in the main park in downtown Orlando and be very visible to raise awareness in the community of the problems of homelessness and hunger. So the judge said that was a speech activity, and that the ordinance unconstitutionally restricted it. The other claim we won on was for the other set of plaintiffs, which was a church for the homeless, where the court said there’s no rational basis for this ordinance, so therefore it restricts the free exercise of religion of the church.

Concerns have also been raised over the sheer cost of the legal battle against groups who seek to provide food to those in need, volunteering their time to combat a situation poised to only get worse as jobless numbers continue rising, unemployment benefits dry up and more individuals find themselves in the margins of society.

Noted on the front page of the Food Not Bombs website, alongside a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is the following:
Food Not Bombs shares free vegan and vegetarian meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment. With over a billion people going hungry each day how can we spend another dollar on war?

As reported by Central Florida’s WFTV: #
“The issue is whether or not Food Not Bombs can share food with hungry or homeless people in public spaces, like this park, in order to convey a message to the community,” Food Not Bombs attorney Jacqueline Dowd told WFTV. #
But the city has argued that any group needs a permit to serve food downtown, and they only issue two permits a year. #
Food Not Bombs argues those permits infringe on their rights, making it a First Amendment food fight with your tax money.

Over the last six years, the city of Orlando has shelled out at least $148,000 to fight the issue. Homeless groups say that is an awful lot of bread. #
The city says that’s still cheaper than the $234,000 they’d have to pay if they lost the case and had to pay Food Not Bombs’ legal fees. The city also says Food Not Bombs can go outside the two-mile radius of the ordinance and feed until their hearts content.

Some view the move by the Orlando City Council to restrict group feedings in the downtown area as an attempt to conceal the problems of homelessness and hunger. Ben Markeson of Orlando Food Not Bombs told the Independent: #
“They’re trying to get rid of homeless people, and trying to stop groups from sharing food with them,” Markeson says, “because they think it hinders business and growth and redevelopment, so they’re basically putting profits ahead of people.” #
He says the city offered a fenced parking lot behind the Orlando Utility Commission building for groups wanting to feed the homeless, but likened the area — which has no running water and barbed-wire-tipped fencing, and requires a city worker to unlock a gate for entry — to an apartheid scenario.

“Basically what they are trying to do is stage an apartheid-like system in downtown Orlando based on socio-economic status,” he says. “I think that homeless people deserve access to the same public amenities, such as parks, as people who are more affluent. So I oppose the city’s attempt to institute discrimination and second-class citizenship against the homeless. We don’t use a dime of public money, and we don’t want anything from the city of Orlando except for them to stop trying to hinder us in sharing food with homeless people.”

City attorneys argued Tuesday that routine group feedings raised issues of safety and sanitation, and put a strain on city resources, while Dowd claimed that the city had not presented any evidence that the law protected the interest of the park, which she noted the homeless should have equal rights to access. She also argued that the feedings might actually help to deter crime.

Despite the city’s contention that the ordinance “applies equally to everyone, wealthy mansion-dwellers and homeless alike,” local activist Ben Markeson, who participates in the weekly sharings, disagrees, arguing that the true aim of the ordinance is to expel the homeless from downtown. “I seriously doubt that the city would swoop down to arrest the preschool teacher for handing out sandwiches to more than 25 kids,” he says.
In the concluding remarks of the brief, Dowd echoes Markeson’s charge: “[T]he city seeks to exclude people it views as unsafe, unsanitary and displeasing based on generalized, unsubstantiated prejudices and fears rather than on any legitimate government interest.” #
A ruling in the case is not expected for several months, yet given the rarity of the rehearing, homeless advocates are optimistic. While the verdict can be appealed, the Supreme Court only hears about 1 percent of requested cases and as such the Appeals Court decision will likely be final. #

2011-02-12T06:10:00.000-08:00

This Sunday FEBRUARY 13, 2011 AT 7:00PM Eastern Standard Time,
60 MINUTES will feature homeless children and their families
and the rapidly growing problem in the United States due to the
recession.

During this very moving segment several homeless students from
Central Florida will share with the nation the struggles that
they are facing from losing their homes and living in motels,
shelters or staying in “shared housing.” They will also talk
about being hungry as their parents struggle to survive the
recession.

We have one of our “Beth Davalos” from SC Public School helping
to tell our story. Our hope is that this segment will expose
the issues our children and their families face and gain
support to end homelessness in Central Florida and the Nation.

2011-02-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

Launch of the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in Sarasota County:

I arrived at the Church of the Redeemer on Saturday morning around 8 a.m., only to find that a street art show covered Palm Avenue and had wiped out most of our parking. People were already arriving, and by 8:30 it was clear that we were going to need more chairs. Ultimately, several hundred people participated throughout the morning. We had great representation from law enforcement, there were city and county commissioners, service providers, agency heads, representatives from the business community and plenty of concerned citizens. And, perhaps most important, there was a large number of people who are or had been homeless.

After greetings from Executive Director Richard Martin, Father Wallace from the Church, and Carolyn Mason, I outlined the agenda for the day. We began with a report from Cheri Coryea, director of neighbourhood services in Manatee County, who described their process and success with a ten year plan to end homelessness. Then we broke into workgroups focusing on housing, prevention, economic development, safety and outreach, and health and human services. The work groups spent ninety minutes planning a way forward, deciding on goals, and giving homework assignments.

I had anticipated a large gathering and also suspected there would be folks who were not yet comfortable going into work groups, but wanted to add to the conversation. Therefore I led this group of fifty or so people by passing the microphone around and listening to those who wanted to be heard. There was great input from members of Florida Veterans for Common Sense, as well as from volunteers for the Resurrection House, Manasota Adventist Community Services, and those who volunteer at 911 Central Avenue in Sarasota.

Many of the people who are homeless had remained in my group. As the morning went on, they began to feel comfortable discussing the challenges of their daily lives. We heard both praise and criticism of local agencies, law enforcement, and municipal governments. Some had turned their life around, others were still struggling with substance abuse, mental illness or unemployment. I learned of the barriers that people must overcome to get medication, enroll their children in school, or simply to find a place to sleep. The stories told were powerful and impressed upon me the urgency of our project.

We concluded the morning by hearing brief reports from each of the work groups. Now we are attempting to synthesize the information we learned and report back to everyone who participated. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 11, at 2:00 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer. If you want to come work with us, please do, whether you were able to make it to yesterday’s meeting or not. I am very grateful to everyone in Sarasota for your support. Together we can end homelessness if only we have the will to try.

2011-01-31T16:11:00.000-08:00

A Ten Year Plan To End Homelessness in Sarasota County:

The response has been terrific. Today the Sarasota Herald Tribune published two editorials about the upcoming process to create a ten year plan to end homelessness. The links are as follows: First, the lead editorial http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110131/OPINION/101311027/2198/OPINION?Title=Building-hope-for-the-homeless

and then the guest editorial, co-authored by Carolyn Mason and myself:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110131/COLUMNIST/101311008/2080/OPINION?Title=Guest-column-Planning-to-end-homelessness-in-Sarasota-County

Since the editorials were published I have already heard from a number of interested citizens. I am especially grateful to the medical community. Doctors, P.A.'s, nurses and public health workers have all written to tell me of their efforts to treat and care for the homeless. This kind of input is critical to ensure success of thus process.

Others have written to me to give ideas about creating shelter or using available space. I know a lot of you are concerned with Veterans and putting them in touch with available services. Women and children can end up homeless for a variety of reasons yet escape public attention. This process will give the whole community a chance to work together for the benefit of us all.

2011-01-19T08:26:00.000-08:00

Please watch this teriffic film about the important work being done by the Community COalition on Homelessness in Manatee County. http://sarasota.anythingarts.com/video/community-coalition-on

2011-01-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

Denver has Success in Attempting to End Homelessness:

As Sarasota begins the process of creating a ten year plan to end homelessness, it is important to realize that other communities have made substantial progress. One of the leaders in the effort to end homelessness is Denver, Colorado. What follows is a link to the PBS newshour special report on their accomplishments.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/july-dec10/denver_12-22.html

2011-01-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

Update on Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in Sarasota County:
This is a reminder that the community launch of this project is scheduled for Saturday, February 5th, from 9:00 am to noon at the Church of the Redeemer, Palm Avenue Sarasota. All interested persons are invited to come and help us end homelessness in Sarasota County. We are in the planning stages now, but anticipate a series of work groups focusing on housing, homelessness prevention, public safety, employment, and health and human services. Part of your homework to prepare for this meeting is to go to the link below and see how other communities have used this planning process. http://www.endhomelessness.org/section/solutions/community_plans

2010-12-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

Coming Home Homeless :
There is a group of people who have done their part, stepped up, served, gone to war and done everything that has been asked of them without question or hesitation, only to find themselves homeless once that DD-214 is in hand. The Departnent of Veterans Affairs estimates that the number of homeless veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq numbers between nine and ten thousand, but Paul Reickhoff, the director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, believes that is an extremely conservative estimate.
The seeds of the problems our veterans face were planted several years ago and myriad factors have come together and now we are looking at harvesting a bumper crop of effed up. Part of the problem is repeated deployments and the devastation that inflicts on families, especially when those repeated deployments come with inadequate dwell time in between combat rotations, and when combat tours are stacked as close together as regulations will permit, important things fall by the wayside -- like teaching war ethics -- so we have soldiers repatriating that we have misused, abused and damaged psychically. Part of the problem is the pervasiveness of PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries and that pervasiveness is due to...wait for it...repeated deployments.
A lot of the veterans who end up homeless are eligible for VA benefits, but the approval process is cumbersome and puts the onus on the vet to prove they have a legitimate claim. Even though 86% of all claims are eventually approved it is not at all uncommon for a veteran to end up homeless while they wait for their benefits to be approved. It doesn't help that without an address, the process can be slowed down considerably.
So what can we do about it? Linda Bilmes, a researcher with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard has some ideas on that, and she has gone before Congress repeatedly and told them how to fix it for a large number of these veterans, and everyone nods in agreement with her, then they do nothing she consistently recommends.
But not everyone qualifies for benefits from the VA.
One of the factors that contributes to the skyrocketing number of homeless female veterans is the disintegration of families that crumble under the stress of repeated deployments.
Tara Henry was a chemical weapons specialist with the 101st Airborne and served two deployments to Iraq. Her second tour of duty came only four months after her son was born, but while in Iraq her husband filed for divorce and was granted custody of their two kids.
"When I found out about court and everything else, I said, 'You know what? I gotta get a lawyer." Henry says. "So, I was trying to deal with those things while I was in Iraq. So that's where my money was going."
Henry has lived in shelters, hotels, even in a car on the street. She hasn't told her children that she's homeless. "I don't really think they would understand that," she says.
[ ... ]
Tara Henry, the former chemical weapons specialist whose husband filed for divorce while she was on duty in Iraq, has also found a shelter. She lives in a cubicle at the Borden Avenue Veterans Shelter in Queens. And although she hasn't told her children that she is homeless, her eight-year-old daughter knows something isn't right.
"She took all the money that she had and said, 'Hey Mommy, this'll help you buy a house.' So I guess she knows that it costs."
The military has entire JAG offices on every base. Expand the services they offer so Soldiers in Tara Henry's position, be they women or men, don't have to spend every dime they have on legal representation to keep access to their kids -- kids that they likely joined up to provide for.
I think it is time to do everything Bilmes has recommended, especially the provisional approval of benefits for all applicants. That would take a serious whack at the number of homeless veterans, but I think it is time to go her one better and add a step to the outprocessing everyone goes through when they leave the military. Not everyone has a family to go back to. It would behoove us as a society to identify those veterans during the outprocessing phase and help them secure housing and the unemployment benefits they are entitled to.
Back in 2007 right after my friend Alex outprocessed, he and I were chatting via email one evening and I asked him if he had applied for his unemployment insurance yet. He responded back something like "Oh yeah! I guess I better do that."
It hadn't even been mentioned as he was outprocessing. That's one damned sentence to utter, fercryinoutloud, but I would go one better. I would make the application for benefits part of the process, and eliminate any "waiting weeks" requirements for repatriating soldiers, since the unemployment rate for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is 20% -- just over twice what it is for the population at large.
I look at it this way -- it costs a million bucks a year to keep a soldier in Afghanistan. Anyone willing to step up and serve deserves to come home to a roof over their head and the security of knowing not only where their next meal is coming from, but that they have choice in what it will be. That could be achieved for about $30 - 45,000 a year, and you can throw an education or vocational training in the mix at that price tag as well.
I don't know about you, but I believe that would be money well spent. In fact, it would completely redefine the old expression about "spending good money after bad."

2010-12-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

Attacking need from all angles:
The notion that society can accomplish any outsized goal may be unrealistic. “Full employment” never will be achieved, when only members of the workforce who really want a job have one. Polio is thought to have been eradicated, but there were two reported cases in the United States since 2005. There always will be someone who needs some form of help.
How then should one define the end of homelessness, and then accomplish that goal? Area nonprofit organizations are going to try.
The Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness, a Sarasota-based not-for-profit organization, seeks to live up to its name by embarking on a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Sarasota County, where some 600 people each night — and 10,000 people each year — are counted as homeless. Meanwhile in Charlotte County, where, on average, 626 people are homeless each night, the Charlotte County Homeless Coalition seeks a similar plan to end homelessness in its region.
It won’t be easy, with the economic crisis still in full bloom in Southwest Florida, along with dwindling government and nonprofit agency budgets. So before embarking on their respective plans, both organizations are defining success.
“Different communities choose to attack the plan in a different way,” said Angela M. Hogan, executive director of the homeless coalition. “My goal is to be able to have enough programs and services available in Charlotte County so that every person that is homeless could participate in services, if they wanted to.”
Richard Martin, executive director of the Suncoast Partnership, says the goal — to have everyone housed — is idealistic. He tells people that ending homelessness means “ending it one family or one individual at a time.”
To ensure favorable results, both agencies are mobilizing others interested in the success of their 10-year plans. Cooperation among governments, the business community and nonprofit agencies may result in the more-efficient delivery of services to the homeless population.
Streamlining the process for helping people may be as much a goal of the 10-year plans as it is a tool for achieving the ultimate goal of ending homelessness.
“It might be a case of reallocation of the dollars,” Suncoast Partnership Board Chair Adam Tebrugge said. “If we are spending a large amount of money in our emergency rooms and in our jails to treat this population, maybe there is a smarter way to get people help that actually will save money over the long run.”
One of the focal points of these plans is that they not begin and end with agencies that have the word “homeless” in their names. For example, if Charlotte Behavioral Healthcare is serving the homeless population, it also should receive funds to be able to provide those services, Hogan said.
“Because we are the lead agency, we are the ‘Homeless Coalition’ and we are the direct service provider for all homeless services in Charlotte County, we have earned this reputation as being solely responsible for the homeless problem,” Hogan said. “At the same time, that discourages collaboration and that discourages other organizations from wanting to get involved. So to change that paradigm in Charlotte County is where we are right now.”
Seeking collaboration, but not wanting to lead the conversation, the Suncoast Partnership is starting its effort with a blank slate other than focusing on jobs/ employment, housing, public safety, homeless prevention and health and human services, Martin says.
For her part, Hogan says, “We’re going to evaluate what programs and services exist, identify gaps in those services and develop programs and services that meet those needs.”
Efforts to end homelessness have support from both the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties.
“Five years ago the notion of cities having 10-year plans to end homelessness was naive and risky. No one thought it was possible,” U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano said. “But the new research and new technologies have created such movement and innovation on this issue that it may now be naive and risky not to have such a plan.”
While Charlotte County Homeless Coalition officials are seeking advice from Lee and Collier counties on how to formulate their plan, Suncoast Partnership officials are looking at Manatee County for inspiration. Manatee County embarked on a 10-year-plan to end homelessness more than four years ago.
The Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness officials will conduct a community meeting for anyone who wants to be involved in its 10-year plan Feb. 5, 2011, in downtown Sarasota. They hope to unveil the plan in June of next year. The homeless coalition also will sponsor community workshops before unveiling its plan. Input from past and present homeless people will play a key role in both plans.
Samantha Sumner does not ponder the definition of homelessness, but she studies how to end it every day. Sumner, 33, her husband Scott, 40, and their children Jade, 12, and Hahna, 9, are living at the Homeless Coalition’s emergency shelter in Murdock — residents stay there for up to 60 days — while they try to restore their financial situation, after a yearlong struggle. Samantha is awaiting a hearing to address her disability issues, but the family’s hardship may be easing. Scott recently started a telemarketing job in Charlotte Harbor.
“We’re looking at renting again,” Samantha said.
They don’t have a car, so they’ll look for a home close enough to his job that Scott can ride a bicycle provided by Edgewater United Methodist Church’s bike ministry, Samantha said.
Meanwhile, there’s a help wanted sign in the window of Basia’s Food Mart on El Jobean Road, a short bike ride from the shelter.

2010-11-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

Work Begins on a Ten year Plan to End Homelessness in Sarasota County: Here is a report written by Jacob Ogles of SRQ Magazine about the executive summit yesterday to kick off the process:

Sarasota leaders are planning a summit in early February to develop a plan to end homelessness in Sarasota County in the next decade. Officials hope to focus in on specific ways to accomplish the lofty goal. "I don't want to prescribe it. I want the community to develop the solutions," said Richard Martin, director of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness. But he affects efforts to zero in on five key areas: job skills training, shelter, prevention, public safety and health and human services. Sarasota County Commissioner Carolyn Mason chaired a meeting Monday morning to discuss efforts moving forward, and officials believe a great deal can be accomplished if the problems affecting those living on the street can be better identified. Other counties, including Manatee, already have a 10-year plan in place. Leaders plan to look at what has been effective in other areas and replicate those efforts here. "Nobody believes this problem can go away completely," said Sarasota City Commissioner Dick Clapp, "But we can do a lot to get people into something that is more productive." Those involved with the effort know government funding can be hard to come by right now, and are trying to work with the existing funding through county sources and the federal government. But Clapp said some funding may be used in more efficient ways, and Martin noted that preventing homelessness creates less of a funding burden than the costs created when people remain homeless.

2010-11-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Federal Government recently issued a strategic plan for ending homelessness in our nation. The govenment will partner with communities acrtoss the country who have formulated and implemented their own plans to end homelessness. "Opening Doors: the Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness, can be found at this link:
http://www.usich.gov/PDF/OpeningDoors_2010_FSPPreventEndHomeless.pdf

2010-11-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

A Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness:

I am hopeful that Sarasota will undertake a ten year plan to end homelessness. Manatee County undertook this process in 2006 and there has been much progress since that time. Here is a link to the Manatee County Plan.

http://cchomeless.com/src/ManateeCountyPlan081406finaldraft.doc

2010-10-15T10:58:00.001-07:00

New Help for Homeless Veterans:
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki has announced that 40 states will share more than $41.9 million in grants to community groups to provide 2,568 beds for homeless Veterans this year.
“These grants wouldn’t have happened without the extraordinary partnerships forged with community organizers,” said VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. “These investments will provide transitional beds to Veterans who have served honorably, but for various reasons now find themselves in a downward spiral toward despair and homelessness.”
The Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program provides grants and per diem payments to help public and nonprofit organizations establish and operate new supportive housing and service centers for homeless Veterans.
The $41.9 million is broken into two categories. About $26.9 million will help renovate, rehabilitate or acquire space for 1,352 transitional housing beds. A second group of awards, valued at $15 million, will immediately fund 1,216 beds at existing transitional housing for homeless Veterans this year. The awards will cover daily living costs based upon the number of homeless Veterans being served in transitional housing.
A key component of VA’s plan to eliminate homelessness among Veterans within five years, the grants and per diem payments helped reduce the number of Veterans who were homeless on a typical night last year by 18 percent to about 107,000 Veterans within one year.
VA’s strategy to eliminate homelessness among Veterans is to implement a “no wrong door" approach, meaning Veterans who seek assistance should find it in any number of VA’s programs, from community partners or through contract services.
Under the Secretary’s action plan to end homelessness among Veterans, VA will continue to offer a full range of support necessary to end the cycle of homelessness by providing education, jobs, health care and counseling, in addition to housing. VA will increase the number and variety of housing options available to homeless Veterans and those at risk, including permanent, transitional, contracted, community-operated and VA-operated housing. Most importantly, VA will target at-risk Veteran populations with aggressive support intervention to try to prevent homelessness before it starts.
For more information, visit VA’s Web page for VA’s National Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Office at www.va.gov/homeless. Additionally, VA has a National Call Center for Homeless Veterans, 1-877-4AID VET (1-877-424-3838), www1.va.gov/HOMELESS/NationalCallCenter.asp

2010-10-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of questions about court in Sarasota:

A few weeks ago a client came to see me and asked if I could represent him. He was homeless and charged with a minor offense and the judge had been giving him a hard time because he wore shorts to court. His possessions were limited to those he could carry and he didn’t own long pants.

I agreed to take the case. Yesterday I bought him some pants at Goodwill. This morning I met him outside the courthouse. He had his duffle bag that contained all of his possessions. We got in the long security line to enter the courthouse. My client’s bag was put through the x-ray system and rejected. He had can openers and utensils and other odd objects. The bailiffs didn’t want to take the time for him to unpack and go through each compartment, not with a hundred people in line behind us They told him he had to take it away, that he couldn’t leave it there and he couldn’t bring it inside.

Now this story ended without problem. I took his bag and walked out and locked it in my trunk and we went to court. But what about everyone else with all that they own in their possession and a date with a judge? What are they supposed to do with their duffle bags and knapsacks?

And how are they supposed to pay their court costs? But at least he was wearing long pants.

2010-06-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

Obama vows to end homelessness in 10 years

— The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan that aspires to end homelessness among some of society's most vulnerable groups within the next decade.

"Opening Doors," a "Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness," calls for ending child and family homelessness in 10 years while wiping out chronic homelessness and homelessness among veterans in five years.

According to the 74-page plan, "Stable housing is the foundation upon which people build their lives — absent a safe, decent, affordable place to live, it is next to impossible to achieve good health, positive educational outcomes or reach one's economic potential."

The plan is a significant breakthrough because there's never been a comprehensive federal effort to end homelessness with a timeline and measureable goals, said Nan Roman, the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

"To me that's really important, because we know that when the Bush administration made a commitment to end chronic homelessness, it really made a huge difference," she said. "It changed how resources were allocated. It caused better coordination, and the result has been that the chronic numbers have gone down. Now they're taking that same approach and they're expanding it to the other homeless populations. I think that's significant."

Other advocates also lauded the plan's goals, but they questioned the lack of details about how some of the proposals would be paid for.

"The big question is whether preventing children and families in the U.S. from becoming homeless is important enough for Congress" to increase homeless-program funding, "and I don't think they'll do that without enough pressure and leadership from the White House," said Maria Foscarinis, the executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. "In order to achieve these goals, the funding has to be there, and that means the administration has to really be firm and advocate."

"Opening Doors" comes a week after a government report showed that nearly 1.6 million people, including more than 170,000 U.S. families, spent time in homeless shelters last year as the recession, mounting foreclosures and record unemployment sent people scrambling for shelter.

The number of families in homeless shelters jumped 7 percent by nearly 11,000 families from 2008 to 2009. Overall, family homelessness was up 30 percent in 2009 from 2007.

The economic stimulus bill has helped 357,000 people by moving some from homeless shelters into their own apartments and by providing rent payments to prevent others from becoming homeless. Many agencies that distribute the money already have exhausted or committed their two- and three-year allocations, however, and some are turning away needy people as their funding dwindles.

With most homeless shelters at capacity, many homeless families are moving in, or "doubling up," with friends and relatives in overcrowded households.

Against this backdrop, federal legislation that President Barack Obama signed in May 2009 required the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to develop "Opening Doors" as the first national plan to combat homelessness.

While it's more a road map for direction than a detailed blueprint for immediate action, "Opening Doors" outlines the government's commitment to make homelessness a priority for all federal agencies and to partner with states, localities, private organizations and other stakeholders to make existing homeless programs more effective and efficient by using strategies that already have proved to be successful, Most notable among these efforts is combining housing and supportive services for the chronically homeless.

Nationally, there are 234 community plans to end homelessness and 84 percent of them are 10-year plans, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Last year, the alliance identified four factors as crucial for plan success: putting a person or organization in charge of its implementation, setting specific numeric goals, setting a timeline for completion and identifying a funding source. In a survey of the first 90 communities to establish 10-year plans, however, the alliance found that only 8 percent of those plans had dedicated funding sources and only 18 percent had specific numeric goals. Only 41 percent set timelines for implementation and 35 percent had people or groups in charge of achieving the plans.

A demonstration project that the Obama administration requested in its 2011 federal budget proposal offers a glimpse into the kind of multi-agency programming that "Opening Doors" envisions.

The Obama proposal would direct 4,000 Section 8 housing vouchers to homeless people who need treatment from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration along with health care, child care and employment services from Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

This multi-layered assistance is known as permanent supportive housing. It's primarily for chronically homeless people who have disabilities, are tough to employ and are prone to long, frequent bouts of homelessness. The Obama proposal is modeled after similar efforts during the George W. Bush administration, which set a goal in 2002 to end chronic homelessness in 10 years.

Under the Bush initiative, the nation's chronic homeless population fell to 111,000 in 2009 from nearly 156,000 in 2006, after 42,000 permanent supportive housing slots were added. In deference to the Bush efforts, "Opening Doors" proposes to "finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years."

"Opening Doors" will focus resources on housing youths who age out of the foster care program at 18 and often end up homeless within a few months. Similar attention will be paid to homeless veterans, who accounted for 13 percent of the people who were in shelters last year.

The new plan also calls for government and private sources to provide more rent subsidies for individuals and families who are at risk of becoming homeless. The subsidies, similar to the Section 8 housing program, would allow recipients to pay a maximum of 30 percent of their income for housing.

Funding rental vouchers through the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 program has proved a difficult battle in Congress. The House of Representatives hasn't yet begun floor debate on the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act, which passed the House Financial Services Committee last July. The bill would provide subsidies for 150,000 more low-income families, but housing advocates are pushing for another 2 million vouchers over the next 10 years; that would double the current amount.

The report also calls for replenishing the nation's dwindling supply of affordable rental housing by funding the National Housing Trust Fund, which was created in 2008 as a permanent federal funding source to help construct, renovate and preserve 1.5 million units of rental housing for low-income families over 10 years.

The fund was slated to provide up to $1 billion a year for states and local governments to award grants to developers and organizations that agree to build or rehabilitate low-income housing, but Congress hasn't funded the measure because of the economic downturn.

From 2001 to 2007, the stock of affordable rental units fell by 6.3 percent, or 1.2 million units, while the supply of high-rent units increased 94.3 percent. For every new affordable-housing unit that's constructed, two are demolished, abandoned or converted to condominiums or expensive rentals, according to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

by Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: June 22, 2010 12:43:41 PM

2010-02-17T04:51:00.001-08:00

Call to Action: The Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness Needs Your Help

As most of you know, the State of Florida cut funding to Homeless Coalitions by 80% last year, severely limiting the capacity of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness ability to maintain the level of service to homeless service providers in Manatee and Sarasota Counties. This Thursday, DCF will present their proposal to cut 15% from their budget which includes a 100% cut to homeless funding in 2010 budget year (see details below)! The repercussions of this cut will have a devastating effect on our ability to prevent and end homelessness throughout Florida and within our Continuum of Care at a time that the demand for services continues to skyrocket. The cut would eliminate the Florida Office on Homelessness and Council on Homelessness, the state's only emergency aid program to keep families with children from being evicted and all Challenge Grant funding (four agencies received $96,000 this year for homeless outreach (Manatee Glens), legal services (Gulfcoast Legal Services), homeless prevention services (provided by Jewish Family and Children's Service in Manatee County and Catholic Charities in Sarasota & Manatee Counties).

Please contact our two state senators, Mike Bennett (bennett.mike.web@flsenate.gov or 1-800-500-1239) and Nancy Detert (detert.nancy.web@flsenate.gov or 1-866-247-4076) and let them know what this funding means to our community and your efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Their contact information is available by clicking on the link below.

Sample Message:
More and more Floridians - including families with children - are facing and becoming homeless every day. As a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, now is not the time to turn our backs on our neighbors in need. During the 2009-2010 FY, these programs have/will assist more than 30,000 Floridians who were homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless.

These programs and funding are needed more than ever before. Do not cut these funds - people's lives are depending on them.

Thank you,

Richard Martin
Executive Director

From: Florida Coalition on Homelessness

DCF's 15 percent reduction plan is a 100 percent REDUCTION in homeless funding.

This Thursday, DCF will present its proposal to reduce the department's budget by 15 percent - a proposal that would include a 100 percent reduction in homeless funding - to the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations committee staff. (This is line 10 in the proposal.)

ACTION IS NEEDED TODAY!!!

The Details:
These reductions would end the State's commitment to provide resources to help those facing homelessness in Florida.

The Cuts:
· Would eliminate the Office on Homelessness and its two state funded positions
· Would eliminate the funding to support the statewide Council on Homelessness, causing it to no longer function.
· Would eliminate the homeless Challenge Grant and funding for local homeless service providers
· Would end the funding of a staff position at the 28 local homeless coalitions around the state.
· Would end the state's only emergency aid program to keep families with children from being evicted.

Combined (statewide) Impacts:
· 90 to 100 local non-profit service agencies would lose funding for critical programs for shelter, food, clothing, health care and transportation.
· 40,000 homeless persons would lose local services.
· Over 2,000 families with children in 2010 will be evicted and face living on the street.
· At least 5 of the state's 28 continuums of care would not be able to implement the federally mandated homeless information system.
· Likely to see from 10 to 15 of the 28 local homeless coalitions close.
· Estimate that Florida could lose up to 25% of the $67 million in federal grants supporting housing options for the homeless in 2010.
· Estimate that the total homeless population in Florida will increase by at least 10 percent, and could rise by more than 25 percent over the 2009 count of 57,687 persons.

2009-12-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Helping homeless help themselves: The work of a local organization shows that homelessness can be ended for many individuals and families with a combination of compassion, appropriate services, competent business practices and lessons in personal responsibility.
In April 2003, a Clearwater husband and wife were doing relatively well financially. The wife had two low-wage jobs. So did the husband. They had a school-age child and one on the way. A complicated pregnancy left the wife unable to work. The husband continued to work, but he could not support the family on his meager earnings.
Soon after their second child, a daughter, was born, they were evicted because they had fallen behind in the rent. Next, they were told their newborn had a heart condition requiring corrective surgery they could not afford.
Unable to get help from government agencies and other organizations, they turned to the Clearwater-based, nonprofit Homeless Emergency Project, locally known as HEP. They were placed in emergency housing, given crisis counseling, clothing and were assured of nutritious daily meals. The family received free medical care, including the newborn's heart surgery.
Three months after entering HEP, the family was moved into a furnished three-bedroom apartment in the organization's permanent housing program that puts families on track to become self-sufficient. Project staff members assessed the couple's history, focusing on the problems that contributed to their becoming homeless and giving them regular health care and vocational training.
Last March, the couple had new jobs and moved into their own unsubsidized apartment. Christine Garrison, HEP development specialist, said they have become "productive members of our community. The family is healthy and flourishing."
This family's success is not unusual. For the last 40 years, the project has quietly been the major provider of direct services to the homeless in Pinellas County. Its success rate in helping clients make the transition from homelessness to permanent housing is well above the national average for similar programs, with 77 percent making the transition in 2008.
The main campus, on N Betty Lane in the North Greenwood community, has 300 beds: 25 for overnight shelter; 75 for emergencies; 108 for those transitioning to nonsubsidized housing; and 92 for people who, because of serious problems, must live at the facility permanently. An additional 1,113 clients are housed at the other 28 facilities.
Bruce Fyfe, chairman of the board, and Barbara Green, president and CEO, said the project's success starts with their clear understanding that homelessness can be ended with a "holistic" and "comprehensive" approach, which they refer to as "the continuum of care."
HEP works with dozens of other organizations and agencies, including Morton Plant Hospital, St. Petersburg College, R' Club Child Care Inc., Pinellas County Schools, BayCare Behavioral Health, Pinellas County Human Services and the Veterans Administration. With these and other partners, HEP provides vital services such as mental health care, substance abuse treatment, primary care, dental care, job skills training, public benefits advice, transportation, legal assistance, employment counseling and tutoring for the children.
Aside from the project's services, its common sense, tough-love and humanitarian philosophy are major reasons for its accomplishments.
"Self-sufficiency requires self-respect," Fyfe wrote in an e-mail response to my question. "We firmly believe that our staff and our volunteers must treat all clients as they would treat themselves, that all facilities must be clean and well-maintained; that all food be prepared with skill and balanced nutrition. We believe respect is reciprocal and insist that clients respect staff, volunteers, neighbors, other clients and the facilities as though this was their home and everyone was a member of their family."
In her e-mail response, Green emphasized personal responsibility: "Unlike most homeless assistance providers, we require a commitment from all clients accepted into our program. Upon entry, all clients agree to comply with all program rules and codes of conduct. Clients are held accountable for their own actions and behaviors.
"They share responsibility in the process of gaining independence. For example, all clients contribute at least five hours a week in community services hours, volunteering in the kitchen, thrift store, bike shop or other areas that meet their abilities. This engages them and helps them realize their potential to be contributing citizens alongside their neighbors."
By helping the homeless, HEP contributes to the greater good. For example, the Morton Plant Outreach Team, which provides HEP with a full-time, on-site registered psychiatric nurse and two on-site licensed practical nurses, reports that on-site diagnosis and intervention save the local health care system more than $2 million annually in emergency room visits and hospital admissions.
Every other organization in Pinellas County that assists the homeless can learn from HEP. Barbara Green and her staff are succeeding in ending homelessness for the overwhelming majority of their clients.

By Bill Maxwell, Times correspondent   Published Friday, December 11, 2009

2009-11-04T09:15:00.001-08:00

A new plan to help homeless veterans:

The Department of Veterans Affairs laid out Tuesday an ambitious five-year goal of curbing the number of homeless veterans, pledging $3.2 billion to an issue that is more rapidly affecting those who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than by any from past conflicts.

"No one who has served this nation as veterans should ever be living on the streets," VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said.

"In the past, VA focused largely on getting homeless veterans off the streets," Shinseki said. "This plan is different. It aims as much, if not more, on preventing as it does on rescuing those who live on the streets."

Roughly 131,000 of the nation's 24 million veterans may be homeless on any given night, and about twice as many are homeless each year, according to VA estimates. About 3 percent of homeless vets served in Iraq or Afghanistan, but a 2007 study by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America found that they become homeless faster than do other veterans. While homeless Vietnam veterans first spent, on average, five to 10 years trying to readjust to society, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans can end up homeless within 18 months, the study said.

Government officials and homeless experts worry that the number of homeless veterans could climb another 10 to 15 percent in the economic downturn.

"The economy's hitting our people very hard. Unemployment rates are over 12 percent now," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "Mortgage foreclosure rates around military bases is four times the average. And it's hard to keep a job if you're getting deployed every 12 months if you're a national guardsman."

The new VA commitment adds $400 million to its current efforts to prevent homelessness. Eighty-five percent of the funds will go toward health-care costs, an acknowledgement that homelessness is often secondary to health problems, especially mental health issues and substance abuse.

The department will expand current partnerships with the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other federal, state and community veterans programs. It will also assist veteran-owned businesses in qualifying for federal contracts and surviving the downturn.

Shinseki invited thousands of government, nonprofit and faith-based homelessness experts and advocates to Washington this week to tackle the issue, which he vows to fix during his tenure.

"I'm the newcomer here today, so let me reiterate that this is not a summit on homeless veterans, it's a summit to end homelessness among veterans," he said. "That's our purpose."

Vietnam Veterans of America applauded the goal. But Richard Weidman, head of policy and government affairs, added, "There are additional things that we think need to be addressed to be successful in achieving that goal, although it's a good start."

Weidman cited a need for the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department to do more to diagnose and treat post-traumatic stress disorder; improve treatment for substance-abusing veterans, who comprise about a third of the homeless veterans population; and eliminate a backlog in providing compensation to veterans too ill to work. Fresh attention to the needs of women veterans, who comprise an increasing portion of the homeless veterans population, would also be a boon, he said.

"If you add those other elements, you're never gonna get to zero, but we can do a hell of a lot better than we are doing," Weidman said.

Shinseki -- a former Army chief of staff who once clashed with the Bush administration over its Iraq war policy -- has earned praise for his tough approach to reviving a department described as moribund by lawmakers.

"We've seen responsiveness from the VA that we haven't seen in the past," said Terry Howell, an editor at Military.com, a veterans news and social-networking site.

"They're quick to try new and interesting approaches to solving the issues that they're facing right now," Howell said.

By Ed O'Keefe and Garance Franke-Ruta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 4, 2009

2009-10-27T03:31:00.000-07:00

Wakeland reaches out to homeless:

At age 8, Zachary Schwab might be small, but he’s got big ideas that he’s put into motion.

The third-grade student at Wakeland Elementary School of International Studies recently started a campaign to collect personal hygiene products and other needed items for the local homeless community.

Toothbrushes, towels, blankets, socks and soap are just a few items he and 17 of his classmates are collecting at their International Baccalaureate school on 27th Street East in Bradenton.

“The campaign stemmed from an action cycle idea by Zachary as he thought of ways that he could make a difference in the community,” said his mother, Melissa Schwab.

When he shared the idea with his teacher, Lynne Kralik, and his classmates, they quickly became enthused and were more than happy to pitch in, she said.

“This is nothing he was told to do,” said Wakeland Principal Chuck Fradley. “The epitome of the instruction is when the child takes something they learned in class and without a teacher or parent goes out and acts on it on their own, giving back to the world and making it a better place, completing the action cycle. They’ve learned something, decided what they wanted to do and now they are acting on it. That’s what Zach did.”

So far his class has collected about 57 toothbrushes, Zachary said Monday.

“But lately no one has been bringing anything in,” he said. “They (homeless) need all the help they can get because some people don’t make it through the winter.”

The International Baccalaureate program involves an innovative curriculum taught by specially trained teachers that focuses on six subject areas: language, social studies, mathematics, science/technology, arts and physical education.

Students learn basic academics but also who they are, how they can be a resource and the importance of global initiatives, Schwab said.

Through the end of the month, Zach and his classmates will continue to collect donations.

They plan to distribute their donations in mid-November, Schwab said, at Bayside Community Church on Saturday mornings during a weekly outreach program in which the church provides a free breakfast to about 100 homeless people.

“I want our church to be an organization that adds value to our community,” said Randy Bezet, Bayside Community Church pastor.

“I love Bradenton and Sarasota. We are interested in helping make it a better place to live, not just within the four walls of our church but in very practical ways that have nothing to do with our church.”

by Natalie Neysa Alund Bradenton Herald published October 27, 2009

2009-09-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

Too Small to Fail--The Crisis of Homeless Schoolchildren by Arianna Huffington

I was scheduled to give a speech at the Get Schooled conference on education reform yesterday, sponsored by the Gates Foundation and Viacom. My speech had been perfectly trimmed to fit the allotted time, and already loaded in the teleprompter.

Then I read Erik Eckholm's moving story in the New York Times on the surge of homeless schoolchildren caused by the epidemic of home foreclosures. The story was accompanied by a photo that haunted me.

It showed 9-year-old Charity Crowell, of Asheville, North Carolina whose family's home had been foreclosed on. As recounted by Eckholm, Charity had picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school, while vowing to bring her grades back up from the Cs she got last spring when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and forced to move into a series of friends' houses and then a motel -- and now a trailer, from which they are also facing eviction.

I've already been thinking a lot about the human cost of the millions of foreclosures taking place across America. But after I read this article, I dug deeper into the impact of foreclosures on schoolchildren. And I wanted to communicate the sense of urgency I felt to the thousand people gathered at the conference, including Bill and Melinda Gates, Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller, New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein, and Stephen Colbert, who emceed the event. So I decided to scrap my planned speech and talk about the crisis.

We don't have the current numbers of homeless school children. The latest national data we have is from last spring, when there were over one million schoolchildren who were homeless. But since last spring, two million more jobs have been lost, and home foreclosures have continued to rise at an epidemic pace. How many of the million homes that have received foreclosure filings in the last six months included school age children?

We have anecdotal evidence from school districts like San Antonio, which has enrolled 1,000 homeless students in the first two weeks of school -- double the amount as at the same point last year.

We live in a country that, one year ago this month, came together with a sense of national emergency, and bailed out banks that were "too big to fail."

Shouldn't we also be living in a country that can come together right now and bail out schoolchildren that are too small to be allowed to fail before they have been allowed to succeed?

"I couldn't go to sleep," 9-year-old Charity said of her last semester. "I was worried about all the stuff." As a result, she often fell asleep in class.

Since 2001, federal law has required every school district to appoint a liaison to the homeless charged with identifying and helping families, including sending school buses to pick up the kids sleeping in run-down motels, or living in cars, homeless shelters, or on the streets.

But school superintendents report that while this is a worthy law, Congress has largely passed the costs on to states and cities already facing massive budget deficits.

And we know that every day more and more families with schoolchildren are losing their homes. And more and more school districts are trying to bridge the gap and meet the growing need.

Eckholm tells the story of Emily Walters, the Buncombe County school district's liaison to the homeless, who "is busy as school begins, providing backpacks and other supplies, and signing homeless children up for free breakfasts and lunches."

The evening before school began, Ms. Walters drove 45 minutes to an RV campground to deliver a scientific calculator and other essential school supplies to Cody Curry, 14, who lives with his mother, Dawn, and his brother, Zack, 11, in a camper. Mrs. Curry had to downsize from a trailer, she said, when her work as a sales clerk was cut to two days a week.
"We see 8-year-olds telling Mom not to worry, don't cry," Bill Murdock, who is also working with homeless school children, told Eckholm.

It's hard to hear stories like these and not be outraged that, as a country, we have given trillions of dollars to save banks like Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo that are now turning around and refusing to modify mortgages, so that at least people with children can stay in their homes.

It's important to remember that many of the people losing their homes now are not people with crazy sub-prime mortgages or who took out massive loans they couldn't afford. They are hard working, middle class Americans who have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet.

It's equally important to remember that these are the same banks that used bailout money -- our money -- to hire lobbyists to kill legislation in the Senate this spring that would have saved over a million-and-a-half people from losing their homes.

Even judges are getting angry. Judges like Arthur Schack of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn who regularly refuses banks' petitions for foreclosure if every i is not dotted and every t is not crossed. "If you are going to take away someone's house," he told the New York Times, "everything should be legal and correct. I'm a strange guy -- I don't want to put a family on the street unless it's legitimate."

Home foreclosures are a gateway calamity, magnified exponentially when they affect America's children. Teaching our kids is tough enough under normal circumstances; it becomes nearly impossible when you add in the instability and inherent distress of homelessness.

So we need to take steps. And we need take them now. For starters, when there are children affected by the pending foreclosure, we need to revisit legislation allowing bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of home loans -- the horribly named cramdown provision. HuffPost's Ryan Grim reported today that Barney Frank plans to make cramdown part of the financial regulatory reform bill set to come before Congress this fall. We should make sure that the banking lobbyists aren't able to kill it again.

We should also require mandatory mediation between homeowners and lenders prior to any foreclosure. Currently, many lenders make it next to impossible for homeowners facing foreclosure to reach them. Pilot programs along these lines have succeeded in preventing or delaying foreclosures in the majority of cases. Then why don't we insist that mediation happens -- at least when there are schoolchildren involved?

In my original speech, I had planned to talk about the importance of teaching empathy to our children. The crisis of homeless students is an opportunity for all of us to teach it to our children by demonstrating it -- at the public policy level, as well as at the private charity level.

As a society, we cannot stand by and allow the banks we saved to bolster their bottom lines, then coldly and cavalierly write off our most vulnerable citizens, our children.

This is about much more than money. It's about our priorities as a nation. The conference focused on the need to rebuild our educational infrastructure. And that's incredibly important. But there is a fire blazing -- the rising homelessness among schoolchildren. And we desperately need to act before it turns into a conflagration.

2009-09-07T04:33:00.000-07:00

Surge in Homeless Pupils Strains Schools:

In the small trailer her family rented over the summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try harder and bring her grades back up from the C’s she got last spring — a dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel.

Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.

The instability can be ruinous to schooling, educators say, adding multiple moves and lost class time to the inherent distress of homelessness. And so in accord with federal law, the Buncombe County district, where Charity attends, provides special bus service to shelters, motels, doubled-up houses, trailer parks and RV campgrounds to help children stay in their familiar schools as the families move about.

Still, Charity said of her last semester, “I couldn’t go to sleep, I was worried about all the stuff,” and she often nodded off in class.

Charity and her brother, Elijah Carrington, 6, were among 239 children from homeless families in her district as of last June, an increase of 80 percent over the year before, with indications this semester that as many or more will be enrolled in the months ahead.

While current national data are not available, the number of schoolchildren in homeless families appears to have risen by 75 percent to 100 percent in many districts over the last two years, according to Barbara Duffield, policy director of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, an advocacy group.

There were 679,000 homeless students reported in 2006-7, a total that surpassed one million by last spring, Ms. Duffield said.

With schools just returning to session, initial reports point to further rises. In San Antonio, for example, the district has enrolled 1,000 homeless students in the first two weeks of school, twice as many as at the same point last year.

“It’s hard enough going to school and growing up, but these kids also have to worry where they’ll be staying that night and whether they’ll eat,” said Bill Murdock, chief executive of Eblen-Kimmel Charities, a private group in Asheville that helps needy families with anything from food baskets and money for utility bills to toiletries and a prom dress.

“We see 8-year-olds telling Mom not to worry, don’t cry,” Mr. Murdock said.

Since 2001, federal law has required every district to appoint a liaison to the homeless, charged with identifying and aiding families who meet a broad definition of homelessness — doubling up in the homes of relatives or friends or sleeping in motels or RV campgrounds as well as living in cars, shelters or on the streets. A small minority of districts, including Buncombe County, have used federal grants or local money to make the position full time.

The law lays out rights for homeless children, including immediate school placement without proof of residence and a right to stay in the same school as the family is displaced. Providing transportation to the original school is an expensive logistical challenge in a huge district like Buncombe County, covering 700 square miles.

While the law’s goals are widely praised, school superintendents lament that Congress has provided little money, adding to the fiscal woes of districts. “The protections are important, but Congress has passed the cost to state and local taxpayers,” said Bruce Hunter, associate director of the American Association of School Administrators.

Fairfax County, Va., where the number of homeless students climbed from 1,100 in June 2007 to 1,800 last spring, has three social workers dedicated to the homeless and is using a temporary stimulus grant to assign a full-time transportation coordinator to commandeer buses, issue gas cards and sometimes call taxis to get the children to their original schools.

Like Fairfax County, the Asheville area looks prosperous, drawing tourists and retirees, but manicured lawns, million-dollar homes and golf courses mask the struggles of many adults working at low-paying jobs in sales and food service.

Emily Walters, the liaison to the homeless for the Buncombe County schools, is busy as school begins, providing backpacks and other supplies and signing children up for free breakfasts and lunches. But her job continues through the school year as other families lose their footing and those who had concealed their status, because of the stigma or because they were not aware of the benefits, join the list.

Sometimes it includes driving families in crisis to look at prospective shelters — a temporary solution at best, Ms. Walters said. When the county receives a two-year stimulus grant next month, she said, she hopes there will be more money to help people avoid eviction or pay security deposits for new rentals.

The evening before school began, Ms. Walters drove 45 minutes to an RV campground to deliver a scientific calculator and other essential school supplies to Cody Curry, 14, who lives with his mother, Dawn, and his brother, Zack, 11, in a camper. Mrs. Curry had to downsize from a trailer, she said, when her work as a sales clerk was cut to two days a week.

The first day of school, Ms. Walters drove to a men’s rescue shelter in the city to take Nate Fountain, 18, to high school. Nate said his parents kicked him out of the house last spring, during his senior year, because he was not doing his school work and was drinking and using drugs. With Ms. Walters’s help, he said, he expects to finish high school this semester and study culinary arts at a community college.

“I spend a lot of time just making sure the kids stay in school,” Ms. Walters said.

The busing service was especially valued by Leslie Laws, who was laid off from her job in customer service last year and lost her rental apartment.

Ms. Laws and her 12-year-old son are staying in a women’s shelter in Asheville, far from his former school. He is deeply involved with activities like chorus. Now he must catch the bus at 6:05 a.m. and ride one and a half hours each way.

Educators and advocates for the homeless across the country said that in the current recession, the law had made a difference, minimizing destructive gaps in schooling and linking schools with social welfare agencies.

Charity Crowell, despite her vow to bring up her grades, may be in store for another rough semester. Her stepfather works long hours delivering food on commission, but business is poor. Her mother, Katrina, wants to look for a job, but that is difficult without a car.

Food stamps help, but by the second half of each month the family is mostly eating “Beanee Weenees and noodles,” Ms. Crowell said. As school resumed in late August, the family was facing eviction from the $475-a-month trailer and uncertain about what to do next.

By ERIK ECKHOLM New York Times published 9/6/09

2009-09-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hillsborough County is to be commended for giving a proposal to help the homeless the attention it deserves. In the last month, officials have worked to salvage a plan by Catholic Charities to build a "tent city" for the homeless east of Tampa. The tents may not be ideal, but they are a start toward addressing the worst homeless problem in the state.

Catholic Charities proposed building a camp of 250 tents and casitas, or wooden sheds, on church-owned land near where Hillsborough Avenue connects with Interstate 4. The complex would also include a community building where tenants would eat, bathe and receive life-skills training. Modeled after a similar program the church runs with success in Pinellas County, the tent city could offer temporary housing for about 1,000 people a year. Residents would have a safe, healthy environment in which to rebuild their lives and find jobs and permanent homes.

The effort stalled this summer after a county hearing officer ruled the tents did not meet minimum housing standards. Residents near the proposed site also complained the tents would lower their property values. The commission was right to dismiss both obstacles. County staff is now rewriting the housing code to expressly permit homeless camps and other such temporary housing. The wording is narrow enough to serve the homeless without weakening the housing standards countywide. Church officials have agreed to tighten oversight of the camp. They are also open to making physical changes to the site to improve security and transportation.

The church's commitment could help Hillsborough better care for its 10,000 homeless, the largest number of any county in the state. County commissioners were right that the bureaucracy should not stand in the way of a good idea. The project is not a done deal. Commissioners need to be open in working with the church to get this tent city, and perhaps another, off the ground. But they were right to side with this admirable project instead of with those who denigrated the homeless. The homeless are here, they are our fellow residents and their dignity and safety deserves consideration.

An editorial from the St. Petersburg Times published September 4, 2009

2009-08-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

Family Promise of Sarasota restructures to meet homeless needs:

This article was published in Sarasota Magazine and was written by Kim Cartlidge

Criminal and family law attorney Marcia Lockwood had her doubts this week as she prepared for a volunteer open house. Who would show? Would there be enough interest in the organization she’d put her heart into over the summer to sustain its volunteer-driven, hands-on mission?
Four months ago, Family Promise of Sarasota voted to suspend operations. Donations were down, and the interdenominational program to help homeless families get back on their feet needed to restructure. It was a difficult decision that involved letting go of the staff, followed by a long summer of frank discussions among the board and coordinators who represent the 12 congregations that participate in the program.
Lockwood, who is president of Family Promise, put out an invitation for volunteers to serve on the finance, fund-raising, board development and public relations committees. Fifteen minutes before the open house was to begin, more than 20 people were lined up outside her office.
This October, Family Promise plans to accept another family into its newly restructured program. A grand opening of a new day center is slated for November, although the organization is still seeking an appropriate, low-cost, downtown space in Sarasota where families can seek jobs and get counseling services.

That’s the very good news.
The bad news is that family homelessness, which had begun to decline, is on the rise again. As the Washington Post reported this month, joblessness—not addiction or mental health issues or other behaviors often associated with chronic homelessness—is often the root cause. Single mothers who once had steady jobs and two-income families who were earning modest-to-middle-class incomes, but not saving, have been showing up at homeless shelters across the country.
Family Promise could not have engineered its own recovery at a better time. The organization serves those families by offering shelter within its network of churches and synagogues, meals prepared by congregation members and intensive job counseling and life coaching for 90 days. Its volunteers donate thousands of dollars of in-kind services based on each family’s needs—from dental work to auto repairs to computers for school-aged children.
But what drew Lockwood to the organization was its human touch. As each family goes through the program, dozens of members of the community, all from different religions, offer face-to-face support and encouragement to a family in need. That human contact enables parents and children to learn to trust, to accept help and to interact with people from diverse backgrounds.
It’s all based on a national model that was established 20 years ago as Interfaith Hospitality Networks in New Jersey. Today, Family Promise has more than 140 community affiliates nationwide. In Sarasota, each congregation that participates will house, feed, and converge upon a family in crisis any number of kindnesses for one week several times a year. Volunteers say they get attached, and follow the families even after they leave the program.
It’s a grassroots solution to homelessness that creates a safety net, and a community, for one family at a time. Family Promise of Sarasota can be reached at (941) 952-1800.

2009-08-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

People browse for services at the Homeless Stand Down and Health Fair.

Today, members of the homeless community in Tampa received services, toiletries, clothing, and basic health care at the Hyde Park United Methodist Church.

The fair is co-sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.

Patrick Conway currently resides in the Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans, or DCHV, in Tampa. He says it’s a great alternative to living on the streets.

The DCHV where Conway resides has a capacity of 35 men and women who are eligible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But according to their medical administration specialist Sharon Tapia, there are only 19 clients there now because some recently found employment and moved on.

Information about the DCHV is just one service featured at the annual “Homeless Stand Down and Health Fair.” Last year it served 125 homeless people including 75 homeless veterans. Wendy Hellickson is a social worker with the Health Care for Homeless Veterans program at the Tampa VA center.

Americorps Vista summer associate Adriane Wilson helped organize the health fair.

Diane DeJesus is a registered nurse who works for the VA clinic in New Port Richey. She took blood pressure of some of the homeless visitors to the health fair. Earnest Taylor says the VA normally takes care of his health needs. He served in Army in the 1980s and has a service-connected knee injury.

People receiving help on Friday - including Sherry White, a Mr. Ramos, and David Williams - gave a range of opinions about the health fair.

The Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance gave people advice on jobs. Al Hilsman is their disabled veterans outreach representative.

2009-08-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Homeless Veterans Survey

At our last Continuum of Care meeting, Carrie Meo-Omens, the new Homeless Program Coordinator for Bay Pines VA Healthcare System spoke about the many programs offered to homeless and at-risk veterans. Carrie is currently surveying agencies that serve homeless homeless veterans regarding available programs, services and unmet needs. For further information on how to participate in the survey, please contact:

Carrie E. Meo-Omens, LCSW
Bay Pines VA Healthcare System
10000 Bay Pines Blvd.
Domiciliary, Mail Code 18
Bay Pines, FL 33744

2009-07-24T16:07:00.000-07:00

Doing the right thing for homeless:

This is what happens when altruism clashes head-on with policy.

With the possible exception of contracting a fatal disease, is there any fear worse than the prospect of losing one's home, one's future, to have one's dignity literally thrown into the streets?

The homeless. We see them every day, under bridges, panhandling on street corners, pushing grocery carts filled with what is left of their lives. And even the most comfortable among us certainly pause, if only for a moment, to ponder: "There but for the grace of God …"

Most of us like to think of ourselves as caring, charitable, loving people, which is an easy enough self-image to adopt until property values get involved.

It seemed a perfectly natural extension of the core mission of Catholic Charities to propose to use land owned by the Diocese of St. Petersburg to create a tent village to provide temporary shelter and support for upward of 250 homeless on 12 acres near Hillsborough Avenue and Harney Road east of Tampa.

With more than 10,000 homeless struggling to survive in Hillsborough County, the 250 people Catholic Charities seeks to help is a drop in the bucket.

But there was just one problem, or two, or hundreds.

Citing various zoning policies the project would violate, county planners and a hearing master recommended the County Commission deny Catholic Charities their homeless village. And it also didn't help the project's prospects that residents, especially those living in nearby East Lake Park, loudly objected to having a bunch of homeless folks taking up residence so nearby, citing fears of crime and a decline in their property values.

Or put another way, the poor in spirit might well inherit the kingdom of heaven, but a campsite on Hillsborough Avenue is another matter entirely.

Indeed, the commission had all the political cover public officials could dream of to deny Catholic Charities its plans to assist the homeless. The project was a zoning law cluster kerfuffle. The folks armed with their rules and regulations and policies were all saying no, no, no. The residents of the area, who also go to the polls on Election Day, were in opposition.

This was a nay vote served up on a golden platter.

But then the Hillsborough County Commission did an extraordinary thing. Yes, the same commission that historically has been little more than a cabana boy for development interests. The same commission that has more often than not shown less spine than Laurel and Hardy's cowering stint in the French Foreign Legion.

The Hillsborough County Commission did the right thing.

By various turns a number of the commissioners began to suggest that the homeless problem in our community transcends treating it as if this was merely a homeowner association flap over the color of a mailbox.

"They're not animals," an emotional Mark Sharpe said. "The homeless are you. They are me."

And Jim Norman, a lobbyist for the Salvation Army, argued that while the commission could well deny Catholic Charities their request to provide relief to the homeless, "They're still going to be in this community. There is never a right location."

No, there isn't. Jim Norman is quite right.

To be sure, this is a textbook, classic NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) moment.

The residents and merchants who decry the Catholic Charities proposed homeless sanctuary are not insensitive, selfish louts. Their concerns regarding an increase in crime and the impact the tent village will have on their hard-earned property values are more than fair and understandable.

There are no heavies. Only equally, albeit conflicting interests.

Disregarding the findings of the bureaucrats and the howls of resident protest, the commission voted to direct county staff to figure out a way to help Catholic Charities win approval of the homeless village.

The decision didn't sit well with the homeowners, which might suggest blessed are the land-use lawyers, for they shall inherit clients.

What are we to do with the least amongst us? Do we continue to tolerate a community roaming the streets that is hungry, ill-fed, ill-clothed, without hope, without a roof?

Or do we extend a hand? Provide shelter? Try to help?

There are no easy answers. For these are uneasy times.

In a rare moment of social enlightenment, the Hillsborough County Commission rose above the temptation to do the expedient thing, the easy thing and instead did the proper thing.

Perhaps Commissioner Kevin Beckner said it best when he observed, "The face of homelessness continues to change."

For today's East Lake Park homeowner could just as easily be tomorrow's welcome guest of Catholic Charities.

By Daniel Ruth, St. Pete Times Correspondent

Published Thursday, July 23, 2009

2009-05-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

HOMELESSNESS NOT IN RECESSION

E-mails to the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County are more frequent now, about 10 a day, thanks to this recession.

"We were in foreclosure and lost our home," a desperate writer explains. "The shelters are full and there's a waiting list. What do we do now?"

Most pleas come from people who recently lost their job and can't find a new one, said Rayme Nuckles, the coalition's executive director. They're new to homelessness and unfamiliar with the fragmented system strained by limited resources - especially emergency housing.

But help is on the way. Eleven social service agencies have been working on transitional housing projects; some just opened, others should open by summer. They'll add 528 emergency shelter beds in Hillsborough County, putting the total available at nearly 2,500.

"Organizations over the past year have really stepped up their efforts," Nuckles said. "They've had to."

Hillsborough has one of the highest homeless populations in the state - 9,500 counted during a 2007 census. Results from a similar count in February will be released Thursday.

The troubled economy has left a lot of people homeless for the first time, including entire families, Nuckles said. But other segments of the population are struggling, too.

The number of people recently released from hospitals with no place to go has long been a problem, he said. A $1 million recuperative care facility with 16 beds is set to open this summer at 1229 E. 131st St. A spokeswoman for Tampa Family Health Centers, which will operate the facility, said the agency is waiting for its license from the Agency for Health Care Administration.

Providing recuperative care is part of the coalition's 10-year plan to end homelessness. That plan is now in its seventh year.

Other projects that have opened or will soon include the Agency for Community Treatment Services' 14-unit permanent housing facility for chronically homeless single men, which opened last year. New Beginnings expects this month to open a transitional housing complex for 11 children aging out of foster care, and DACCO has added 18 beds to its transitional housing, with 12 for women with infants or children.

"The interesting part is that as we build it, the funding for the use of beds is diminishing," noted Mary Lynn Edwards Ulrey, chief executive officer of DACCO. "Obviously, as financial times are tougher and folks lose jobs, many more slots are needed for treatment ... yet the resources are drying up."

Her agency, like others, is applying for federal grants "as fast as we can," she said.

Another piece of the 10-year plan is the development of customer service centers, where people in need can find shelter, low-income housing and other assistance.

Nuckles hopes to fold the centers into already existing neighborhood service centers, which are county-operated agencies that can assist residents with rent and utility payments, among other needs. Dave Rogoff, director of the county's Department of Health & Social Services and a coalition board member, is behind the idea.

"We believe this is the right thing to do," he said.

The coalition will look next at using nearly $4 million in city and county dollars during the next three years to create programs for homeless prevention and "rapid re-housing" that keeps people from living on the streets.

It used to be that half of the families filing for bankruptcy did so because of some health issue that wiped them out financially, Rogoff said. As the economy worsens, those same circumstances easily can push people into homelessness.

"Now is the time to really prevent that," he said.

For information about the coalition, go to www. homelessofhc.org or call (813) 223-6115.

By SHERRI ACKERMAN Tampa Tribune May 4, 2009

2009-05-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

To help homeless, first accurately count them:

A single mother of three rents a garage from another single mother of three living temporarily in a foreclosed home belonging to a third party. The house dweller fails to use the first woman's rent payment for the utility bill as promised and everyone is scrambling for new shelter.

It's an actual case in west Pasco with social workers now trying to assist the woman who made her rent payments in good faith. So here's a question: Are the kids considered homeless? Depends upon whom you ask.

A recently completed homeless count in Pasco County would say "no" because the youngsters had a roof over their heads on the day of the survey. Yet, the federal guidelines for serving homeless children in the public school district says "yes" because the families are doubled up in a makeshift living arrangement due to economic hardship.

Therein lies one of the problems confronting advocates, social services agencies and churches serving the homeless: counting heads. Successful passage of HB 597 in the Florida Legislature on Friday is an attempt to change that. Among the provisions of the bill is creation of a single definition of homeless to include people and families living in doubled-up homes or in motels.

The just-released results of the Pasco coalitions's count illustrates the problematic definitions. On Jan. 28, volunteers calculated 4,527 people in Pasco were homeless, an 11 percent increase over a year ago. But the same survey identified just 4 percent, or 181 people, as children. The state average is 21 percent and last year's Pasco survey calculated that 1,400 children in Pasco, or 35 percent of the total count, had no place to call home.

All indications are the number of children was undercounted this year. Pasco School District social workers report helping more than 1,800 homeless children with enrollment this school year, including providing assistance obtaining supplies, clothing and transportation. Many of the children reside in doubled-up households or in motels.

Extrapolation of the district numbers with the Jan. 28 single-day count would push the county's homeless population to more than 6,100 people, or a nearly 50 percent increase over a year ago. It's an eye-opening jump attributable to a recession, high unemployment and increasing foreclosures. Nearly two-thirds of Pasco's 5,000 foreclosure cases involved primary residences.

Why does it matter? Because the community, as it maps a 10-year plan to assist the homeless, needs an accurate accounting of the far-reaching problem. Too often the public perception of Pasco's homeless is defined by a rousted encampment in the woods or a panhandler seeking beer money on a street corner. Children are an afterthought.

Ignoring the problem is unrealistic. It's too expensive and results in higher hospitalization and public safety costs to the public and diminished educational opportunities for children. Multiple studies show the annual cost of feeding, incarcerating and proving health care to a chronically homeless person is tens of thousands of dollars higher than a comprehensive assistance program. Just think of the public safety costs accumulated this week when Pasco deputies evicted a homeless encampment from private property in Hudson and investigated a stabbing involving a homeless suspect in Land O'Lakes.

While advocates continue devising the 10-year plan for homeless intervention, one church in Holiday isn't waiting for the written document. The Community United Methodist Church, where the Rev. Dan Campbell doubles as pastor and president of the Homeless Coalition of Pasco, is closing in June. It will reopen as a Joining Hands Community Mission Inc., a one-stop resource center and shelter to help homeless families with public assistance, employment searches and other tasks.

It's a commendable mission. The unprecedented and much-needed community effort in west Pasco will allow people to progress from an emergency shelter to transitional housing to a permanent home — the true aim of any homeless program.

An editorial from the St. Petesburg Times Published Saturday, May 2, 2009

2009-03-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

$65M will help keep roofs over Floridians' heads:

Florida is about to get $65 million for homeless-prevention programs — money that advocates say is desperately needed to help keep the recently unemployed from winding up in shelters.

The federal government is expected to announce today the guidelines on how the funding will be used. Orange County will receive more than $2.5 million, and the city of Orlando will get about $921,000.

"In the past, the hardest dollar to find has been emergency-assistance money to get somebody over a crisis," said Tom Pierce, executive director of the state's Office on Homelessness, part of the Florida Department of Children and Families. "There's a potential in here to provide rent assistance for several months to a family that needs it, particularly if they've lost a job."

It's a strategy that advocates for the homeless have urged for years: Instead of waiting until a family has lost everything and is out on the streets, why not spend money earlier to keep things from reaching that point?

The funds, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Barack Obama in February, will be for renters who are behind on rent or utility payments and those recently evicted. Homeowners facing foreclosure will be helped under other programs.

During the 2007-08 fiscal year, nearly 170,000 Florida households were evicted by court order. Pierce said many were the result of a bank foreclosing on a property and then evicting the people living there — even if they had been paying rent all along.

"If it's a landlord-owned property ... most often the tenant only finds out about the foreclosure when the sheriff's office shows up to escort the family from the premises," Pierce said. "Those are the horror stories we're hearing."

The prevention funds could help such families cover the first and last months' rent and a deposit on another house or apartment. It likely will be another month before the funds are available, Pierce said.

Kate Santich

Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer

published March 19, 2009

2009-03-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

New report find Florida one of the worst states for growing problem: homeless children

Like many girls her age, 4-year-old Aliyah Newton lies down to sleep every night with a hopeful refrain.

"Good night, mommy," she says after her hair is combed and "America's Next Top Model" is over. "See you in the morning for work!"

Aliyah's mom, Lisa Simmons, hasn't had a job or a home in eight months. The mother and daughter are living in a homeless shelter in Tampa, part of a growing Florida phenomenon of homeless families.

"I try not to deceive her but I don't want to pressure her," said Simmons, 38. "She thinks I'm going to work. And that's a job. Looking for a job is truly a job."

Aliyah is one of nearly 50,000 homeless girls and boys across Florida, one of the highest rates in the country, according to a new study by the National Center on Family Homelessness. Forty-two percent are younger than 6.

And the problem is worsening with the sagging economy, according to the report and social service experts.

The report blames Florida's high cost of living, unemployment and lack of affordable housing. And because the young and homeless generally have more health problems and less education, many of them could remain that way for the rest of their lives.

"Most people think they are the welfare babies. But no, they're not," said Metropolitan Ministries residential services director Jay Molina. "The face of homelessness is changing rapidly."

In five years, the number of homeless children has increased 30 percent to about 1 million nationwide, said Barbara Duffield of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

For years, programs designed to combat homelessness focused on the most obvious group -- "street people," said National Center on Family Homelessness president Ellen Bassuk.

"Policies focused on chronically homeless singles," Bassuk said. "The families on the street were largely ignored."

Yet their swelling numbers, and the disadvantages these "invisible" children face without a stable home life, are hard to overlook, Duffield said.

Homeless children face higher rates of health and emotional problems than most kids their age. They typically achieve lower levels of education and income. Nearly 1 in 5 children in Florida is uninsured -- more than double the national average. And the state fails to prioritize homeless children when distributing child care vouchers, according to the report.

Advocacy groups say a lack of affordable housing is the main driver of family homelessness -- an issue many across Florida know all too well.

Housing is considered affordable, Weikel said, if monthly payments stay under 30 percent of household income. Renters would need to make $17 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in Hillsborough County -- prohibitively expensive for parents earning minimum wage.

So homeless families often sleep in their cars, the streets or at local aid agencies, such as Metropolitan Ministries, where Simmons sought shelter. It houses 85 children in dorm-style quarters. Forty families, including 74 children, are on a waiting list.

It doesn't take much for family teetering on the edge of poverty to wind up homeless, experts say. "For families in this situation, even a seemingly minor event can trigger a catastrophic outcome, pushing a family onto the streets," this week's report said.

Homeless or not, Aliyah is still a little girl. So she makes new friends at the shelter and learns to tie her glittery shoelaces, even as her mom gets up each day to look for work.

The former Florida Power & Light customer service employee was laid off about a year ago and moved here from West Palm Beach in search of a job. She thought the job market would be better here and hopes the hours she has spent tweaking resumes, phoning temp agencies and agonizing over her career will land her a job in the near future.

But after half a year of frustrations and dead ends, Simmons said she sometimes needs reminders of what she's working toward: a home for her and her little girl.

"I have those breakdown moments where it seems like nothing's working and no matter what I do, all my striving and effort seems to be, like, for nothing," she said.

Next to her, Aliyah sings to herself and plays with the badge that gets them into their room.

"But I know it's for something."

By Drew Harwell, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer

Published Friday, March 13, 2009

2009-01-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

Solutions That Work

Homelessness and hopelessness are often closely allied. And the despair reaches past the men, women and children who don't have a roof to call their own. It impacts business owners who worry that visible vagrancy will hurt their chances of bringing customers to their door. It falls heavily on city officials who struggle with conflicting emotions of compassion and concern for public safety.

Too many cities let that despondency discourage them from action -- or adopt cruelly punitive "get tough" policies in the vain hope of pushing the problem out of town. But some local leaders are looking past that knee-jerk reaction, seeking ways to lift people off the streets.

Daytona Beach can be proud of one such program. Downtown Streets offers homeless men food and shelter in exchange for a promise of sobriety, and work picking up cans and bottles around the Beach Street area. The program -- a brainchild of City Commissioner Rick Shiver, sponsored by the city and the Salvation Army, is modeled after a successful pilot in Palo Alto, Calif. That city's "Streets Team" now holds contracts for maintaining several city parks and other sites -- and puts a heavy focus on helping its clients transition into full-time employment with the potential to support themselves and live independently.

It's worth noting that many of the homeless people in Volusia and Flagler counties already work -- which is why an annual 24-hour homeless survey set to begin Thursday at noon will visit local day-labor facilities early Friday morning.

The difference in the Palo Alto program is that it focuses on finding sustainable employment, and moving people into permanent housing. As of April, 250 people had gone through the Palo Alto program and 42 had gone on to find jobs outside the program. Daytona Beach -- which paid the California city $2,500 for the right to use its model -- should take the same focus if its efforts are to succeed.

Daytona Beach is not the only local government taking a creative approach toward homelessness. Deltona recently held a forum focusing on the needs of homeless people in that city, and opened a "one-stop shop" social-services center aimed at connecting people with services they need, including drug counseling and food stamps.

There's no magic spell to end homelessness in Volusia or Flagler counties, and tough economic times mean that the need for help will be even greater than a year ago. But local officials deserve credit for seeking compassionate, common-sense solutions.

An Editorial from the Daytona News Jounal

2008-09-29T17:50:00.001-07:00

The Florida Bar has announced a major new initiative to help struggling homeowners. Florida Lawyers Assisting Homeowners (FLASH) will pair homeowners who have missed payments, but who are not yet in foreclosure, with volunteer attorneys who work in the area of real property law. This Statewide effort has launched a toll-free hot line (866-607-2187) and will take calls from 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The program is intended to provide assistance to homeowners in negotiating with their lenders. To be eligible, the homeowner’s income must not exceed 125 percent of the national poverty level based on family size and yearly income and be a Florida resident.

2008-09-27T05:03:00.001-07:00

A federal judge on Friday struck down an Orlando ordinance that barred large group feedings for homeless at downtown area parks.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell said the city ordinance violates the constitutional rights of activists who want to feed the homeless.

Activists who had been feeding the homeless in Lake Eola Park sued the city in 2006 over the ordinance passed that year.

Attorney Jacqueline Dowd, who represented plaintiffs including First Vagabonds Church of God and Orlando Food Not Bombs, said they were "thrilled" with the ruling.

"We are hopeful that this ruling will have an impact on cities across the country that are thinking of regulating people who want to help those less fortunate," Dowd said.

2008-09-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Homeless Students Face Special Challenges:

They live with friends of their parents, with relatives, in garages and in shelters.

They sleep on couches, on floors, and share beds with brothers and sisters in low-cost motels.

Sometimes they live in cars.

They are children and, according to advocates, approximately 1,100 kids in Charlotte, DeSoto and Hardee counties are homeless under the guidelines established by the federal Department of Education. Helping them succeed academically presents educators with some special challenges.

"Children who are homeless often don't do as well on standardized tests as their peers because they don't have a regular place to study and often their parents, who may be working two or three jobs, don't have the time to help them with their homework," said Carmen McCraink, an associate professor of education at Barry University in Miami.

"To combat that, it's important that teachers recognize the signs that these students are having trouble adjusting to their circumstances — such as turning in homework assignments late or not at all — and act quickly to help them, she said.

A failure to do that, she said, could result in the school system itself victimizing these students by classifying them as unwilling or unable to meet academic standards.

Fortunately, there is help for school districts that have homeless students.

The federal Department of Education administers a special grant program aimed at helping students who are homeless succeed academically despite a nomadic lifestyle that keeps them constantly on the move, said Chantal Phillips, who works for the Charlotte County public school system..

“When children bounce around from school to school lack of academic success becomes an issue,” Phillips said. “One of the ways we deal with that is to allow kids to stay in the same school even though their addresses may change and they’re no longer in the districted area.”

By MIKE BILLINGTON
Associate Editor
See the Charlotte Sun on September 7 for the full story

2008-08-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

Homeless go back on the streets: After three weeks, Sarasota officials shut down shelter.

For one month, about 30 homeless people in Sarasota had a place to stay. At just $11 a night, they got bathroom and kitchen facilities, a common room, an outside picnic area and twice-weekly dinners. Right downtown, to boot, in the foothills of high-rise condos.

"We're at the doorstep of opulence," the group's pastor said.

It was a simple, easy solution, remarkably fortunate for the homeless, and too good to last.

City officials kicked them out last week. They said the downtown area isn't zoned for short-term housing. Now, the group pools together what little money it's gathered, mostly from day labor, to try and rent a few hotel rooms. They held a flea market on Saturday to raise money for tents.

This collective was formed by Tim Huffman, manager of Renaissance Self-storage on Boulevard of the Arts. Huffman himself was living in a converted space in one of the buildings he manages. He began to notice that a number of his customers were renting space just to lock up their bedding in the daytime and bring it back out at night.

"It broke my heart," he said. "These are the people that were my customers, and I was like, 'Why are they dragging pillows in here every day?'"

So about a month ago, he formed the Haven of Rest Homeless Shelter on the south side of the road, converting unused offices and storage rooms to living space. Huffman shared his room with three others.

He didn't allow drug or alcohol use, and he compelled the residents to either find day labor or work for him. Zach Evans, a sort of a-religious preacher, delivered a message to them twice a day in the parking lot. Everyone came (and still does) to hear him exhort them to wake up, to love life, to realize that even nothingness is a gift.

And then he urges them into action. Huffman paraphrases his message thusly: "Now that we're helping you, what are you going to do to help somebody today?"

But soon the group started getting visits from the police. Apparently, says Huffman, the residents of nearby buildings were calling in to say that their favorite strolling grounds had gotten scary.

The group's response? They built a makeshift public park.

Walk by the storage center and you'll see the Haven of Rest Park in a cleared-out ditch, in front of the facility's parking lot. There's a black plastic pool with feeder fish swimming into it. A hose connected to a sump pump runs up to a fiberglass boulder, forming a not unpretty fountain topped by a stone angel. There are decorative iron candle stands, turtle figurines and benches sitting on canted wood palettes. Flowering plants scavenged from a nearby ditch have been transplanted into the perimeter. It's not going to win a beauty contest, but it beats the overgrown trash pit that was there before.

"It was going to be completely donated and maintained by the homeless of Sarasota County, just to show that we want to give back, that we are not people to be feared," Huffman said.

The park remains unfinished. Officials from the city planning department started coming by the building, first with claims of fire hazards, then with the immitigable complaint that the shelter was in the wrong zoning district.

"Downtown does not allow for short-term housing," said Gretchen Schneider, general manager of planning and development for the city.

The only solution was to get a zoning text amendment, which would require numerous public hearings and ultimately the deliberation of the City Commission. Huffman didn't have that kind of time, and early last week, the group moved out of the storage facility.

When Huffman was collecting rent from the homeless, he brought in about $300 a day. He'd wake them up in the morning and drive them in a van to the labor pool. Since they were evicted, Huffman says, not as many of them have been working, whether for lack of Huffman's discipline or because they're too exhausted from sleeping on the street.

"They don't sleep very well when they're on the street because they're afraid of getting beat up or arrested," he said.

But Huffman has still been collecting some money after Evans' sermons. Those who contributed to the group, with cash or with labor, got to stay four to a hotel room.

They function like a commune that way, on a system of unspoken debts and repayments. "We all look out for each other," says Anthony Edwards, whom Huffman is helping to cope with alcoholism and manic tendencies. "If they don't have something, I help them out. If I don't have something, they help me out."

The group is now seeking help from stores like Lowe's, Home Depot and Goodwill, where they hope to obtain discounted or donated tents. Their temporary plan is to camp out at Oscar Scherer State Park. Huffman will be joining them.

"This is the cheapest way for us to be safe without being arrested," he said.

In the long-term, Huffman's got his eye on a vacant hotel on U.S. 41. Using money that the collective pools together, he plans to lease the space and house up to 60 homeless people.

"We're not askin' for a handout," Huffman said. "We really want to earn our way. We're just need a place to rest and figure out how we're going to do it.

by Justin Richards

Published 08.20.2008
http://sarasota.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/homeless_go_back_on_the_streets/Content?oid=185698

©1996-2008 Creative Loafing Media - All Rights Reserved

2008-07-11T04:32:00.000-07:00

Treat homelessness with multiple methods:

The ranks of the homeless are growing, and so is the public's discomfort in communities not accustomed to seeing significant numbers of homeless people out and about — communities such as Tarpon Springs.

In the past, small numbers of homeless people camped in the woods around Tarpon Springs. They were seldom seen.

But now, downtown business owners are finding homeless people sleeping in their alleys or in vacant lots and are hearing complaints that their customers are being hit up for money on the sidewalks. Police are finding homeless people sleeping in city parks and along the Pinellas Trail.

Where the homeless congregate, public urination and litter have become a problem. And right or wrong, residents have come to believe that certain areas of the city are no longer safe because transients are there.

Late last month the Tarpon Springs City Commission responded to the increasing complaints by discussing the issue at a commission meeting. Most commissioners demonstrated that they understand the complexities of the homelessness problem and the challenge of addressing it.

Unlike some among the general public, commissioners know that not all homeless people are drug or alcohol abusers. Some have physical ailments that prevent them from working, or they have mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia that are untreated because they can't afford treatment or can't manage their own affairs. Many are veterans who can't find jobs or are suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome.

Some homeless people work, but don't earn enough to afford shelter. In fact, according to a 2007 survey of the county's homeless by the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless, 39 percent work full or part time.

Some had homes but have lost them in this dismal economy. The ranks of the homeless include families with children, who live in their cars or in vacant lots. In 2007, 18.5 percent of the Pinellas homeless were children.

Tarpon Springs officials are concerned that some of the homeless people in the city are coming from Pasco County. Some have wondered if the Shepherd Center, which provides a hot meal to the hungry along with other much-needed services for the poor, might be attracting more homeless people. Center officials denied that they draw the homeless to the city, but said that people who are hungry, no matter where they come from, should be fed. And they should.

Some speakers suggested that the city should turn a vacant building in the city into a shelter for the homeless, but with government budgets so stretched, few cities would take on the cost of operating a homeless shelter.

However, the commission was open to solutions that would not involve substantial costs, including these good ideas:

• Starting a business Crime Watch.

• Finding a way to distribute information about available services to homeless people.

• Researching ordinances some other Pinellas cities have created to outlaw aggressive panhandling.

• Talking with Pasco officials about ways to partner on solutions.

• Improving lighting in certain areas of downtown.

• Scheduling future workshops with area experts on the homeless.

Several speakers at the commission meeting addressed the terrible shortage of affordable housing in Tarpon Springs. Some of the working poor are homeless because they can't afford the market cost for housing. The Tarpon Springs Housing Authority is overwhelmed with 541 people on a waiting list for subsidized housing. Yet the city was cool to a recent overture from Pinellas County to participate in a countywide inclusionary housing ordinance that could spur the construction of more affordable housing.

Homelessness is growing. If Tarpon Springs wants to tackle the problem, it needs to do so from all angles.

A St. Petersburg Times Editorial Published Saturday, July 5, 2008 11:51 AM

2008-06-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

A Plan to End Homelessness in Central Florida:

It would be easy to argue that this is the worst time to launch a plan to end homelessness in Central Florida. Money is tight everywhere.

But perhaps it's just the opposite: There's no better time to deal with the homeless quandary.

It's impossible to ignore as many as 9,000 homeless people in Central Florida. But it's not just about them. It's about the strain on community services, from hospitals to law enforcement.

The good news is that after years of talking about it, leaders in Central Florida finally are prepared to act.

Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer are co-chairs of a regional commission. Business is engaged, led by Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton and Orlando Magic's Alex Martins, both on the 21-member homeless commission.

And now, the last piece is in place: someone to coordinate this partnership between governments, businesses and social-service agencies.

Ray Larsen, most recently the senior vice president for Community Outreach with the Central Florida YMCA, comes on board July 1 as executive director. With a powerful board behind him, Mr. Larsen needs to quickly address the challenge ahead.

Here are some ways:

*How about a one-stop service for the homeless? Investing $2 million to start drop-in centers in Orange, Osceola, Seminole counties and the city of Orlando is money well spent. Starting with Orlando makes the most sense because it has the largest concentration of homeless people. Pulling together services there, from help with drug abuse to job counseling, would make a big difference. The more people who get help, the fewer homeless people there will be to worry about.

Better yet is to help some of these people apply for federal aid, running the gamut from veterans' assistance to food stamps to disability. That saves money, and is less of a strain on local agencies.

*What about coordinating services? That can be done by working with all the social agencies and faith-based groups to cut down on services that overlap, like providing meals or clothing. That doesn't involve spending money. The commission can even save some by streamlining services.

*Where's the money? Having each of the four communities fund these initiatives, at a total expense of $50 million yearly, is going to be a tough sell for now. That's why it's critical that Mr. Larsen tap into private dollars by knocking on every door possible of businesses in Central Florida. Consider the money preventive medicine.

It's the true definition of a team effort. Without it, the homeless challenge falls apart.

published June 17 in the Orlando Sentinel

2008-02-19T16:08:00.000-08:00

Homeless children a growing issue

Six-year-old Ryan Rush doesn't know his grandmother cries for him when he's asleep at night.

Ryan's grandmother, Georgia Naclerio, lost her home when she could no longer afford the mortgage after her husband died. She lived in her car for three weeks and eventually moved into The Shelter. Since she has custody of Ryan, he was right there with her.

He's among 191 homeless students enrolled in Leon County Schools as of January. It's likely there are many others who have not been included in that figure. During the 2005-06 school year, 350 homeless students were enrolled in district schools. Last year, 395 kids in the district were homeless.

Earlier this month, the district released an annual Residence Survey in hopes of identifying unknown homeless students.

Statewide, 30,883 public school students are reportedly homeless — nearly a quarter of the state's total homeless population.

"If you have one-fourth of the population as homeless students, you've got a problem in this state," said Tom Pierce, executive director of The Homeless Program at the Florida Department of Children and Families. "The issue is they are the innocent victims of homelessness. . . . It's going to get worse because of the overall conditions."

Naclerio went to The Shelter a week before Thanksgiving, and she never thought she would be homeless.

She said, "But there's nothing I can do."

Keeping accurate numbers is tricky

Tracking the number of homeless students is challenging, and the records can vary between districts, the Florida Department of Education and other agencies that track this highly mobile population.

According to the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, students are considered homeless if they don't have a consistent place to sleep at night, if they live in motels, cars and transitional shelters or with family members. Students waiting to be placed in foster care are also considered homeless.

The Department of Children and Families considers children homeless if they are living in a shelter or on the streets, Pierce said. But he describes the overall system for gathering the numbers of homeless students as educated "guess work."

Kenyetta Williams, homeless liaison for Leon County Schools, said the district's records on homeless students are based on parent response.

Williams said it's possible the numbers are higher, especially if families are living with relatives, commonly referred to as "doubling up."

"Some people don't want to say they're homeless," she said. "They'll say 'that's not me.' It may be a pride thing."

That pride can get in the way of agencies serving homeless families.

"We still struggle to find out who is homeless," said Pierce, noting that DCF's numbers are based on what the DOE reports. "It's very difficult to try and get a true and accurate look at who is homeless."

Agencies statewide are working on a consistent definition, said Stephanie Shepherd, deputy director of the Big Bend Coalition for the Homeless. But that hasn't happened yet.

So far they know two things — the homeless population is getting younger and agencies are seeing more homeless families with children in the Big Bend area and throughout the state.

In the 2007 Homeless Survey Report by the coalition, the lead local agency coordinating resources for agencies serving the homeless, 218 families were determined to be homeless. That number was 150 in 2005.

The many contributors to homelessness

Officials agree the state's homeless problem is fueled by reoccurring factors such as a lack of affordable housing, limited household income, unemployment and poverty.

"The economy has a lot to do with the number of people who are struggling," said Clair Scott, a resource teacher who tutors homeless students in Leon County Schools. "If the parents are stable, the children are stable."

Agencies are scrambling to keep up with the need for assistance.

"There needs to be houses for people who work the minimum-wage jobs," said Kisca Smith, program director for ECHO Family Services, a transitional shelter for homeless families.

The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Tallahassee is $687 per month, according to the coalition.

Smith said she gets at least 20 referrals per week on homeless families in need. At capacity, ECHO provides housing for 12 to 16 adults and their children.

Pierce said DCF gives $14 million a year to the state's 27 agencies and groups serving the homeless population. He said Gov. Charlie Crist has put $243 million in the state's housing budget and plans to put in an additional $75 million to target the homeless.

But Florida's wilting economy has triggered budget cuts for state agencies and local governments, making the pot of money uncomfortably low.

"We stretch our resources as much as humanly possible," Shepherd said. The coalition lost $350,000 from the city's budget cuts.

When it comes to the school district, the transportation department feels the biggest pinch.

Additional stops and routes have been created. The district is required to provide transportation to homeless students so they can continue going to the same school they did before they became homeless, no matter how far it may be.

If more students become homeless in the future, the district will need to hire more bus drivers.

"If we have to yes, we will," said Ronnie Youngblood, divisional director of facility systems management. "That's one of things we continue to look at."

'Homeless students have so much on their plate'

Naclerio says that she worries about her grandson's education. Her daughter is in jail and she's had full custody since 2005.

From sleeping in her car to living in The Shelter, Naclerio couldn't provide a consistent place for him to do his homework at The Shelter. Since it didn't open until 5 p.m., he often sat on a step near the Tennessee Street building until it did.

According to the National Center for Homeless Education, children who have changed schools three or more times since first grade are much more likely to have repeated a grade or to have low reading scores by the third grade.

Adriana Schley, a 41-year-old mother of three girls, ages 14, 9 and 6, said she tries to encourage her daughters to do well in school. She didn't want homelessness to get in the way of their education.

"It's been a concern for me how they get their homework done," Schley said.

They recently found a better fit since moving into ECHO Family Services.

Now her girls can get on-site tutoring and case managers offer support ranging from life-skills classes to school supplies.

Naclerio also has found housing in ECHO's units. She and Ryan moved to a two-bedroom apartment on Feb. 6.

"I feel better now that I'm here," she said, while Ryan kept himself busy playing on the floor. "Now if I can just find a permanent place, then I would feel even better."

By TaMaryn Waters
Tallahassee DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

2007-12-22T04:08:00.000-08:00

Shelters fill up as housing jobs drop

Construction workers, carpenters, real estate agents and even mortgage brokers - those who once profited from the now-deflated housing boom - are now out of work and seeking public assistance.

Officials with the Community Coalition on Homelessness for Manatee County say they are getting a growing number of calls for help from those connected with the housing boom who have either lost their homes or are at risk of foreclosure.

Unfortunately, agencies that help those at risk - the homelessness coalition, Manatee Community Action Agency and the Salvation Army - ran out of funds to provide rental and mortgage assistance by summer's end, said Executive Director Adell Erozer.

Worse yet, those same agencies do not expect to get any money until after the first of the year - and, even then, they have been given no date when the funds will arrive.

Manatee schools have been affected by the increasing number of homeless, said Deb Bailey, of Project Heart, the school district's program to help homeless students. Bailey identified a record 984 children without permanent shelter in just the first three months of the school year, as compared to 2,200 students counted for the entire 2006-07 school year.

"We've always had chronic homeless, but this year it's different," Bailey said. "This year the families who need help are the ones who 12 months ago had jobs, cars, apartments or houses, but now they are unemployed and have lost everything. The crisis affects just about anybody connected with the housing industry."

Shelters are overflowing, the Salvation Army reports. Manatee and Sarasota shelters provided a haven for nearly 5,000 people in October alone, according to a computerized database for tracking services provided to the homeless and those at risk.

Soup kitchens in the bicounty area served a record 20,668 meals, and many of those standing in line have never had to ask for assistance before, said Mary DeLazzer, who oversees Our Daily Bread's kitchen.

DeLazzer notices big changes from last year. "I always look at the feet of people standing in line," she said. "Now I see mostly work boots - construction workers without jobs who have had to pawn their tools just to get by."

Here is a snapshot of several local agencies that are struggling to stretch limited resources to help those in need.

Project Heart/

Manatee school district

Project Heart assists families and students who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Tutoring, school supplies, case management, referrals for services in the community and counseling are offered at several locations within the school district.

The goal is to help homeless students enroll and remain in the same school throughout the school year.

Bailey projects the number of homeless students will be even higher this school year than last year's 2,200, as figures are already reaching the halfway mark of last year's total.

Hardest hit among the families in need are parents who recently lost their jobs and are now caught in the gap between applying and receiving assistance from programs like Medicaid and rental assistance. Those delays often stretch over several months. "These families need help with school supplies, school uniforms and medicines their children need," Bailey said.

Project Heart is trying to address transportation problems so children from families who have lost their homes and are now living in different school zones can remain in the same school.

But Project Heart is having budget problems of its own. In the previous school year, Bailey had received an $85,000 federal grant to help students and struggling families. This year, she received only $68,000 after federal budget cuts.

"The community's safety net is broken," Bailey said. "It's very sad to tell families, 'I'm sorry, I can't help,' when funds run out . . . especially when they have little kids with them, wondering where they are going to sleep tonight. Then it breaks my heart."

Salvation Army of Bradenton

Joanell Greubel, director of the Family Lodge, which provides temporary housing for women and children, could help only one out of every six people who sought shelter in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30.

"Of those 1,577, we only had space for 279 women and children," said Greubel. "There was no place else for them to go."

HOPE Family Services, the other shelter in Manatee County that receives women and children, takes in only victims of domestic abuse.

"That means the families we had to turn away had to leave town and possibly their jobs to seek shelter elsewhere," Greubel said. "And shelters in surrounding counties are also full."

Because the Salvation Army does not want to turn women and children out onto the streets until and unless they have a safe place to go, the shelter's turnover is slower than it was in years past, Greubel reports.

She also has found people need longer-term assistance because wages have remained stagnant while the cost of living has increased dramatically.

Greubel is seeing an increase in the numbers of elderly seeking shelter, including her most recent - an 85-year-old woman with Alzheimer's who was evicted from her apartment.

A similar situation exists in the Salvation Army's men's shelter. "Our meals have increased on average about 400 a month from last year and our stays increased about 400 a night," director Ed Wickman said.

Maj. Robert Pfeiffer, the Salvation Army's director of social services, predicts those numbers are going to escalate.

"We are going to see more homeless and more children in the street as foreclosures increase," Pfeiffer said. "We are reaching a critical melting point in the social structure in this country. Social-service agencies that provide assistance are being inundated."

United Way 211 of Manasota Inc.

Functioning similar to 911 for emergencies, the 211 phone line in Manatee and Sarasota counties refers callers in need of help to social agencies.

More than 6,000 people called 211 in October asking for help, according to agency reports. Of those calls, 2,318 needed financial assistance. Food requests numbered 3,428.

More people have called needing rental deposit money, particularly from workers in the construction, real estate, food service and now retail and health care industries, according to data provided by Ben Kunkel, with Manasota 211.

Community Coalition on Homelessness

The Open Door, a resource center for the homeless run by the coalition, reports 98 clients served - many with repeat visits - in October, nearly double the number of those who sought help in October 2006.

While the perception still persists that most homeless are single men with substance abuse or mental health problems, families in need are the fastest-growing segment of Manatee County's homeless population, said director Erozer.

The coalition has recently published "The Community Resources Directory of Homeless Services," a 44-page booklet listing regional resources in Manatee, Sarasota and neighboring counties. Copies are available at the Community Coalition on Homelessness, 202 13th Ave. E., Bradenton. The guide is also available in Spanish.

Our Daily Bread

DeLazzer has a tiny desk in her pantry where she stores all of the donated food and supplies the soup kitchen buys for 18 cents a pound from Meals on Wheels PLUS Food Bank.

A new shipment had just arrived last week and the shelves were packed with canned goods, bags of beans, rice and noodles.

"In three days' time, all of this will be gone except for that big jar of hot peppers," said DeLazzer, who is now serving more than 7,000 meals a month. During the summer months, the count topped 8,000. It's all she can do to keep the shelves full.

"It's not just food we need, we need money, as well, to buy toilet paper, napkins, plastic utensils, dish soap, disinfectants and floor cleaners," she said.

DeLazzer is thankful for contributions that come through the door, but she said she can stretch monetary contributions further than a can of food.

She picked up a can of salmon. "This costs $2.90 in the store but with that same amount of money, I can buy more than 15 pounds of food from the food bank. The food is going out of here like you wouldn't believe."

Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness

Richard Martin, executive director, sees little relief on the horizon.

"Many people who were in the workforce last year and then lost their jobs have reached the end of the unemployment checks," Martin said. "They are now facing eviction or foreclosure because they cannot find employment."

The Suncoast Partnership is a nonprofit agency that coordinates homeless outreach and services in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Day labor, once a fall-back option for many without work, has dried up, Martin said. The demand for day labor is less than half what it was this time last year. "Everything is tied to the decline of the housing industry," he added.

Most agencies say they need emergency funding. "The funds dribble in in drips and drabs after the first of the year," Martin said. "We are strapped by lack of resources. People who once contributed to the United Way are now in need of the United Way. This is all moving so fast it is hard to pin down.

"We need an angel."

By DONNA WRIGHT Bradenton Herald November 25, 2007

2007-11-29T03:10:00.000-08:00

Tent City to Open in St. Petersburg:

After more than 100 homeless men and women set up rows of tents under an overpass near downtown St. Petersburg last December, government officials and local charities decried the shantytown's unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Almost a year later, a new "tent city" will open Saturday. Optimistically dubbed Pinellas Hope, the outdoor shelter will feature portable showers and restrooms and individual tents outfitted with 4- inch-thick mats.

After months of brainstorming about how to solve the homeless problem, this is the solution that advocates and government officials came up with.

No one knows if or how it will work out.

"It is an experiment," said Frank Murphy, president of the Catholic Charities Diocese of St. Petersburg, which will operate the camp. "We all sit around and say, 'What do you think is going to happen?'"

Pinellas Hope will sprawl across 7 acres along 126th Avenue N near 49th Street.

The tent city will include an outdoor dining room, computers, Internet access and designated areas where the homeless can speak with caseworkers, social service agency representatives and other support facilitators.

At least 225 tents will be available. Volunteers will bring in prepared food and serve warm dinners.

The shelter is expected to remain open through April 30.

"You are going to see a place which is a bit more humane than last year's tent
city," said City Council chairman Jamie Bennett. "It still is a tent city, but
it is better than a cold sidewalk in the dark of night."

But Pinellas Hope is a far cry from the permanent shelter officials promised in January, when the area's homeless crisis was thrust into the national spotlight after St. Petersburg police officers, citing a fire safety code, slashed dozens of tents occupied by the homeless.

Then, in June, the state Legislature demanded that government agencies trim their budgets. Many cities, including St. Petersburg, responded by slashing funding to social services in order to protect other expenses, such as those for police and fire service.

Michael Amidei, chairman of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless' Interfaith Committee and a founder of the original tent city that opened in December, said local charities or cities will probably not be able to secure money to build a permanent shelter any time soon.

Pinellas Hope "is what it is," he said. "It is a Band-Aid solution for a five-month period of time, but that's considerably longer than the other tent cities have operated before."

Catholic Charities has received dozens of calls from homeless men and women interested in reserving a tent at Pinellas Hope. They were told to show up early on Saturday, Murphy said.

All potential residents will need to pass a background check. Among other safety measures: The complex will be fenced, and a 24-hour security guard will be present.

"It will be safe for them," Murphy said. "When they are lying on the street, there is no safety."

Some homeless residents have expressed concern that they will be fined or arrested if they do not move into Pinellas Hope.

An ordinance passed by the City Council this year prohibits camping and sleeping on St. Petersburg's streets if shelter beds are available.

Bennett said those rumors are false. The city will not arrest or penalize those who refuse to move to the tent city, he said.

"Tell me in our history when we have done that," Bennett said. "Our Police Department has been patient and they have really shown restraint when they could have been heavy-handed at any point."

What remains to be seen is how many people will show up Saturday looking for
help, Murphy said, and how many will stay.

"If they look and they don't like it, they can go," he said.

by Cristina Silva St. Petersburg Times

2007-11-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

Homeless demonstration in St. Petersburg before GOP debate:

With the CNN/YouTube Republican debate tomorrow in St. Petersburg, members of the homeless community and activists are drawing attention to the city’s treatment of the homeless by holding a four-night sleep-in at the site where the debate will be held.

Yesterday they were forced to move across the street from the Mahaffey Theater to the sidewalk in front of the Hilton Hotel on 4th avenue south at first street southeast.

The Rev. Bruce Wright is pastor and director of Refuge Ministries. Wright said he and nine other people began a juice and water hunger strike on Sunday night in order to get the city of St. Petersburg to improve conditions for people who don’t have a place to live.

The solution suggested by the homeless involves a plan to move people into permanent shelters. Wright said that advocates and people who are homeless oppose the city’s use of the new Pinellas HOPE tent city, in part because it is a waste of resources that could be used for permanent solutions.

G. W. Rohl was once homeless and is an organizer of the sleep-in at the Mahaffey. He doesn’t like the city’s tent city idea because it’s temporary and far away from social services.

This morning St. Petersburg police removed some personal possessions of people who live on sidewalks under Interstate 375, outside the St. Vincent de Paul Society at 15th Street N and 5th Avenue N.

Homeless advocate Eric Rubin said Officer Sandra Miner and other St. Pete Police officers threw away the belongings of some people living there.

Rubin said tonight there will be a solidarity march from the St. Vincent de Paul Society under I-375 at 15th Street N and 5th Avenue N to the Hilton Hotel across from the Mahaffey Theater on 4th Avenue S at 1st Street SE to join the sleep-in.

11/27/07 Seán Kinane
WMNF Evening News Tuesday

2007-11-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

20,000 fewer chronically homeless on streets:

The federal government is taking credit for what it says is a nearly 12 percent drop in the number of people who are chronically homeless, according to government estimates being released Wednesday.

About 20,000 fewer chronically homeless were on the streets from 2005 to 2006, says the Department of Housing and Urban Development citing its programs designed to move homeless people into permanent housing.

HUD says people are chronically homeless if they have been continuously living on the streets for a year or more, or if they have been homeless at least four times in the past three years. They also have to have a disability, often mental illness or substance abuse.

The number of chronically homeless people dropped from 175,900 in 2005 to 155,600 in 2006, according to data collected by HUD from about 3,900 cities and counties.

Many cities had declines. New York, New York, went from 7,002 in 2005 to 6,503 in 2006, HUD reported. In Miami-Dade County, Florida, the number dropped from 831 in 2005 to 577 the following year. In Washington, D.C., the number increased from 1,773 to 1,891, though city officials told HUDHUD they believed the change was caused in part by better counting methods.

Advocates for the homeless said they expected a decrease on the national level, given the government's increasing emphasis on permanent housing instead of temporary shelters.

"In the past few years, there has been a significant investment in ending chronic homelessness, both in time and resources," said Mary Cunningham, director of the Homelessness Research Institute at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

"Communities across the country are really working hard on this issue," she said. "It would be a major disappointment if the numbers were not going down."

HUD has been shifting resources from emergency shelters to transitional and permanent housing for years. The number of emergency shelter beds dropped by 35 percent from 1996 to 2005, to 217,900.

Meanwhile, the number of beds in permanent housing for the homeless increased by 83 percent, to 208,700.

HUD spent $287 million last year on programs that serve people who are chronically homeless, creating 4,000 permanent housing units, the agency said.

Earlier this year, HUD estimated there were a total of 754,000 homeless people on a given night in January 2005. The overall estimate for 2006 is expected early next year.

The homeless are notoriously difficult to count, though HUD started requiring housing agencies to try in 2005. The agencies are required to count their local homeless populations every other year, though about 60 percent do it annually.

The 2006 estimate for people who were chronically homeless was based on annual data from agencies that conduct the counts each year.
AP November 5, 2007

2007-11-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

Hide-Away Storage gives $30,000 to Salvation Army:

Steve Wilson, managing partner of Hide-Away Storage, celebrated the 30th anniversary of his business by giving $30,000 to area Salvation Army shelters and churches today.

Wilson gave $12,000 to The Salvation Army in Manatee County to help cover shelter expenses for the homeless. The Salvation Army of Sarasota County received $9,000.

The remainder of Hide-Away's $30,000 gift was presented to The Salvation Army operations in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, and Naples.

"We wanted to find a way to show our appreciation to our thousands and thousands of wonderful customers and also to the communities in which we have served during the past 30 years, Wilson said in news release. "It just seemed natural to choose the Salvation Army for our 30th anniversary celebration gift. After all, the Salvation Army is one of the most admired service organizations worldwide. And we try to use the Salvation Army as a model of how we at the Hide-Away Storage can serve our customer base."

The gifts come at a crucial time when supplies are low and the numbers of homeless are on the increase, said Ashley Canesse, development director of The Salvation Army in Bradenton. "People who used to donate to us are finding themselves now in need."

The $12,000 gift to the Bradenton shelter will house, feed and provide case management for 40 women and children for nine critical days and nights," says Major Tony Barrington, area coordinator for The Salvation Army, Manatee.

The first Hide-Away Storage location began in September of 1977 in Bradenton. There are now 10 locations, three in Bradenton, three in Sarasota, and one each in Ellenton, St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, and Naples.

Staff Report Bradenton Herald 11/5/07

2007-10-11T03:33:00.000-07:00

Man who feeds homeless cleared

In a case watched closely by homeless advocates around the country, Orlando jurors Tuesday acquitted 22-year-old Eric Montanez of violating the city's controversial ban on large group feedings in public parks.

Montanez, who faced up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for the misdemeanor, said he never lost faith during his two-day trial, believing the jury "would not convict a person for feeding the homeless."

Immediately after the verdict, Orange County Judge Steve Jewett praised Montanez for wanting to help those less fortunate but cautioned him that "you do need to follow the law."

But outside the courtroom, Montanez vowed to continue his group's weekly feedings at Lake Eola and stuck with his contention that volunteers already were in compliance with the 2006 ordinance, which prohibits feedings of 25 or more people in city parks without a permit. The law also limits each group to two permits per park per year.

Although the feedings regularly attract more than 50 people -- some said more than 100 -- volunteers have said there are several groups sponsoring the feedings and that no one group is feeding more than 24 people at a time. Much of the testimony focused on what appeared to be varying interpretations of the law.

City prosecutor Kimberly Laskoff had no comment on the verdict, but Orlando Police Department spokeswoman Barbara Jones issued a statement Tuesday evening saying: "It appears the jury felt the defendant did not violate the city ordinance. That said, the city will continue to enforce this ordinance, as it is a vehicle for the city to balance the needs and safety of residents visiting the park and those who desire to feed in the park."

The April 4 arrest was the city's first and only enforcement of the ordinance so far.

Across the country, several major cities have passed laws aimed at keeping the homeless out of upscale neighborhoods or tourist destinations -- a trend some call "the criminalization of homelessness."

According to a report by the nonprofit National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, tactics have included bans or restrictions on panhandling, sleeping in public and loitering, as well as destruction of homeless camps and prohibitions of public feedings.

Dallas, for instance, passed a law effective September 2005 that penalized charities, churches and other organizations that serve food to the needy outside certain designated city areas. Violators can be fined up to $2,000.

"It does seem to be a new trend," said Orlando attorney Jacquelyn Dowd, who represented Montanez and whose nonprofit law firm, Legal Advocacy at Work, often handles cases for those with no permanent address. "Instead of going after the homeless, they're going after people who serve the homeless."

During the trial, though, Laskoff said the ordinance -- while perhaps not "popular" -- was never aimed specifically at the homeless. Instead, she said, it was an effort to control any large-scale feeding for reasons of safety, both to those eating and to others. She called Montanez's volunteerism "a noble gesture" but said he understood the law and ignored it anyway.

"This is a young man who wants to prove his point," Laskoff told jurors in her closing arguments. "He wants to do what he wants, where he wants and how he wants. . . . The defendant himself told you he fed more than 30 people on that single day" of his arrest.

But other testimony showed there was occasional confusion over the law. One week Montanez and fellow members of Orlando Food Not Bombs, which began the weekly Lake Eola feedings in 2004, were told they were in compliance, only to be told the next week they were not. That scene was captured in a video played for the jury.

Whether Orlando police make further arrests or not, the ordinance still faces a constitutional challenge by the Central Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union in federal court. That trial is not set until summer 2008. Montanez and the First Vagabonds Church of God -- a ministry run by a formerly homeless man -- are among the plaintiffs in the case.

Meanwhile, Montanez wasted no time in returning to his cause. After speaking to the media, he went immediately to Lake Eola to join an ongoing "Ladle-Fest" held in support of him -- three days of thrice-daily hot meals for the hungry.

But he added, "I'm going to try to avoid getting arrested again."

by Kate Santich
Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer

2007-09-21T05:09:00.001-07:00

Habitat sets goal for affordable homes: Group announces plans to build 500 homes in just 5 years.

Brock Leach doesn't want to see economic apartheid in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

His solution in stopping the future development of walled communities ringed by low-income housing? Having a clear, shared vision for the community and encouraging a generosity of spirit.

Leach, former chief executive officer at Tropicana and now president of Sarasota Habitat for Humanity, shared his goals with a packed audience at the annual meeting of the Suncoast Workforce Board on Thursday. The meeting was held at the Lakewood Ranch Country Club.

Sarasota Habitat has an ambitious goal of building 500 homes in five years in a way that builds on community collaborations between private, nonprofit and government entities. The aim is to provide affordable housing for residents while creating a sense of community, Leach said.

"We want to be a neighborhood, not just homes," he said.

Each of the seven communities being planned by Habitat are within three miles of downtown Sarasota and will have children educational centers, playgrounds and green space.

Habitat expects to close on property for Cohen Way, a development of 50-75 townhomes in the Rosemary District, on Monday, Leach said.

Examples of public and private partnerships, he said, include Lion's Gate, developer of the Presidium project in downtown Sarasota, donating land for housing and the Sarasota County Commission approving a plan to provide Habitat with a $5 million grant.

Lion's Gate, with its donation, has stipulated that its employees have "first right of refusal" on the townhomes being planned. Leach encouraged other businesses to enter into a similar agreement with Habitat.

The organization has raised $13.5 million so far for the $50 million needed for the housing projects, Leach said. A capital campaign is expected to be launched early next year to raise the additional funds.

Pat Glass wins Workforce Leadership Award

Pat Glass, former Manatee County commissioner, is the recipient of this year's Workforce Leadership Award for her support and efforts toward affordable housing.

Glass received the award Thursday at the Suncoast Workforce Board's annual meeting.

"She has been instrumental in pulling together community leaders to address the critical need of affordable housing," said Peter French with the University of South Florida and a Suncoast Workforce Board member.

"This is where the real world is," Glass said about the majority of local residents who need affordable housing.

"The people most in need are the people we most need."

By Jennifer Rich Bradenton Herald

2007-08-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

Homeless people to tell teens about life on the street:

David Pirtle thought the worst of homeless people. They were bums, derelicts, worthless.

They were lazy, crazy and smelly.

It was a notion he believed as a teen and a young adult.

"Right up until I became homeless," he said.

Now, the Washington, D.C., man shares his story with youths across the country in the hopes of breaking down stereotypes and putting an end to violence against homeless people.

The message is coming to a city near you.

The National Coalition for the Homeless is creating up to a dozen local speakers' bureaus in Florida cities this fall. Daytona Beach and Orlando are among them.

The effort began in the early 1990s when a "Faces of Homelessness" speakers bureau was established in Washington. Small panels of people who have been or still are homeless speak at high schools, colleges and youth groups and share their experiences on the street.

That group travels across the country, and a handful of other bureaus have popped up in cities. But this is the first time the coalition is targeting an entire state.

"Florida is one of the meanest states for the homeless," said Michael O'Neill, head of the Washington-based bureau.

Florida has experienced more attacks against the homeless than any other state, according to the coalition. Statistics show eight homeless people died here in 2006 as a result of attacks, mostly at the hands of young people.

Groups try to stop attacks

In 2005, Michael Roberts was killed in the woods of Holly Hill when four teens repeatedly beat him with sticks, fists and logs. Earlier this year, John D'Amico suffered lifelong injuries when a cinderblock was smashed into his face in Daytona Beach during an attack by a 17-year-old and two 10-year-olds, who are thought to be the youngest attackers of the homeless.

Organizers also say Florida has a record of criminalizing homelessness by enacting policies that target the group.

The Orlando City Council last year passed an ordinance that prohibits groups from feeding the homeless on city property downtown without a permit. Each group can get two permits a year.

"When cities debate, pass and support such laws, it gives the impression that homeless people are the scum of the Earth," said Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "The city wants to get rid of them, so young people think they'll do it."

His organization will coordinate with local homeless coalitions and assistance groups to set up the panels of speakers, who will receive a small honorarium for their time. They should be in the schools by November.

George Crossley president of the Central Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomes the speakers.

"I am all for anything that will cause young people to stop thinking about homeless people as worthless," he said. "I think that is some education that's much needed."

Raymond Adkins has been homeless for seven years. He thinks having homeless people go into the schools would debunk stereotypes and show teens what it's really like to live on the streets.

"It would show the kids to not mistreat the homeless," he said outside the Homeless Assistance Center in Daytona Beach, where meals are served each afternoon. Adkins, who lost his home and business after a "nasty divorce" and also served time in prison, said he would be willing to share his story. "It's rough out here."

Daniel Hargett, who is passing through Daytona Beach on his way back to Ohio, said it would probably be better to make the teens hit the streets with the homeless.

"Take all the kids that throw the rocks and put them on the streets with [the homeless] . . . and see how they live," he said. "They wouldn't make it one day without their mommy."

Barbara Burns, the sister of Michael Roberts, already shares her brother's story with youth groups and told the coalition she would participate in a panel discussion. Her hope is that the speakers will be able to motivate teens to become activists for the homeless.

"It just starts with one," she said. "Then it just carries on over."

'Earth-shattering'

Pirtle, who lived on the streets for three years, already is seeing change by telling his story.

He had a "normal" life and worked as a restaurant manager in Phoenix until he began experiencing symptoms of schizoaffective disorder, a type of schizophrenia. His unexplained actions caused him to lose his job and his apartment, and he started hopping trains east.

He slept on park benches, rummaged for food in garbage and stayed in abandoned houses before heading to Washington, where he stayed in a shelter.

"I remember the very first night -- it was earth-shattering," Pirtle said. "It's a completely other world when you're standing outside in the middle of the night and you realize you have no place to go."

He began speaking to teens last fall and said it's amazing to see teens change their attitudes and get out in the community to help the homeless.

"No matter what you think about people who are homeless, you are wrong," he said.

by Kristen Reed, Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer August 27, 2007

2007-08-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta) will award $4.2 million in Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grants and subsidies to help fund 355 single-family and multifamily housing units affordable to lower-income residents in communities throughout Florida.
Ten local developers, in partnership with FHLBank Atlanta's member institutions, will use individual grants -- ranging from $108,000 to $500,000 -- as well as low-cost loans to develop affordable housing in Arcadia, Avon Park, Dania Beach, Fort Myers, Fort Walton Beach, Miami, Naples, Pensacola, Sarasota, and St. Johns County.
In Pensacola, SunTrust Bank and the Wakulla County Senior Citizens Council will use a $1.8 million AHP subsidized loan to help build Englewood Senior Apartments, an $11.9 million, 92-unit apartment community for low-income elderly renters. Other winning projects include a new $8.3 million rental apartment complex in hurricane-impacted Fort Myers and Puppy Park, a mixed- income subdivision of 71 townhomes and condominiums in Sarasota developed by Habitat for Humanity of Sarasota in partnership with Bank of Commerce.
"Through AHP, developers can tap into the financial resources of local lenders like the Bank of Commerce in Sarasota or regional institutions such as SunTrust to bring affordable rental and homeownership choices to Florida's communities," said Richard Dorfman, FHLBank Atlanta president and CEO.
Awards announced today are part of $21.2 million in grants and subsidies FHLBank Atlanta recently awarded to 10 states and the District of Columbia to create or preserve more than 2,000 units of affordable housing. Each year, FHLBank Atlanta sets aside 10 percent of net income to fund the Affordable Housing Program. Since 1990, FHLBank Atlanta has contributed more than $346.7 million in AHP funds to develop 58,871 housing units and to provide down-payment assistance to more than 6,809 families.
AHP is a competitive award program that provides funds to help develop single-family and multifamily housing for very low- to moderate-income households. FHLBank Atlanta generally grants AHP awards twice a year to member financial institutions and their community housing partners. For the complete list of winners, visit http://www.fhlbatl.com/ahpwinners.
About FHLBank Atlanta
FHLBank Atlanta is a financial services organization that provides low- cost funding, community development grants, and other banking services to more than 1,200 financial institutions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. FHLBank Atlanta is one of 12 district banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, which since 1990 has contributed more than $2 billion to affordable housing development in the United States.
Some of the statements made in this press release may be "forward-looking statements," which include statements with respect to FHLBank Atlanta's plans, objectives, expectations, intentions, and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which may be beyond FHLBank Atlanta's control, and which may cause FHLBank Atlanta's actual performance or achievements to be materially different from the future performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements may not be realized due to a variety of factors, including legislative and regulatory changes; political, national and world events; and adverse developments or events affecting or involving other FHLBanks or the FHLBank System in general. Additional factors that might cause FHLBank Atlanta's performance or achievements to differ from these forward-looking statements are provided in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at http://www.sec.gov/.
AHP 2007 Round I Winners FLORIDA Habitat for Humanity of Broward Dania Beach, FL Member: Regent Bank Sponsor: Habitat for Humanity of Broward Grant: $108,000 for 18 units AHP funds will be used to construct 18, three- and four-bedroom single- family Habitat for Humanity homes for lower-income families in Dania Beach. County wide St. Johns County, FL Member: Branch Banking and Trust Company Sponsor: Habitat for Humanity - St. Johns County Grant: $150,000 for 15 units AHP funds will be used to build 15 single-family homes for very low-income families in St. Johns County. St. John Village Apartments Miami, FL Member: Regions Bank Sponsor: St. John Community Development Corporation Grant: $160,000 for 16 units St. John Community Development Corporation will use AHP funds to renovate St. John Village Apartments, a 16-unit multifamily complex in Miami targeted to residents earning below 50 percent of the area median income. Arcadia PHD Rehab II Arcadia, FL Member: RBC Centura Bank Sponsor: Arcadia Housing Authority Grant: $400,000 for 20 units AHP funds will be used to renovate 20 public housing rental units in hurricane-impacted Arcadia. The units will be targeted to very low- and low-income families. Puppy Park, Phase IA Sarasota, FL Member: The Bank of Commerce Sponsor: Habitat for Humanity Sarasota, Inc. Grant: $497,000 for 71 units Habitat for Humanity of Sarasota will use AHP funds to construct 71 multifamily units for residents earning 70 percent or less than the area median income in Sarasota. When completed the proposed Puppy Park development will include 215 one-, two, three-, and four-bedroom townhomes and condominiums designed with the principles of new urbanism by world renowned architect, Carl Abbott. Englewood Senior Apartments Pensacola, FL Member: SunTrust Bank Sponsor: Wakulla County Senior Citizens Council Subsidy: $1,838,410 for 92 units AHP funds will be used to develop Englewood Senior Apartments, a 92-unit rental development targeted to very-low income seniors in hurricane- impacted Pensacola. Maple Crest Apartments Fort Myers, FL Member: SunTrust Bank Sponsor: Affordable Housing Solutions for Florida, Inc. Grant: $250,000 for 59 units Subsidy: $1,900,000 AHP funds will be used to construct Maple Crest Apartments, a 59-unit rental development targeted to very low- and low-income residents in hurricane-impacted Fort Myers. Cirrus Pointe I Naples, FL Member: Branch Banking and Trust Company Sponsor: Cirrus Pointe Partners, LLC Grant: $500,000 for 16 units AHP funds will be used to help 16 very low- and low-income first-time homebuyers purchase a three-bedroom condominium unit in the Cirrus Point I development in Naples. Ridgedale Rehab Avon Park, FL Member: SunTrust Bank Sponsor: Avon Park Housing Development Corporation Grant: $500,000 for 36 units AHP funds will be used to acquire and renovate a 36-unit multifamily development in Avon Park. Units will be targeted to households earning at or below 50 percent of the area median income. Harbour Place Apartments Fort Walton Beach, FL Member: Branch Banking and Trust Company Sponsor: Okaloosa Community Development Corporation Grant: $500,000 for 12 units AHP funds will be used to help construct Harbour Place, a 12-unit rental development for formerly homeless and lower-income households in Fort Walton Beach.

2007-08-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

Transient victims are often nameless as well as homeless:

Venus Martinez has a name in death because she had been arrested when she was alive. Other homeless die unrecalled and unrecorded.

The 29-year-old woman had no identification when her body was found late Sunday near Interstate 4 in Orlando. But police had her fingerprints from past charges, including a July 11 arrest for prostitution and possession of drug paraphernalia.

When the homeless die in abandoned buildings, from violent crime or in accidents, a police record could be the only way to determine who they are.

"Without a name, without ID, they're a marginally subhuman population," said James Wright, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida.

Drivers licenses, Social Security cards and military identification are among the first things to be stolen or lost when a person hits the streets. Without it, the homeless can't get full-time jobs, stable housing -- or even a name on a death report.

"Every Monday I get calls from code enforcement or law enforcement, looking for help in identifying someone they found over the weekend," said Nancy Martinez, a senior outreach worker in Orlando with the Health Care Center for the Homeless.

Martinez, who is not related to Venus Martinez, comes into contact with many homeless people on the street and in camps. She said more homeless seem to be dying from being run over by cars, a major fear of transients.

'The driver never stopped'

"A few months ago, one of my clients was hit by a car, and I couldn't even identify him at first because of the tire marks on his face," she said. "The driver never stopped. The car just kept going."

Police records make identifying victims easier, as does help from other homeless people who knew them, said Orlando police Sgt. Roger Brennan, the department's homicide-unit supervisor.

But closing cases can be difficult because witnesses, who usually are other transients, move from one place to another without telling police or anyone else.

"Transient witnesses who leave no phone number or name are extremely difficult to locate so they can testify in court. That usually delays cases," Brennan said.

One of the best resources for identifying the homeless is the local media.

"We get most of our tips after people read about it in the paper or watch something on television," Brennan said.

Questions of identity come up regularly. Orange County spent $115,000 to give pauper's burials to 301 people during the 2005-06 budget year. And 231 unclaimed bodies have been buried in two county cemeteries so far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

"We have some John Does and some Jane Does out there," said Pete Clarke, deputy director of the county's department of health and family services. "If we have a name, we put a little plaque in the ground."

August Felix has a plaque at his grave. The 54-year-old man died in May 2006 after five teens beat him to death for sport. He was identified because he had a record for trespassing.

"We're pretty much lost while we're alive," said John, a transient who goes by only his first name and fears dying alone and nameless. "Only other homeless people know me, and they would not tell police who I was if anything bad happened to me."

Even if a homeless acquaintance can provide information, as at least one did for Venus Martinez, transients often know each other by only first names or nicknames.

Dennis Wayne Pickett, 47, was killed by a hit-and-run driver in January and carried no identification. Friends who also are homeless helped police identify him and his dog Gloria, who also died in the accident.

But Ernest, another homeless man who uses only his first name, figures that no one would care if he were killed. He has no identification and no family.

"I mean, it ends here if I die," Ernest said. "I don't think anyone could even ID me."

Police seek killer

Now that investigators have identified Venus Martinez, the remaining job is to determine who killed her.

Originally from New York, Martinez had arrests locally dating from 2002. An October 2004 arrest for marijuana possession shows she had a home in Orlando. Two months later, she was listed as homeless when she was picked up on a warrant for theft.

To Nancy Martinez at the Health Care Center for the Homeless, the young woman was someone afraid of leaving the streets.

Their paths crossed just a few months ago, when Nancy Martinez was talking to homeless gathered at Compassion Corner in downtown Orlando about getting health care and other help.

Venus Martinez's boyfriend, whose name was not available Tuesday, wanted to be helped. Through the center, he got into a detox program and was given a ticket to return to his family out of state.

He wanted Venus to come with him, but she wasn't ready.

"He occasionally will call and check in and is doing wonderfully," Nancy Martinez said. "But every time, he asks if I've seen Venus and if we could help her."

"The biggest thing is, because you're homeless, no one cares," she added. "Her boyfriend cared. He wanted her to come home to him. He was in love with her."

By April Hunt who can be reached at ahunt@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6269, and Walter Pacheco who can be reached at 407-420-6262 or wpacheco@orlandosentinel.com.

2007-07-23T03:43:00.000-07:00

Families swell homeless ranks: Living paycheck to paycheck, adults with children fall further behind

Jessica Gardner spends most days looking for a job. When she's not filling out applications, the mother of two does what many spouses do: tidies her family's belongings, maybe folds some laundry.

Most mornings, her husband, James, grabs coffee at the nearby 7-Eleven and heads off to work at the labor hall on Babcock Street.

These normal tasks are carried out in a not-so-normal setting: the woods across from Rockwell Collins in Melbourne, where the Gardners live in a tent. They were evicted from their trailer two months ago.

The Gardners' scenario illustrates the plight of the working poor who can easily fall behind as they live paycheck to paycheck, and it makes them a part of the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population in Brevard County, according to the county's most recent homeless census.

While the county's overall homeless population increased 14 percent this year to 1,899 people, the number of homeless families surged to 166 this year, compared to 19 last year. The number includes families without shelter and those with an immediate risk of losing their dwelling, such as through eviction or foreclosure.

Area homeless advocates say displacement from the 2004 hurricanes, the effect of Florida's housing boom and bust and wages not keeping pace with higher living costs are causing the increase.

"When I started 10 years ago, the majority of people were living month to month, week to week," said Joe Robinson, director of the North Brevard Sharing Center. "Now those individuals living month to month are living week to week, and those living week to week are barely making it."

Incomes stagnant

Families such as the Gardners often find themselves on the verge of homelessness after an anticipated job or place to live falls through or a job is lost due to illness, according to Brevard County Housing and Human Services director Rosa Reich.

The Gardners, who have not been homeless before, experienced something similar.

James Gardner, 41, lost his job as a forklift operator for a construction company after spending 41 days in jail for driving on a suspended license. Gardner said his boss planned to rehire him after he got out. But business was slow so that didn't happen.

Then it was rent time, and there was no money. Their two children in tow, the couple stayed in a motel for two nights before going to a Wickham Park pavilion for a few weeks and then the woods.

But another reason is cropping up with increasing frequency: wages that do not keep up with rising costs of living.

"Many of the homeless families subsist on disability, child support and other forms of income that may not rise at the same rate as housing costs," Reich said.

Despite the downward creep of market prices, many homes remain out of reach for the working poor. On the upside, some rental prices have eased this past spring as investors put their units on the already crowded market. Landlords once choosy about tenants with blemishes on their credit rating may be more likely to accept them now.

During the past six months, John Farrell, director of The Daily Bread in Melbourne, has seen more people seeking the soup kitchen's services.

"What I hear is that they lost their jobs, or they're one paycheck away from homelessness," he said. "My own conclusion is that we'll see more people who are not homeless, but unemployed, working poor or on a fixed income."

Homeless with kids

Andriana Giuliano, 15, stays with her mother and eight siblings in a shelter after her father, the family breadwinner, received a nine-year federal prison sentence for fraud.

Giuliano, who will be a sophomore at Palm Bay High next year, never imagined she'd be without a place to call home.

But she is coping.

"I've always been the type to deal with it and go along with what would happen," she said. "Where I live doesn't make a difference."

The Giuliano family remains largely intact.

The same cannot be said for the Gardners, whose two children, Jasmain, 2, and Daniel, 1, were sent by the state to live with Jessica Gardner's adoptive parents in North Florida.

The children lived with the couple under a Wickham Park pavilion the first two weeks until passers-by called the state's welfare agency.

"I'm glad they did call, in a way. I kept trying to call (Department of Children and Families) and they said they didn't have room," Jessica, 22, said. "I'm a lot happier. I know they're getting a bath and three meals a day and not getting bit by mosquitoes."

For children or teens, the trauma of being homeless can be magnified. It can be difficult for families to stay together and keep kids in school.

"It really can set kids back on their self-confidence, their education. There are kids living in parks and in the back seat of cars trying to go to school," said Ginger Ferguson, director of Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless.

On solid ground

There are roughly 13 agencies in Brevard that provide transitional housing, where rents are partially subsidized and people can stay for 30 days or more while they get back on their feet.

But many advocates say the 500 or so beds these groups provide are not meeting demand. The agencies with such housing, and homeless shelters, too, are flooded with calls for help. Sometimes all they can do is put names on waiting lists.

April Tabor considers herself lucky. The 26-year-old mother of two has been in transitional housing since 2004. At the time, Tabor had no job or place to go as her husband threatened to kick her out.

"It was just sink or swim," she said. "I don't know the struggles of being on the street. I can't imagine it."

The Gardners, like many others, aren't so lucky. James Gardner expects to be camped out in the woods for about two more months.

His boss recently hired him back with a July 30 start date. He will make about $1,700 per month, much of which he can save for an apartment. Then, he hopes, he and Jessica will be reunited with their children.

"I miss them," he said. "I'm the one that got us into this situation, and I'll get us out of it. My kids don't deserve this."

BY REBECCA ADAMUS FLORIDA TODAY

2007-06-27T14:11:00.001-07:00

Veterans Job Training Grants

Nearly $624,000 in grants will be distributed to the City of Jacksonville and to two Volunteers of America of Florida groups, Cocoa Beach and Jacksonville, to support and enhance job training programs related to helping veterans succeed in civilian careers.

The grants are provided through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP).

"These resources will help many brave men and women who’ve served in our military transition from homelessness into civilian careers,” said U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL), in a news release Wednesday. "This grant money means veterans who’ve had difficulties making the transition will have a new opportunity. Additional job training is a benefit to veterans and a positive development for Florida communities."

These grants will assist homeless veterans with reintegration into America’s workforce. Homeless veterans may receive occupational, classroom and on-the-job training, as well as job search and placement assistance, including follow-up services. HVRP is recognized as an extraordinarily efficient and effective program and is the only federal program that focuses exclusively on employment of veterans who are homeless.

2007-06-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

Mosquito Nets for the Homeless:

The Charlotte County Homeless Coalition may have helped the homeless as they received 50 large mosquito nets from Volunteers of America-Florida. They were free and the coalition plans to distribute them.

Since 1989, the coalition's mission has been to prevent homelessness and hunger. The coalition also helps chronic homeless people access mainstream services and provides basic necessities.

Iain Ocasio of the Charlotte County Homeless Coalition showrd one of the mosquito nets the coalition plans to distribute.

by Connie Thrasher Sun-Herald

2007-06-02T15:43:00.001-07:00

Identity crisis stumps many homeless:

Ed Lafayette has lost a lot of things over the past 10 years - his wife, his home, his job - but perhaps nothing as vexing as his photo ID.

Without it, he, like thousands of homeless people in the same situation, can't get help finding a new home, can't get a steady job, can't get medical care.

Not without other identification, most notably a birth certificate.

But they can't get that birth certificate without ... a photo ID.

"It's the biggest problem we have - it's the biggest problem we've always had, getting someone an ID," says Lela Jordan, director of the Vickers House in West Palm Beach, where homeless come for help. "Without an ID, you're pretty much stuck."

A tentative solution has come to light. But if it pans out, it will help only some of the homeless: the ones who land in the county jail.

Representatives from the sheriff's office and the public defender's office met recently to discuss the possibility of getting inmates without identification hooked up with the agencies, including the Department of Motor Vehicles, that provide ID, said Jennifer Loyless, who coordinates a program to help inmates after they get out.

The effort could help those who are arrested for trespassing or public drunkenness, but it doesn't eliminate the problem, Jordan said.

And it doesn't help Lafayette.

He hasn't been in jail since 2002, when he was arrested for being in a park after hours, according to court documents.

Lafayette said he had a Florida ID - not a driver license - several years back. But it expired and then he lost it. Because it was a Florida ID, he should have been able to skip the red tape and simply get another by contacting the state DMV, but he says the state reports no record of it.

So Lafayette sought help at St. Ann's Catholic Church.

"We get that request all the time," said Marsha Burkhardt, associate director for the church's homeless programs. The church offers the homeless showers, free meals and help navigating the documents system.

It's such a common request, the church sets aside several thousand dollars a year to cover the typical cost of about $50 per person, Burkhardt said.

Lafayette determined he needed his birth certificate and sent an application and a $15 check to New York to get it. But the check came back uncashed: proof of ID required.

"The law is very specific. Customer service is our number one goal, but obviously the law is written for a purpose and was tightened dramatically after 9/11," said Sandra Lambert, director of driver licenses for Florida.

She notes that the state can issue an ID to people who at one time held a driver license or state ID in some other states. The key is "some" - Florida doesn't honor those from 20 other states, Lambert said.

The folks who help the homeless pursue identification say they can spend days, even weeks on each case. Sometimes that means finding a homeless person's relatives.

She also likes calling town clerks rather than sprawling state agencies. Sometimes the clerks will take assurances from a church or social service agency that a person is who he says he is and send a birth certificate, Burkhardt said.

Getting a birth certificate in this state also requires a Social Security card - and that too requires ID.

But the Social Security rules are broader. The agency requires a photo ID, but if you don't have a driver license, state license or passport, it will accept a school ID, employee ID, marriage certificate, life insurance policy, health insurance card (not Medicare) or U.S. military ID.

That last has proven helpful to Jordan at the Vickers House. She said she was able to send a Navy veteran to the VA hospital to get an ID. Another man didn't have the actual ID, but had photocopies. "That gave us something to work with," Jordan said.

Many homeless folks don't stick around the weeks or months it takes to break through the bureaucracy, Jordan said. She has a pile of certificates for people who have wandered off.

Patience, however, doesn't guarantee success.

"Sometimes they don't even know where to look. You need the mother's maiden name, you need to know what county you were born in, what city you were born in," Jordan said. "Sometimes it's actually impossible to get their ID."

By Sonja Isger
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 02, 2007

2007-05-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

The results of the homeless census for Sarasota and Manatee counties done by the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness were released Thursday.

In January 2007, volunteers with the partnership went out for 24 hours and conducted face-to-face interviews with people who are homeless in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

According to the survey results, there are 1,043 homeless people in Sarasota and Manatee counties -- fewer than half of the reported number two years ago and far less than people working with the homeless estimate.

Mary Ruiz, director of Manatee Glens, said a good estimate for all the homeless people in Sarasota and Manatee counties is around 10,000.

Martin said the partnership survey did not result in an accurate count of homeless children, either.

According to Ruiz, a partnership board member, in Manatee County schools there are 2,030 homeless children, and the numbers in Sarasota County are thought to be comparable.

Anonymity

Every two years, the department of Housing and Urban Development requires a homeless census to be done. While the results of the 2007 census were lower than the survey done two years prior, Richard Martin, the executive director for the partnership, said it was no indication of the true homeless population in the two counties.

"A lot of the homeless refused to take the survey," Martin said. "They want to remain invisible."

Martin said there are many reasons a homeless person might want to remain anonymous. He said fear of authority, fear of social service intervention about their children, and the stigma associated with homelessness are some of the reasons that kept people from participating in the survey.

Martin had given his volunteers who conducted the survey specific training on how to indicate the homeless that didn't want to participate. He said somehow that training had been lost along the way.

Tracking

Martin said that another way to get more accurate numbers of the homeless population is by tracking the people who use services available to help the homeless, such as the ones available from the Salvation Army.

The Homeless Management Information System is a database designed to track people using such services, without counting them twice if they use a variety of agencies.

The HMIS database produced a count of 6,245 homeless people receiving services in Sarasota and Manatee counties for 2007.

Also, according to Martin, the Sarasota Salvation Army serves 500 meals a day to people in need.

Causes

According to the census, 54 percent of the people surveyed cited poverty, lack of employment and money as the reason they were homeless.

Ruiz said it is estimated that people need to make roughly $15 an hour to be able to afford an apartment in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Other major causes that contribute to homelessness are a mental or physical disability and substance abuse. Both can prevent a person from maintaining active employment.

Funding

Martin said he didn't expect the results of the census would influence funding from HUD. However, he did refer to the Florida Legislature's special session in June and the outcome of the property tax reform movement.

He said that if the Legislature cuts funding for community programs, it could affect the amounts given to services for homeless people in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Census results for County Homeless

488 total homeless

73 percent male

27 percent female

64 percent White

38 percent Hispanic

18 percent Black

4 percent Native American

90 percent single

10 percent married

83 percent between ages 18-60 years

52 percent have a disabling condition

28 percent have a physical disability

13 percent have a mental illness

22 percent have a substance abuse problem

44 percent have been homeless for more than a year

17 percent were veterans (an increase of 14 percent from 2005)

clinn@venicegondolier.com

By Courtney Linn

2007-04-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

A home for homeless veterans in Volusia: If facility is successful, more housing could follow across county

He moved to Florida in 2000 for weather and opportunity.

Seven years later, Nicholas Broncato had lost his job, his wife and his home.

Friday, the Navy veteran got some good news.

Broncato is among the first to move into a new housing facility in DeLand for homeless veterans, who represent nearly a quarter of the county's transient population.

Officials opened the facility Friday, calling it a step toward dealing with one of the county's thorniest problems.

"It's a piece of the puzzle. It's not the solution to the puzzle," said Randy Croy, executive director of Serenity House of Volusia, which built the housing. "This prevents the victimization of the vulnerable homeless veteran."

He told a crowd at Friday's grand-opening ceremony that if the 16-bed Veterans Transitional Living Facility is successful, it could lead to more housing for the hundreds of military veterans still living on the street.

Friday's grand opening comes just one month after two 10-year-old boys and a 17-year-old boy were charged with taking part in beating a homeless man in Daytona Beach. The incident highlighted how vulnerable homeless people are to attacks, advocates for the homeless said.

For Broncato, who said he is a recovering alcoholic and cocaine addict, the housewarming was a sign of hope.

The 56-year-old former seaman had good jobs in New York but he and his wife moved to Florida in 2000 for better weather and to open an auto shop, he said.

Since then, Broncato said, he broke his neck, separated from his wife, faced mounting medical bills and lost his home in the Feb. 2 tornadoes, which sent him to the hospital with a head wound.

"I got hit in the head by a cinderblock. I thought I was dead," Broncato said. "It was devastating. I lost everything I had."

Broncato said he was treated at Florida Hospital DeLand and released with a nightgown, a bus ticket and his battered pair of Perry Ellis shoes. He joined the ranks of the homeless in Daytona Beach until Serenity House stepped in, got him in touch with the Department of Veterans Affairs and got him back on track, he said.

Now, he'll be one of the first residents in the first facility of its kind in the county, Croy said.

The $250,000 facility opens at a time when more veterans are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and Croy fears some of the them will end up homeless. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, who also was at the ceremony, agreed and called the facility a step in the right direction.

"If we've done anything else of late, we're creating a lot of veterans," Mica said. "We need a place like this where they can get the care they need."

The county estimates its homeless population at about 2,700, about 600 of whom are veterans, said County Council member Joie Alexander.

"This new facility is a step closer to meeting some of those needs," Alexander said at the ceremony. "We ask our men and women to sacrifice everything that we hold dear. . . . We have a duty and obligation to provide the services they need so they can be healed and restored."

The homeless are grateful for the soup kitchens that are around, but one man said Friday there still aren't enough services and facilities in Volusia.

"Out here, a veteran is treated just like what I consider dirt," said Marvin Howell, 47, who served in the Air Force for 15 years.

Everyone's just "shoveling people around," Howell said. "You can open up a facility for housing, but there's a difference between warehousing people and providing services."

Michael LeBlanc, 50, is a former Marine who lives in the woods in South Daytona. He said it was good that a new facility was opening up for veterans. It's just not for him.

"I don't need anything," he said. "I've got a carpeted tent. It's clean. It's got pine needles."

Broncato said he's proof that there's life after service, even for those down on their luck.

"There is help out there, if you look," Broncato said. "They gave me a new way of life."

By Tanya Caldwell puiblished in the Orlando Sentinel. She can be reached at tcaldwell@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7910.

2007-04-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

Help homeless take first step on road back:

It was essentially a business lunch, but at one point our conversation became more personal when she shared the circumstances that originally brought her to Manatee County.
"Would you ever guess that I was homeless?"
Across from me sat a successful professional person recounting days of sleeping and living in her car.
Situations in life are many and varied, but those tough "down and out" times give us a higher level of understanding.
During my years in social services, I collected widely diverse examples of houseless, homeless, hopeless, helpless, temporary situations and chronic conditions. I met the Vietnam veteran on the courthouse steps; the battered alcoholic living under the bridge; the lost child searching the dumpster; a mentally ill, highly educated citizen; someone who lost his job; a person just released from jail.
Quite a few can be helped immediately. Others take a lot of time and dedication.
I share this with you today because Manatee County and the city of Bradenton have joined with the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Local decision-makers, business leaders, churches, service providers and advocates came together in 2004 for a community summit titled "Shedding Light on Homelessness."
Hundreds of participants met regularly, ultimately fulfilling the mission "to develop a coordinated plan with input from the public, private and nonprofit sectors of our community to end chronic homelessness."
After months of dedicated hard work, the document was publicly presented in August.
Critical to the goals of transitional and affordable housing, job opportunity, access to treatment and shelter, and coordination of services are these crucially important endeavors: The Community Coalition on Homelessness One Stop Center; We Care (health care procedures donated by a large number of our physicians); Manatee Glens Marchman Program, which will be set up to triage emergency drug and alcohol treatment cases; and the Salvation Army's collaboration with other homeless services in discharging lost souls toward a brighter future.
These are but a few examples in need of community support and better understanding. On Sept. 11, Jumpstart Foundation will meet at Bradenton City Centre with copies of the plan - titled "Voices" - and someone with whom you can talk. On that day, we will once again tackle the major impediments to providing accessible workforce housing and some logical solutions waiting to move forward.
Whether the truly poor are visible or invisible, they are an actual part of the human landscape. And while some people deplore the homeless, others are compassionate - witness the citizens who joined the National Alliance to produce a hard-wrought Plan to End Homelessness. They aren't romantic dreamers. They are caring and realistic.
How did my friend get out of her automobile?
Someone opened a door and helped her take one step at a time.
by Pat Glass in the Bradenton Herald

2007-04-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Wireless a lifeline for homeless: Cell phones are becoming increasingly important to people living on the street.

There are days like the one last week when John Marzette is low.

The 41-year-old homeless man is low on job prospects, low on cash and low on minutes for his cell phone.

"You don't have as much money as you usually would because you have to continuously charge it with prepaid minutes," Marzette said of the used T-Mobile phone his sister gave him to stay in touch. "It has its ups and downs. But it's an important thing to have."

Though it may seem strange to own a cell phone when you don't have a roof over your head, homeless advocates say the phones are becoming increasingly important to people living on the street.

They offer the best chance homeless people have at getting a call back from a potential employer. They are the most reliable way to stay in touch with family members who don't live in the area.

"There is a misperception that homeless people are lazy, unemployed people who don't work," said Lesa Weikel, a spokeswoman for the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County. "A high percentage of homeless people do actually work. It may be that they can't afford a home or a place to live, but they do get enough money to pay for a cell phone."

Last month, when a homeless man was hit and killed by a driver who didn't stop on Nebraska Avenue, his friend told police detectives to check the man's cell phone for a number to call his mother about the accident.

"It's absolutely become a lifeline," said Cory Crocker, who along with his wife, Tracey, provides services to the homeless through Covenant House Ministries in Sulphur Springs. "Some folks are only homeless for a very brief period of time, and that lifeline is hope."

For Marvin Wells, 35, it meant more than hope. It meant a chance to put much-needed money in his pocket.

Wells had done enough work on day labor jobs that employers would call him regularly when they needed an extra set of hands. But he couldn't pay his $39-a-month Cingular bill, plus taxes. He canceled his service two weeks ago, cutting off his sole source of contact to the only income he had.

"I haven't been able to compensate for it," Wells said. "It's hard to make it when you can't get the work. I had some guys who were calling me all the time, but they can't now."

Most who live on the street get a cell phone by buying a prepaid one for about $20 and then adding the minutes as they go. Most prepaid phones don't require subscribers to have an address because there's no bill being mailed. Prepaid phones also eliminate the chances of an account going into collections for breach of contract. If there are no minutes available, the phone won't work.

100 minutes for $20

William Hayes of St. Petersburg bought his phone for $20 at a corner convenience store. He uses it to keep in touch with his mother, his 16-year-old daughter and prospective employers. The phone came with 100 minutes when he bought it two weeks ago, and he's down to 35 minutes now.

"I tell my family to call me now so it doesn't burn up my minutes," said Hayes, 46.

If not a phone, voice mail

Pinellas County homeless advocates say they also have noticed the proliferation of cell phones among people who can't afford a place to live. But Pinellas offers an alternative for people who can't afford cells but need to provide a phone number to potential employers.

It's called Community Voice Mail. It works by providing homeless people a phone number and a way to record a message. The numbers can't be used for outgoing calls, but people can check their messages from any regular or pay phone.

"We're finding it very useful and we're getting more and more people signed up for it," said Sarah Snyder, executive director of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless.

Tracey Crocker, a homeless advocate who was homeless herself before moving to Florida and meeting her husband, said the phones provide a sense of security. Especially for women.

Christa Eland, 47, doesn't have a cell phone but gets by with a calling card.

"The only problem is that when I try to call my kids, I always get the answering machine," she said. "They don't have a way of calling me back, so I waste all my minutes talking to a machine."

Her boyfriend has been in jail for the past five months but should be getting out soon. She said he's promised to help find them a place other than a shelter to sleep, if only for a few nights.

Maybe, Eland said, she'll talk to him about getting a cell.

by Kevin Graham St. Petersburg Times, who can be reached at (813) 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

2007-04-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelters:

Ophelia sits by the fireplace and mumbles softly, smiling and gesturing at no one in particular. She gazes out the large window through the two pairs of glasses she wears, one windshield-sized pair over a smaller set perched precariously on her small nose. Perhaps four lenses help her see the invisible other she is addressing. When her "nobody there" conversation disturbs the reader seated beside her, Ophelia turns, chuckles at the woman's discomfort, and explains, "Don't mind me, I'm dead. It's okay. I've been dead for some time now." She pauses, then adds reassuringly, "It's not so bad. You get used to it." Not at all reassured, the woman gathers her belongings and moves quickly away. Ophelia shrugs. Verbal communication is tricky. She prefers telepathy, but that's hard to do since the rest of us, she informs me, "don't know the rules."

Margi is not so mellow. The "fucking Jews" have been at it again she tells a staff member who asks her for the umpteenth time to settle down and stop talking that way. "Communist!" she hisses and storms off, muttering that she will "sue the boss." Margi is at least 70 and her behavior shows obvious signs of dementia. The staff's efforts to find out her background are met with angry diatribes and insults. She clutches a book on German grammar and another on submarines that she reads upside down to "make things right."

Mick is having a bad day, too. He hasn't misbehaved but sits and stares, glassy-eyed. This is usually the prelude to a seizure. His seizures are easier to deal with than Bob's, for instance, because he usually has them while seated and so rarely hits his head and bleeds, nor does he ever soil his pants. Bob tends to pace restlessly all day and is often on the move when, without warning, his seizures strike. The last time he went down, he cut his head. The staff has learned to turn him over quickly after he hits the floor , so that his urine does not stain the carpet.

John is trying hard not to be noticed. He has been in trouble lately for the scabs and raw, wet spots that are spreading across his hands and face. Staff members have wondered aloud if he is contagious and asked him to get himself checked-out, but he refuses treatment. He knows he is still being tracked, thanks to the implants the nurse slipped under his skin the last time he surrendered to the clinic and its prescriptions. There are frequencies we don't hear -- but he does. Thin whistles and a subtle beeping indicate he is being followed, his eye movements tracked and recorded. He claims he falls asleep in his chair by the stairway because "the little ones" poke him in the legs with sharp objects that inject sleep-inducing potions.

Franklin sits quietly by the fireplace and reads a magazine about celebrities. He is fastidiously dressed and might be mistaken for a businessman or a professional. His demeanor is confident and normal. If you watch him closely, though, you will see him slowly slip his hand into the pocket of his sports jacket and furtively pull out a long, shiny carpenter's nail. With it, he carefully pokes out the eyes of the celebs in any photo. Then the nail is returned to his pocket, a faint smirk crossing his face as he turns the page to pursue his next photo victim.

Scenes from a psych ward? Not at all. Welcome to the Salt Lake City Public Library. Like every urban library in the nation, the City Library, as it is called, is a de facto daytime shelter for the city's "homeless."

Where the Outcasts Are Inside

In bad weather -- hot, cold, or wet -- most of the homeless have nowhere to go but public places. The local shelters push them out onto the streets at six in the morning and, even when the weather is good, they are already lining up by nine, when the library opens, because they want to sit down and recover from the chilly dawn or use the restrooms. Fast-food restaurants, hotel lobbies, office foyers, shopping malls, and other privately owned businesses and properties do not tolerate their presence for long. Public libraries, on the other hand, are open and accessible, tolerant, even inviting and entertaining places for them to seek refuge from a world that will not abide their often disheveled and odorous presentation, their odd and sometimes obnoxious behaviors, and the awkward challenges they present to those who encounter them.

Although the public may not have caught on, ask any urban library administrator in the nation where the chronically homeless go during the day and he or she will tell you about the struggles of America's public librarians to cope with their unwanted and unappreciated role as the daytime guardians of the down and out. In our public libraries, the outcasts are inside.

"Homeless" is a misleading term. We have homeless people in America today, in part, because we have no living wage, no universal healthcare, disintegrating communities, and a large population of working poor who can end up on the street if they lose one of their part-time jobs, experience an illness or an accident, or have a domestic crisis. For them, homelessness is generally temporary, probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There is little to distinguish such people from the rest of us and we usually do not notice their presence among us. Programs to help people in such circumstances may be inadequate -- and it is a shame they are needed at all -- but they usually work. For the people we point to on the street or in public places and normally identify as homeless, however, homelessness is a way of life and our best attempts to rescue them continually fail.

We commonly refer to them as "street people." We see them sleeping in parks, huddled over grates on sidewalks, resting or sleeping on subway cars, passed out in doorways, or panhandling with crude cardboard signs. Social workers refer to them as the "chronically homeless." Although they make up only about 10% of the total number of people who experience homelessness in a given year, they soak up more than half the dollars we spend on programs to address homelessness. There are at least 200,000 people across the nation living more or less permanently on the street, enough to fill a thousand public libraries every day.

Drunk as a Skunk

The term "chronically homeless" is also inadequate when it comes to describing these individuals -- it only tells you that their homeless state is frequent. It neither indicates why they are homeless and stay that way, nor says anything about their most salient characteristic: Most of them are mentally ill. The published data on how many homeless are considered mentally ill by those who study them varies widely from 10% to 70%, depending on whether all the homeless, or just the chronically homeless, are included (and depending on how you define illness or disability). How, for example, do you categorize alcoholics and drug addicts?

When Crash is sober, for instance, he reasons like you or me, converses normally, and has a good sense of humor. Unfortunately, he is rarely sober. In one of his better moments, he petitioned me to let him stay in the library even though he was caught drinking -- an automatic six-month suspension. "You know I'm a good guy and I don't bring that stuff into the library," he pleads. "C'mon, give me another chance."

Crash is sitting in his wheelchair in the foyer outside my office where I serve as the library's assistant director. It's hard for me to address Crash without staring at the massive scar on his face -- a deep crease that neatly divides it down the middle from scalp to chin. Unfortunately, his nose is also divided and the sides do not match up, giving him an asymmetrical appearance like a Picasso painting on wheels.

"Alcoholics pass out in the library's chairs," I explain, "and if we can't wake you up we have to call the paramedics. If you piss your pants or puke, the custodians have to clean that up and they hate that. You guys fall down and knock things over. You're unpredictable when you drink. You disrupt others. Public intoxication is against the law..."

"Okay, okay," he interrupts me, "I get it. Hey, just thought I'd try and get back in is all -- no hard feelings, man."

No hard feelings I assure him. He smiles and we shake hands. I wish I could cut him some slack -- after dozens of confrontations with angry and threatening drunks, I appreciate a cheerful drinker like Crash -- but I can't afford to establish a precedent I can't keep. The rule is clear: no drinking in the library and no exceptions. As he waits for the elevator doors to open and take him down, I venture a question I've been holding onto for awhile. "I know it's none of my business, but how did you get that scar?"

"Car accident," he replies, "same one as put me in this wheelchair. That's why they call me Crash."

"Were you drinking?" I ask.

He shakes his head and sighs. "Drunk as a skunk ... drunk as a skunk." As the elevator descends I think about just how hard it must be to be both wheelchair-bound and homeless. I wonder about the commonly held notion that alcoholics must "hit bottom" before they can rebound. Is there such a thing as bottom for guys like Crash? Is he any more capable of controlling his urge to drink than Ophelia can control the voices in her head?

Our condemnation of transient-style alcoholism is both hypocritical and snobbish. If you are unhappy and caught without a prescription in America, you self-medicate. Depressed lawyers do it with fine scotch. An unemployed trucker might turn to beer or meth. Anxiety-ridden teachers or waitresses might smoke pot or order just one more margarita. Indigent people who want relief from their demons drink whatever is available and affordable or swallow whatever pills come their way. Dr. Tichenor's mouthwash is a popular choice for street alcoholics and "Doc Tich," as the brand is commonly known, doesn't offer a pinot noir.

What Library School Didn't Cover

The strong odor of mouthwash on the breath of transient alcoholics who shelter with us is often masked by the overwhelming odor of old sweat, urine-stained pants, and the bad-dairy smell that unwashed bodies and clothes give off. It can take your breath away long before you can smell theirs.

The library wrestles with where to draw the line on odor. The law is unclear. An aggressive patron in New Jersey successfully sued a public library for banning him because of his body odor. That decision has had a chilling effect on public libraries ever since. When library users complain about the odor of transients, librarians usually respond that there isn't much they can do about it. Lately, libraries are learning to write policies on odor that are more specific and so can be defended in court, but such rules are still hard to enforce because smell is such a subjective thing -- and humiliating someone by telling him he stinks is an awkward experience that librarians prefer to avoid. None of this was covered in library school.

It's a chicken-or-egg world for the mentally-ill homeless. Are they on the street because they are immobilized by severe depression or is deep depression the consequence of being on the street? Any tendency towards a psychological problem is aggravated and magnified by the constant stress, social isolation, loss of self-esteem, despair, and relentless boredom of street life. Imagine the degradation of waiting an hour in the cold rain to get into a soup kitchen for a meal; the hassle of hunting endlessly for an unpoliced spot to sleep; the constant fear of being robbed or attacked by other street people; or the indignity of defecating in a vacant lot. It's a combination that would probably drive a mentally healthy person to psychosis and substance abuse. Street people, who suffer serious psychological disorders, are often substance abusers, too, and the drug that a psychotic person prefers, often matches the psychosis. I have learned, for example, that bi-polar users prefer cocaine when in their manic phases and schizophrenics gravitate, naturally enough, to hallucinogens.

Alcohol and drugs mix with depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and paranoia in complex ways, so it is hard to pull any given disorder apart and understand just who this person in front of you, cursing or pleading or thrashing on the floor, may be. Public librarians, of course, are not trained to do this. We deal with behaviors that are symptomatic without understanding why someone is suffering or what we can do about it. And even if we did understand and had been trained for such situations, healing the homeless is not our mission. Taxpayers expect us to provide library services and leave the homeless to social workers. They give us resources only for one mission, not two.

What about those social workers then? They turn out to be too few, under-funded, over-worked, and overwhelmed. My initial unsuccessful attempts to get the social workers who operate the "homeless van" to stop in and assess a "regular" homeless patron who, we suspected, had suffered a stroke, reminded me that they had more pressing priorities. In the dead of winter, they struggle to get people sleeping in alleys or passed out on sidewalks indoors so they don't freeze to death. Theirs is an everyday "life or death" race. If a homeless guy is inside the library, then, "Hey, mission accomplished."

Navigating the Archipelago of Despair

A workshop I attended on treating Native Americans for alcoholism compellingly described how incorporating sweat lodges, healing ceremonies, and other elements from Native American culture into established treatment methods can improve their effectiveness for Native American patients. Of course, the social worker added, it's essential to provide a halfway-house option between rehab and release and that remains a huge problem. Typically, he told us, his clients wait three to six months to get into a halfway-house after rehab.

"And where do they go while they wait?" I asked, naively enough.

He shrugged and sighed. "Back with their drinking buddies in the park, under the bridge, wherever."

The inadequacy of existing resources and the absurdity of the conditions they endure are just part of the landscape, a given for social workers. Public librarians can cooperate with (and learn from) them, but we understand that they are overwhelmed and often unavailable. So, like it or not, we are ushered into the ranks of auxiliary social workers with no resources whatsoever.

Local hospitals are also uncertain allies. They have little room for the indigent mentally ill for whose treatment they often can't get reimbursed. So they deal with the crisis at hand, fork over some pills, and send the hopeless homeless on their way.

A manager at a shelter-clinic told me that he keeps a stash of petty cash handy because sometimes a taxi arrives at his door from one of the city's hospitals, carrying an incoherent patient without ID or any possessions other than the hospital gown he or she is wearing. When that happens, clinic workers are instructed to rush for the cab before it can unload its passenger and pay the driver to return to the hospital, puzzled cargo still in hand.

Throughout the fragmented system of healthcare for homeless people, from rehab to hospitals to jails, there are few ground rules or protocols for discharging the mentally ill and next to no communication between healthcare providers, police, social workers, and shelter managers in this archipelago of despair. Public librarians are out of the loop altogether; our role in providing daytime shelter for the homeless is ignored. When, in an attempt to build my own useful network, I attended conferences on homeless issues, I was always met with puzzlement and the question: "What are you doing here?"

"Where do you think they go during the day?" I would invariably answer.

"Oh, yeah, I guess that's right -- you deal with them, too," would be the invariable response, always offered as if that never occurred to them before.

Paramedics are caught in the middle of this dark carnival of confusion and neglect. In the winter, when the transient population of the library increases dramatically, we call them almost every day. Once, when I apologized to a paramedic for calling twice, he responded, "Hey, no need to explain or apologize." He swept his arm towards the other paramedics, surrounding a portable gurney on which they would soon carry a disoriented old man complaining of dizziness to the emergency room. "Look at us," he said, "we're the mobile homeless clinic. This is what we do. All day long, day after day, and mostly for the same people over and over."

Sanitizing Gels and Latex Gloves: Plying the Librarian's Trade

The cost of this mad system is staggering. Cities that have tracked chronically homeless people for the police, jail, clinic, paramedic, emergency room, and other hospital services they require, estimate that a typical transient can cost taxpayers between $20,000 and $150,000 a year. You could not design a more expensive, wasteful, or ineffective way to provide healthcare to individuals who live on the street than by having librarians like me dispense it through paramedics and emergency rooms. For one thing, fragmented, episodic care consistently fails, no matter how many times delivered. It is not only immoral to ignore people who are suffering illness in our midst, it's downright stupid public policy. We do not spend too little on the problems of the mentally disabled homeless, as is often assumed, instead we spend extravagantly but foolishly.

And the costs could grow far beyond the measure of money. If an epidemic of deadly flu were to strike, if an easily communicable strain of tuberculosis or some other devastating disease emerges, paramedics will be overwhelmed by their homeless clients who are at high risk for such illnesses. People who drink until they pass out tend to aspirate and choke, and people who sleep outdoors at night breathe cold, damp air. People who sleep in crowded shelters breathe each other's air.

Serious respiratory problems among the chronically homeless in a shelter are as common as beer guts at a racetrack. If an epidemic strikes, the susceptibility of the homeless will translate into an increased risk of exposure for the rest of us and, eerily enough, our public libraries could become Ground Zeroes for the spread of killer flu. Librarians are reluctant to make plans for handling such scenarios because we do not want to convey the message that America's libraries are anything but the safe and welcoming environments they remain today.

But here's the thing: It's not just about libraries. The chronically homeless share bus stops, subways, park benches, handrails, restrooms, drinking fountains, and fast-food booths with us or with others we encounter daily, who also share the air we breathe and the surfaces we touch. When sick or drunk, they vomit in public restrooms (if we are lucky). Having a population that is at once vulnerable to disease and able to spread microbes widely to others is simply foolish -- and unnecessary -- public policy, but in the library we focus on more immediate risks. We offer our staff hepatitis vaccinations and free tuberculosis checks. We place sanitizing gels and latex gloves at every public desk. Who would guess that working in a library could be a hazardous occupation?

In Place of Snake-Pit Hospitals, Snake-pit Jails

Ultimately, the indigent mentally ill are criminalized. If their presence in our libraries is a common and growing problem that we librarians would like the rest of society to be aware of, acknowledge, and commit themselves to helping us solve, here is a secret we would like to keep to ourselves: We are complicit. No matter how conscientiously and compassionately we try to treat our mentally disturbed users -- and at the Salt Lake City Public Library we work very hard to be fair, helpful, and tolerant -- librarians often have no good choices and, in the end, we just call the cops.

Take, for example, the case of a young man who entered the library fuming and spitting racial and ethnic slurs. He loudly asked some Hispanic teenagers, who were doing their homework, when they crossed the border and they reported his rude behavior. When a security guard approached, the young man started yelling obscenities and then took a swing at him. To his credit, the guard backed off and tried to calm him; but, on the next lunge, the guard took the kid down, cuffed his hands behind his back, and called the police. They recognized him. He had been let out of jail just two days earlier. Putting him back there, staff members argued, obviously wasn't going to make a difference. Shouldn't he be taken to a hospital for treatment?

The police pointed out that he was simply too strong and violent to be handled at a hospital, so he would have to go to jail. While waiting to be taken away, the kid turned some corner in his mind and left sobbing.

His behavior was not a measure of his character or even of his civility, but of how severe his psychosis had become without treatment and under the stress of prison. The man was sick, not bad. If we accept that schizophrenia, for instance, is not the result of a character flaw or a personal failing but of some chemical imbalance in the brain -- an imbalance that can strike regardless of a person's values, beliefs, upbringing, social standing, or intent, just like any other disease -- then why do we apply a kind of moral judgment we wouldn't use in other medical situations? We do not, for example, jail a diabetic who is acting drunk because his body chemistry has become so unbalanced that he is going into insulin shock, but we frequently jail schizophrenics when their brain chemistries become so unbalanced that they act out, as if punishment were the appropriate and effective response to a mental disorder.

And the police aren't happy about their role either. Cities are responding to such problems with mental health courts and the like for sorting out the mentally disturbed from other prisoners. Salt Lake City now has a model program, but nationally there is a long way to go.

According to the Department of Justice, there are about four times as many people with mental illnesses incarcerated in America today as under treatment in state mental hospitals. Some jails devote entire wings to the mentally ill.

Jails, of course, are intended to control, intimidate, and humiliate. Such a dehumanizing environment can be especially devastating for the mentally ill. I am particularly wary when dealing with street people who are recently out of jail because they are likely to be in an especially agitated state. Of course, cops and jailers are no better trained or prepared than librarians to handle people with serious psychological problems. This is a bond we share -- our unacknowledged charge and our inevitable failure to meet it.

In the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, the discharged mentally ill began to be "deinstitutionalized" from crowded hospitals with "snake pit" conditions where they got inadequate treatment. They were supposed to be integrated into local communities and cared for by local clinics. That was the dream anyway, but such humane alternatives to indifferent hospitalization failed to materialize.

The clinics were never built and the communities that were supposed to embrace the mentally ill didn't get the memo. The safety net that was to catch them proved to be chockfull of holes. Instead, they migrated to urban psychiatric ghettoes -- alleys, parks, abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and flophouses. As housing became more competitive and costly in the 1990s, they were further compressed into the margins of society where their suffering festered like an open wound. Now, it is up to the police to re-institutionalize them -- but this time in snake-pit prisons where they generally receive no treatment at all. So, in the last couple of decades, we have exchanged revolving doors to padded cells for revolving doors to jail cells with steel bars.

The cost of keeping a mentally-ill person in jail is not cheap. In Utah, it turns out to be the yearly equivalent of tuition at an Ivy League college. For that kind of taxpayer money, we could get our mentally ill off the streets and into stable housing environments with enough leftover for the kinds of support services most of them need to stay off the street. Again, the right thing to do for them may also be the most practical choice for us. We could solve the problem for less than it costs to manage it. In the meanwhile, they will cycle between the jail and the library. Is it any wonder that they crave a calm and entertaining environment after weeks, months, or years of fear and noise in jail? From a taxpayer's perspective, however, it seems cheaper to warehouse them in the library, between stints in jail -- or simply to pay no attention to where they are at all.

Refusing Treatment

Even if treatment options were not so scarce and inadequate, many of the mentally ill would not get treatment because they refuse to be treated. Paranoia is rampant on the street and paranoid people do not willingly submit to strange doctors and nurses who might "implant" something in them -- or worse. The cops, paramedics, and social workers can't take a person to the hospital just because he is ranting incoherently. He has to be a danger to himself or others.

Committing the mentally ill, homeless or otherwise, to treatment facilities against their wills is a civil liberties conundrum. As a political activist with controversial ideas, I am sensitive to the issues raised when citizens are forced into treatment. Images of Soviet dissidents getting dragged into psych wards and drugged come immediately to mind. But when a person is hallucinating and clearly upset, it is hard to accept, as I have often heard from social workers and the police, that "nothing can be done."

Sid was in his twenties when he came to us -- a tall, lanky, blond kid with a scraggly beard who walked around rumpled and slump-shouldered, his head hung in a beaten-dog kind of way. He avoided eye-contact and was very quiet most of the time. He liked to read graphic novels and comic books. Occasionally, though, he would jump up and move quickly outside where he would shout and twitch uncontrollably. He seemed to sense when his Tourette's Syndrome would strike and wanted to spare us.

On his worst days, he was troubled by hallucinations and voices he would answer in exasperated whispers. The police told me he had been raped by other transients -- a common occurrence on the street, bound to aggravate and complicate existing psychological disorders. When addressed directly, Sid was unfailingly polite and soft-spoken. Sometimes, we saw him eating scraps from garbage receptacles. The library staff worried about him, replaced his clothes when they fell apart, and bought him food when he grew thin and pale.

Sid, however, refused treatment. The case could be made that Sid was a danger to himself. After all, he often wasn't coherent enough to acquire food for himself. But nobody made that case. One day Sid disappeared. Staff members looked for him on the street and asked other homeless patrons if they had seen him. No one knew a thing and we never saw him again. I often wonder what happened to him. I like to imagine that he was rescued by family members who had been looking for him. It's far more likely that Sid's demons led him to a bus and that he's wandering the margins of another alien city where "nothing can be done."

We see so much despair of Sid's sort among the lost souls who shelter at the library that, by winter's end -- our "homeless season" -- we often find ourselves hard put to cope with our own feelings of depression and frustration. As one library manager told me, "I struggle not to internalize what I experience here, but there are days I just go home and burst out in tears." She is considering leaving the profession.

Another colleague started out in social work and transitioned to a library career when she found she couldn't handle the emotional stress of dealing with her down-and-out clients. Imagine her surprise to rediscover her feelings of despair while working in the library. "I deal with the same clientele," she told me one day, "but now I have no way of making a difference. I still go home feeling sad and discouraged that, in a nation as rich and powerful as ours, we abandon mentally ill people on the streets and then resent them for being sick in public."

There is hope, however. After decades of studies by various task forces, followed by experiments by local governments, a consensus has emerged that the most effective way to help chronically homeless people is to stabilize them in housing first and then offer treatment. Social scientists and policy-makers have concluded, logically enough, that it is hard to "get better" while living in a stressful, demeaning, and unstable environment and easier to recover when one feels safe and secure.

This "housing first" strategy isn't cheap, but it is far more realistic and effective than requiring people to get better as a prerequisite for housing -- and it costs much less than failing the way we do now. Salt Lake County, like many local governments, has created a ten-year plan to end homelessness based on housing-first principles. The wheel of reform is moving slowly, however, and many people who need help now will suffer and die on the street before things can turn their way (if they ever actually do). And the librarians at the City Library and the good citizens of Salt Lake will watch them struggle daily, while waiting for saner policies to take hold.

Gaining the World and Losing Each Other

In the meantime, the Salt Lake City Public Library -- Library Journal's 2006 "Library of the Year" -- has created a place where the diverse ideas and perspectives that sustain an open and inclusive civil society can be expressed safely, where disparate citizens can discover common ground, self-organize, and make wise choices together. We do not collect just books, we also gather voices. We empower citizens and invite them to engage one another in public dialogues. I like to think of our library as the civic ballroom of our community where citizens can practice that awkward dance of mutuality that is the very signature of a democratic culture.

And if the chronically homeless show up at the ball, looking worse than Cinderella after midnight? Well, in a democratic culture, even disturbing information is useful feedback. When the mentally ill whom we have thrown onto the streets haunt our public places, their presence tells us something important about the state of our union, our national character, our priorities, and our capacity to care for one another. That information is no less important than the information we provide through databases and books. The presence of the impoverished mentally ill among us is not an eloquent expression of civil discourse, like a lecture in the library's auditorium, but it speaks volumes nonetheless.

The belief that we are responsible for each other's social, economic, and political well-being, that we will care for our weakest members compassionately, should be the keystone in the moral architecture of a democratic culture. We will not stand by while our fellow citizens are deprived of their fellowship and citizenship -- which is why we ended racial segregation and practices like poll taxes that kept disenfranchised Americans powerless. We will not let children starve. We do not consign orphans to the streets like they do in Brazil or let children be sold into prostitution as they do in Thailand. We are proud of our struggles to meet people's basic needs and to encourage inclusion. Why, then, are the mentally ill still such an exception to those fundamental standards?

America is proud of its hyper-individualism, our liberation from the bonds of tribe and the social constraints of traditional societies. We glorify the accomplishments of inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs, pioneers, and artists. But while some individuals thrive and the cutting edge of our technology is wondrous, the plight of the chronically homeless tells me that our communities are also fragmented and disintegrating. We may have gained the world and lost each other.

The Penan nomads of Sarawak, Borneo, members of an indigenous and primal culture, have no technology or material comforts that compare with our mighty achievements. They have one word for "he," "she," and "it." But they have six words for "we." Sharing is an obligation and is expected, so they have no phrase for "thank you." An American child is taught that homelessness is regrettable but inevitable since some people are bound to fail. A child of the Penan is taught that a poor man shames us all.

Ophelia is not so far off after all -- in a sense she is dead and has been for some time. Hers is a kind of social death from shunning. She is neglected, avoided, ignored, denied, overlooked, feared, detested, pitied, and dismissed. She exists alone in a kind of social purgatory. She waits in the library, day after day, gazing at us through multiple lenses and mumbling to her invisible friends. She does not expect to be rescued or redeemed. She is, as she says, "used to it."

She is our shame. What do you think about a culture that abandons suffering people and expects them to fend for themselves on the street, then criminalizes them for expressing the symptoms of illnesses they cannot control? We pay lip service to this tragedy -- then look away fast. As a library administrator, I hear the public express annoyance more often than not: "What are they doing in here?" "Can't you control them?" Annoyance is the cousin of arrogance, not shame.

We will let Ophelia and the others stay with us and we will be firm but kind. We will wait for America to wake up and deal with its Ophelias directly, deliberately, and compassionately. In the meantime, our patrons will continue to complain about her and the others who seek shelter with us. Yes, we know, we say to them; we hear you loud and clear. Be patient, please, we are doing the best we can. Are you?

By Chip Ward, Tomdispatch.com

Chip Ward recently retired as the assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library System to devote more time to political activism and writing. He's the author of Canaries on the Rim: Living Downwind in the West and Hope's Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land..
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/50023/

2007-04-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Homeless to Get One-Way Ticket out of Gainesville:

A one-way bus ticket out of town is a recommendation that has
long been associated with those who argue that Gainesville does too much for
its homeless population.

But some of Gainesville's most ardent homeless advocates are now lining up
behind a plan that does just that, with the intention of reuniting the
homeless with family or friends elsewhere in the country.

Today, the city and the St. Francis House shelter will launch Homeward
Bound, a program that advocates say will help some of the nearly 1,000
homeless people in Alachua County find the supportive environments they need
to get back on their feet.

"Its not just a bus ticket out of town," Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan
said. "It's trying to reconnect people to the places and people that have
the resources to get them back on their feet."

Through the program, which will be funded with $10,000 of city money,
caseworkers at St. Francis House will work with homeless residents who have
been in Alachua County for at least 30 days and who want to go back to
family or friends elsewhere in Florida or the country, said Jim Hencin,
Gainesville's block grant manager and one of the city officials most
involved in homeless issues.

Once someone has agreed to help the homeless resident, the caseworker will
buy a bus ticket, take the participant to the station and make sure they get
on the bus, Hencin said. They will later check up on the residents to make
sure they arrived and to gauge how well the program is working, he said.

"No doubt there will be cynics who say this is another way of sort of
washing your hands of the problem," Hencin said. "But the safeguard here is
that we know they will be linking up with someone else, a family member or
friend on the other end. It's not just, 'Here's your bus ticket and
goodbye.'"

But the program includes enough safeguards, such as prohibiting residents
who return to Gainesville from using the program again, to make sure the
public's money is being spent wisely, Hencin said.

"This is not intended to be a travel agency to help those who want to move
from community to community," he said. "They need to be going somewhere
where there is a family or friends willing to provide housing. We're not
just moving folks to other communities with no expectation of them being
housed."

With nearly 43 percent of the homeless population hailing from other areas,
according to a survey of the homeless last year, homeless service providers
have provided versions of this service for years. Beth O'Grady, coordinator
of the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, said she
receives four or five requests a month from homeless people who are looking
for help to return home.

Sometimes these residents can find help in the form of donations from
service providers, O'Grady said, but the city's involvement in the program
will provide a sure source of funding.

"We've been doing this for a while and trying to pull together funds for
people who really want to get to family members somewhere else and really
are stranded," O'Grady said.

Hanrahan first proposed the program in June after hearing about a similar
project in San Francisco.

The San Francisco program, also called Homeward Bound, has served more than
1,800 people and met mostly with success, said Dorothy Enisman, program
director of San Francisco's Homeward Bound program. Enisman said a key to
running a successful program was a policy of checking up on residents a
month after their move.

Enisman said the program gets people into a supportive environment that can
help them out of their situation.

By JEFF ADELSON
New York Times Regional Media Group

2007-03-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

House council OKs bill to battle homelessness:

Florida residents on the verge of becoming homeless could get an extra boost from the state if a measure that cleared a House council Tuesday makes it into law.

The bill, which would fund grants for local agencies that work to prevent homelessness, passed through the Healthcare Council as it makes its way toward the House floor. An identical bill is being offered in the Senate.

Rep. Faye Culp, a Tampa Republican backing the House measure, said homelessness is one of the key problems facing her city. Instead of paying for more temporary shelters, she said, the state should use its money to find permanent solutions for people who need a place to stay.

"Temporarily being in a shelter is not stable," she said. "It is not what we should strive for."

The idea for her bill, Culp added, originated in "100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future," the far-reaching list of goals laid out by House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-Miami.

Culp's measure would include a $250,000 grant to a Tampa group called Connected by 25 that works to find housing for young adults who are about to be phased out of the foster-care system. The group now relies solely on donations from individuals and businesses.

If the Tampa program proves successful, Culp said, she may try to cast a wider net for it during next year's legislative session. But for now, she said, she hopes other communities will view Connected by 25 as an example of how to prevent homelessness.

In Manatee County, the homelessness problem is growing.

There are more than 2,000 people without homes in the area, said Ashley Canesse, development director for the local Salvation Army.

"It's very hard to afford permanent housing in Manatee County right now," she said.

Many of Manatee's homeless people, she said, are local residents who just couldn't make ends meet in the face of rising costs.

A program like Culp's would be a positive step for the county, Canesse said.

"That's what we all want to do," she said. "We all know that people fare better if they're living in their own personal housing."

By LYNDSEY LEWIS
Bradenton Herald Staff Writer

2007-03-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Humanize homelessness:

Talk of an ordinance to put an end to camping on public property is definitely meant for the homeless. And of course a way to solve a problem is to put them away. If homeless people had money to pay a fine for camping they would most likely have a home.

As for an end to panhandling, all these laws are directed at the economically challenged - poor people.

I would be the first to agree that there is a percentage of homeless people who just don't want to work. A small percentage. Most people are homeless under circumstances they have no control over. Loss of income or shelter at a crucial time can lead to years of homelessness. The government stopped the welfare system and a lot of people were left to their own devices. Then there are some people with mental health issues. Our medical and mental health system for the poor is a joke. Poor people die every day because they can't afford treatment. But as long as they stay out of sight that doesn't matter either.

So what do people do who are homeless? Where do they sleep? Where do they bathe? Where do they eat? People don't want panhandling. Would they rather someone just take their money? At least respect that they ask. No one has to give a panhandler money. It is your choice. I personally need the karma so I help everyone I possibly can. I'm sure a lot more of us could use the good karma.

And where do they sleep? We are so worried about appearance. Instead of worrying about the injustice of another human being, who has to sleep in an alley in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the response is, "That looks terrible. They're so dirty." These are our sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, friends and fellow Americans.

Maybe if we all thought of homelessness as not an issue but a personal thing that is happening to many good people it would be different. It needs to be individualized. We need to hear personal stories. When we make this a person-by-person thing instead of talking about an overwhelming 6,000 homeless people, maybe then compassion for our fellow man will win out over aesthetics. Personally, I would rather know that my tax dollars were going to help house and feed people rather than putting up new plants in front of some condos. But I'm crazy like that.

by Denise Hawke letter to the Editor Bradenton Herald

2007-03-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

Manatee Churches Uniting to Help the Homeless:

Bill and Mary Townsley, in their Feb. 12 letter to the editor (Bradenton Herald), suggested that area churches open their buildings to help the homeless. The good news is that congregations in Manatee County are responding through the new Family Promise program to create an Interfaith Hospitality Network.

In this program, congregations will open their doors in the evenings to homeless families and provide shelter, volunteers and resources for up to 14 guests. Host congregations, usually three or four times a year, provide shelter in the evenings for a week's rotation. A social worker meets regularly with the families at a day center as guests actively seek housing, services and resources needed to regain their independence.

Volunteers in Manatee County congregations are working hard to get Family Promise up and running this year. So far we have seven of the 10 congregations needed to begin operations. Those participating in the network include: Palma Sola Presbyterian, Trinity United Methodist, Kirkwood Presbyterian Church, First Assembly of God, Harvest United Methodist, Westminster Presbyterian and First Presbyterian Church. The Family Promise day center will be housed at Central Christian Church in downtown Bradenton.

There is great potential for the Manatee County faith community. We have more than 100 congregations in Manatee County that could join us to provide a single, powerful, coordinated solution for homeless children and families. We'd like to encourage congregations of all faiths and interested individuals to join our effort.

The public is welcome to attend our next community information meeting Tuesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. at Central Christian Church, 926 15th St. W., or contact us at 794-6229. Come be part of a solution as we open our hearts and doors to provide hospitality and safe shelter to our most vulnerable neighbors.

Diana Shoemaker, President
Family Promise of Manatee County
Bradenton

2007-03-17T05:48:00.000-07:00

ST. PETERSBURG - Police Chief Chuck Harmon said Friday that officers would arrest homeless people as "a last resort" while enforcing strict new city ordinances that prevent people from sleeping on sidewalks and other public rights of way.

Speaking at a press conference just hours after a City Council meeting, Harmon said police officers would try to reason with homeless people who were violating the new ordinances and attempt to get them help, such as access to shelters. Officers would arrest homeless people only if they encountered stiff resistance, Harmon said.

"It is not our intent and has never been our intent to criminalize homelessness," Harmon said. "Enforcement is going to be our last resort."

The City Council passed a series of ordinances Thursday night that forbid people from putting up tents or any other temporary shelter on public property. The ordinances also prohibit sleeping on rights of way adjacent to residences or sleeping on any right of way if shelter space is available.

The City Council approved the ordinances over the objections of advocates for the homeless and a coalition of civil rights groups and the Pinellas-Pasco public defender's office, which told council members that the laws may be unconstitutional.

The city has also reopened a tent city on property owned by St. Vincent de Paul on Fourth Avenue N that it shut down in January, saying it will have room for 75 tents.

The police department's vow to reason with the homeless was a far cry from the harsh approach it took after the murders of two homeless men in January, when officers raided two tent cities and cut tents with scissors, knives and box cutters.

Both Harmon and Mayor Rick Baker called the raids a mistake after they provoked outrage and drew national attention.

By Friday morning, the two satellite tent cities appeared abandoned. Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said there were 75 tents and 100 people at the city-endorsed tent city.

Several homeless residents in the new, sanctioned tent city said they appreciated the security. But some added that they wanted more input and resent having to wear wristbands.

"How would you like someone to build a house for you, an architect, and he doesn't consult you at all?" asked G. W. Rolle, who has been homeless since October.

Some homeless people have gone to the Lakewood United Church of Christ on 54th Avenue S, where parishioners have voted to open a 30-tent encampment on church property. City officials say any property owner needs a permit before allowing people to sleep outdoors.

Harmon said police officers had recently gone by the church, but not seen any tents. If tents are erected, Harmon said, it would be a code enforcement issue, not a police matter.
by Abhi Raghunathan who can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com
Times staff writer Christopher Ave contributed to this report.

2007-03-15T05:20:00.000-07:00

In St. Petersburg, as homeless pull up stakes, some entrench:

The city on Wednesday began coaxing about 75 homeless people to leave a group of sidewalks near downtown for a lot it controls.

It will not be an easy task.

Advocates for the homeless immediately likened the new site to a prison camp, while an area church proceeded with plans to open its own tent city despite the city's objections.

About 12 people did move to the city site Wednesday, Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis said.

Others seemed ready to resist. They were preparing to stay at the 18th Street site, and possibly be arrested, or move to the Lakewood United Church of Christ on 54th Avenue S.

Parishioners there voted Sunday to open their own 30-tent encampment.

The Rev. Kim Wells said church officials may ask for a permit to run the tent city, but are not sure if a church even needs one.

"The church is about offering hospitality to people who need it," Wells said.

City officials say any property owner must obtain a permit before allowing people to sleep outdoors, meaning the church might face fines if it moves ahead.

The church chose to open its doors after speaking with the Rev. Bruce Wright, an advocate for those living in tents on 18th Street. Wright said there will not be enough room for everyone at the city site - a claim city officials deny.

Council member Jamie Bennett accused Wright and another advocate, Eric Rubin, of exploiting the church and the homeless as part of their own political agenda.

"They're just going to keep fighting us," Bennett said. "They're going to pick up their band of merry men and going to go somewhere else.

"This has to stop."

People who live near the church met Wednesday night to discuss how to fight the church's proposal, Bennett said.

Wells said the church has fielded fewer than 20 complaints.

"We've complied. We've tried to help," Bennett said. "Every politician is on the same page. This is all because Eric Rubin and Bruce (Wright) are going to lose their pre-eminence."

City officials and advocates both converged on the 18th Street encampment Wednesday afternoon to rally support for their own cause.

Advocates called the city's actions subterfuge.

A few people said they wouldn't mind moving.

Daniel Nelson was among the first to decide to move. "We just went through some problems here," Nelson said.

But several others seemed dug in.

"Over there is dirty and a lot of trouble," said Vera Blaine. "Here we watch out for each other."

People relaxed near their tents or napped on chaise longues while the city and advocates held their discussion.

"They're turning it into a permanent prisoner camp," said Wright, pointing to rules requiring residents to have their photographs made and to wear wristbands.

The City Council is expected today to ban tents on city streets and sleeping in the public right-of-way.

If both measures pass, city officials said the people would have to leave or face being arrested.

Business owners in the area have been demanding action for weeks.

"It's about ... time," said Brian Longstreth, a real estate agent active in the nearby neighborhood association.

by Aaron Sharockman who can be reached at asharockman@sptimes.com

2007-03-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

The homeless struggle: Another showdown looms in St. Petersburg

Leaders of a group of homeless people living near downtown say they won't move from a sidewalk camp unless the city agrees to keep the tent city open indefinitely, among other demands.

The announcement, made at a Friday news conference at City Hall, could lay the groundwork for another showdown with police as early as next week.

It also brings a brief era of cooperation between the city and some advocates for the homeless to a grinding halt.

"We are asking them to put down in writing what they have agreed to verbally," said the Rev. Bruce Wright of Refuge Ministries.

The city has been preparing to open a 90-day tent city on a vacant private lot so that people could move off the sidewalks near First Avenue N and 18th Street. At the end of 90 days, city officials say, they should be able to place residents in a more permanent setting, including a new shelter in Largo.

Though advocates initially agreed to the move, they now say it will not proceed without written protections.

Among them: The advocates and the homeless want equal say in how the camp is run. They also want to be able to bring new people into the tent city to replace people who are helped. And they don't want to be sent to the Largo shelter, to be built at the former site of the PSTA headquarters.

Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis said the city never agreed to those terms, nor would it.

He said when the new site is ready, people will be asked to move.

And if they don't?

"Arrest is always an option, but it's not the first one we'll utilize," Davis said. "Reasonable people will move. If we're put in a position to have to take an enforcement action, I think people in the public will understand that."

City Council member Jamie Bennett, who has in the past has sided with the advocates, said patience throughout the city is wearing thin.

"This has gone on so long," Bennett said. "We're trying to be humane, but we're also trying to be adult."

The city made national news when police officers slashed the tents of a group of homeless people living on sidewalks in January.

Since then, officials have helped raise more than $1-million to provide shelter space and solicited the help of the federal government.

Mayor Rick Baker thought he had reached a suitable short-term compromise last week, when he agreed to open a tent shelter on the grounds of St. Vincent de Paul along Fourth Avenue N.

Now that agreement appears in jeopardy.

Speaking Friday, several tent city residents and advocates said the homeless would refuse to move unless the city agreed to sign a proposal guaranteeing a voice in decisionmaking.

The list of demands seeks to establish a long-term tent city run by those who live there, rather than a temporary settlement overseen by the city.

Eric Rubin, an advocate for the homeless, said Deputy Mayors Davis and Dave Metz had been most involved in the discussions. Rubin said there was concern in the homeless community that the city was enacting plans without enough feedback.

"We heard about some of their plans to move forward without enough input, and we wanted to put a stop to it," Rubin said.

Davis said Rubin, Wright and two tent city residents were invited to a meeting Wednesday, but did not attend.

Kathy Hines, a resident of the tent city on 18th Street near First Avenue N, said she was especially concerned about a city plan that might require residents of the new, city-sponsored tent city to wear armbands.

"I don't like that idea. ... I will not go with the wristbands requirement," Hines said. "A lot of these people have jobs and they're worried about losing their jobs if they have to wear wristbands all the time."

Without the support of Hines, the "mayor" of tent city, as well as advocates such as Wright and Eric Rubin, it is unlikely that the large group of homeless people living in tents will agree with the city's proposal.

The city is considering using armbands to help identify who belongs, officials said. Service providers would be required to wear them as well.

"We have to control it somehow," said Bennett. "You don't want to make it like a stalag or anything, but you have to understand who the residents are somehow, whether it's a tag or ID."

The city is racing against a clock to see whether the homeless will move.

The City Council will consider ordinances Thursday that would make the tent encampment on 18th Street and other places in the city illegal.

Davis knows if the ordinances are adopted, some residents will immediately demand they be enforced.

by Aaron Sharockman who can be reached at asharockman@sptimes.com or 727 892-2273.
St. Petersburg Times

2007-03-07T16:44:00.001-08:00

Tackling the housing issue from all angles:
Blame it on the big, bad business community, frazzled politicians, migratory retirees, baby boomers, workers, families, a stable/unstable economy, personal choice, "unexpected" growth, lavish land uses and, above all, the weather.

Housing is the premium topic at the barbershop, coffee house and kitchen table and has spilled out into every area of community discourse. Unfortunately, there is a general attitude that tends to lump everything under "rooftops," thereby ignoring the very specialized nature of human living or working space. Certainly being adjacent to vacant, unused land is preferable to some folks, but so is productivity. Empty space may not gobble up resources or blow around in hurricanes, but it doesn't provide safe harbor for families, either.

When it comes to analyzing human needs, one size simply does not fit all, nor does one carefully aimed insulting remark cover every problem in meeting those needs. Lakewood Ranch, for example, is a place (and a nice one at that) and not the major cause of crowded roads. It's people, not places, people with vehicles, some of whom live in other areas, who create traffic.

Ironically, a lot of things occurred simultaneously. During the current spate of high population growth, the economy flourished but some housing efforts didn't. Risk-takers were rewarded. Many amateurs jumped into real estate investments with visions of flipping for the big bucks. Blaming builders and developers, political fingers were pointed in the wrong direction by people who had no compass. Actually, business professionals are our potential problem solvers, along with builders, growers, lawyers, bankers, retirees and citizens seeking a culture of ever expanding opportunity. "Just tell us what you want!" they cry, "and no surprises."

Here we were in 2004, a time of plenty, with a shortage of houses to accommodate our workforce as well as a dearth of transitional housing or shelter for the homeless. Reality emerged rapidly when the housing market dipped. It was over coffee one morning that Dr. Russ Kitching and I discussed the "big picture" with a thousand angles. The picture required focus. We needed something to jump-start public/private dialogue, to jump-start housing opportunities. Thus was born Jumpstart Foundation, a not-for-profit organization made possible through a stellar cast of charter members and board of directors. The modest brochure reads: "Jumpstart paves the way. During boom times or down times, a community must be prepared to endure over the long stretch. Economies are cyclical, markets are volatile. Needs are constant!"

Public/private membership is wide open and committed to increasing workforce housing inventory and accessibility, building trust in the business community, influencing sound government policy, eliminating blight and establishing an information forum. A conference including representatives from The Urban Land Institute is planned for May, according to Stan Stephens, Jumpstart chairman, and Cheri Coryea, Manatee County human services director. The subject will be "density." Look here for more information in the coming weeks.

We are all aware that "housing" cannot be separated from "high cost," including everything from taxes, impact fees, labor, building materials, insurance and yes, weather. But, good, productive meetings require focus and clarity of purpose, one headache at a time.

Pat Glass, just-retired from political office after almost three decades as Manatee County commissioner, writes every Wednesday to Herald readers about key issues and concerns with her unique insights. To reach her write to her c/o Bradenton Herald Metro Desk, 102 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton, FL 34205.

2007-03-05T05:31:00.000-08:00

Homework, no home:
They fly under the radar in places few would think to look. At night, they lay their heads down in abandoned automobiles, in motel rooms, in spare corners in the homes of relatives. They are the estimated 1,500 children who are homeless yet enrolled in a Pinellas County public school. Thousands of others can be found in Hillsborough and Pasco schools, and in school districts across the state.
Curtis Reitmeyer is one of them. The 10-year-old will tell you the best hours of his day are the ones he spends at Skycrest Elementary School in Clearwater. The rest of the time, he's cooped up in a cramped motel room with his mom and dad, his older brother and two younger sisters.
Curtis says that sharing a bed with another family member makes it hard for him to fall asleep. Traffic along U.S. 19 and arguments among other motel dwellers sometimes wake him in the middle of the night.
And the utter disarray that results when six people spend months together in a small space makes it hard to keep track of things. Curtis says he missed a day of school recently because he couldn't find one of his shoes.
"At our apartment, they were always right next to each other," he says.
* * *
Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, describes childhood homelessness as pervasive, hidden and heartbreaking.
"It's pervasive in that it exists in every community across the country," Duffield says. "It's hidden in that families with children are less visible than other segments of the homeless population. It's heartbreaking because of the damaging effects homelessness has on every aspect of a child's development."
Under federal law, homeless advocates must identify and provide education services to homeless children. In Pinellas, the school district's homeless education assistance team includes two resource teachers, a social worker and a program coordinator.
Althea Hudson, the coordinator, has seen enough to know how important the smallest comforts can be to needy children.
"The things we take for granted," Hudson says, "are the things they cherish."
While people are quick to judge the homeless, there often are extenuating circumstances that land them in difficult situations. Jon Reitmeyer, Curtis' dad, acknowledges that he hasn't always managed his money well. But he is working two jobs to save for an apartment.
Unfortunately, his credit is bad, which makes landlords wary of leasing to him. So he hands over close to $2,000 a month to the motel, which makes it hard for the family to get ahead.
Debi Turner, principal at Blanton Elementary School, says she has seen many families like the Reitmeyers. At present, she knows of at least five Blanton families who live in shelters. Six to 10 are "doubled-up" with friends or relatives, and one family is living in a van.
"These kids have to come to school and perform, yet they have the weight of the world on them," Turner says.
Largo Middle School principal Fred Ulrich also has seen his share of homeless children. In most cases, Ulrich said, the families are doing everything they can to work toward a better life.
"It's part of our culture to think people are supposed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps," Ulrich says. "But if you've dealt with these issues, you see there's more to it than, 'Why don't you get a job?' "
The two school district employees who know this better than anyone are Janet Walker and Duane Kinnison, resource teachers with the homeless education assistance team. They encounter childhood homelessness every day as they travel from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg.
They visit the county's family shelters to check on new arrivals and tell them their rights under federal law. They make sure schools know that homeless children can't be denied enrollment even if they are unable to show proof of age, residency or immunizations.
For Walker and Kinnison, the job often is very basic.
"Sometimes, the children just need some good old reassurance," Kinnison says. "You've got to be a friend to them."
* * *
Diamond Williams loved being in her school's gifted program. She cried when she found out she would have to leave it.
Diamond, 8, and her two older brothers now live with their mom, Martisha Haymon, at a Clearwater shelter. They've been there ever since Haymon, 36, a licensed child care worker, fled an abusive relationship in Georgia.
Haymon hopes the eight weeks the family is allowed to stay will be enough time for her to save the $3,100 she needs to move into an apartment. Meanwhile, her biggest worry is that her kids will fall behind in school. That's why she's glad the Pinellas school district has placed an after-school tutor at the shelter.
From 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Highland Lakes Elementary teacher Rachel Barnes works with as many as a dozen children in a small space set up like a classroom. Some, like Diamond, don't need much help. Others are so far behind Barnes wonders if they'll ever catch up.
"You would never know walking up to them that they're in this situation," Barnes says. "I'm sure there are kids in schools nobody knows are homeless."
The district's homeless education assistance team works hard to keep it that way. Sometimes that means providing school supplies, like pencils with good erasers. Other times, it means outfitting kids with everything from jeans to sneakers.
"They won't be name-brand," says Hudson, the coordinator. "But at least they'll fit."
Most school districts receive federal grant money to fund their homeless programs. Pinellas got $95,000 this year. Hillsborough got $125,000, and Pasco got $90,000. But 34 of Florida's 67 districts didn't get any funding at all.
That's because there's not enough money to go around.
Nationally, more than 900,000 children in kindergarten through 12th grade were identified as homeless last year. That's up 50 percent from the 2003-04 school year.
* * *
Emina Dizdarevic became homeless last summer when her mom got evicted from a low-income apartment complex in Largo. Emina's dad had left, and her mother, who was making $8-an-hour cleaning houses, couldn't afford rent.
Emina and her older brother, Adis, moved with their mom to a homeless shelter in Clearwater. But they weren't able to stay long enough for Bosnian-born Sada Dizdarevic, 34, to save money for another apartment. Since December, the family has been staying at Resurrection House, a long-term residential program for homeless families in St. Petersburg.
Emina, 10, hopes she'll have her own room some day in a big house. Maybe then, she thinks, she won't be embarrassed to invite her friends from school over to play.
"I know it's not my fault," she says. "But they might make fun of me now."
The toll of childhood homelessness can extend beyond academics, says Harry Brown, an associate superintendent for Pinellas schools who served as the district's first homeless resource teacher. Children like Emina often have a hard time making friends because their lives have been so chaotic, he says.
"It can be like an adult starting a new job every couple of weeks," Brown says.
That's another reason why the work of homeless liaisons within school districts is so vital, says Duffield, the National Association policy director. School often is the only place where homeless children can form stable relationships. School gives structure to their day and provides services, such as breakfast and lunch.
"Ultimately," Duffield says, "school is the place where they hopefully will gain the skills they need to prevent them from becoming homeless adults."
* Source: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
An estimated 1.35-million children are homeless. That's 39 percent of the homeless population. Forty-two percent are under 5; 47 percent of homeless students do not attend a full year of school; they are twice as likely to have a learning disability; and three times more likely to have emotional or behavioral problems.*
Fast Facts:

State numbers
Florida ranked sixth in the number of homeless children and youth enrolled in public schools during the 2003-04 school year, the most recent year for which data is available, according to a U.S. Department of Education report to Congress. Here are the 10 states with the greatest reported numbers of homeless children and youth for that year. Because many homeless children go unreported, the actual numbers of homeless children are much greater.
California 142,554
Texas 137,858
New York 20,838
Pennsylvania 19,631
Louisiana 17,079
Florida 16,069
Arizona 14,597
Kentucky 13,640
Missouri 12,983
Ohio 12,482

by Donna Winchester St. Petersburg Times

2007-02-28T04:22:00.000-08:00

A groundbreaking survey of homelessness being released today found that
704,000 people nationwide sought shelter at least once in a three-month
period.

Families with children accounted for one-third of those seeking emergency
shelter or transitional housing between February and April 2005, the most
recent period studied, according to the report by the Department of Housing
and Urban Development. The rest were individuals, mostly adult men. Nearly
half were black.

The count covered only those seeking shelter, not people living on the
street, so the total number of homeless people would be higher.

"This first-of-its-kind study is a huge leap forward in our understanding of
not only how many people are homeless, but also what their needs are," HUD
Secretary Alphonso Jackson says. The report says, for example, that at least
a quarter are disabled.

HUD, which briefed USA TODAY on the report Monday, says it is the most
comprehensive government estimate ever of homelessness. Previous counts
looked only at the number of people homeless on a given day or week.

The three-month figure — equal to the population of South Dakota — is an
estimate based on a sample of 80 communities. It will serve as a baseline
for annual reports to Congress and may be expanded to include people living
on the street.

Martha Burt, a homelessness scholar at the Urban Institute, says the new
database has shortcomings. For example, it has limited information about the
health of those seeking shelter, and she thinks future versions will have
trouble tracking those living on the street.

HUD's report also cites a previously reported one-night survey of hundreds
of communities in January 2005. That survey found 754,000 homeless people,
including 45% who were living on the street. USA TODAY published its own
estimate of 727,000 in October 2005, based on earlier tallies.

The three-month count found that on an average day, 335,000 people sought
shelter, but more than twice that number sought shelter at least once during
the entire period.

Dennis Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of
Pennsylvania who co-wrote the HUD report, says it's unclear whether
homelessness has increased or declined, because past estimates were done
differently.

He says poverty among blacks, who are more likely to live in urban areas,
runs deeper than for other groups.

Culhane says families with kids have remained a steady one-third of the
homeless, and he says government needs to do more to provide housing, such
as expanding rent subsidies.

One of every three homeless kids has a diagnosable psychiatric disorder,
such as post-traumatic stress, by age 8, says Ellen Bassuk, a psychiatrist
who is president of the National Center on Family Homelessness.

"They have trouble sitting still and learning in school," she says.

Nine of 10 homeless mothers have been victims of violence, often domestic,
she says.

Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless welcomes
the new count but says more housing and shelters are needed as well as a
focus on the root causes of the problem. He says homelessness "can happen to
everyone."

By Wendy Koch
USA TODAY

2007-02-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

Partnership: Dignified homeless shelters needed:

One out of 100 Americans will experience homelessness this year, according to some estimates.

To gauge the extent of the problem in Sarasota and Manatee counties, the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness held a census of all the homeless in the area.

On Jan. 29 at noon, volunteers for the agency assembled to search the two counties for people who would be homeless for the next 24 hours. The volunteers handed out donated toiletries and asked the people to participate in a survey that asked where they stay, why they're homeless and what services they need.

"We found nine camps," said Connie Insley, a volunteer.

A camp is a group of homeless people, usually in a wooded area, like a small town.

"There is a hierarchy within the camp," said Nancy Smith, a volunteer. "It is just like anyone's house."

Camps are eventually broken up by the police, which makes the members leery of anyone, said volunteer Jim McEntee.

Avery Burke, another volunteer for the organization, also works for one of the nonprofit organizations that participates. He often goes out looking for homeless offering assistance.

He said that homelessness is not always a choice. Sometimes an addiction or mental illness makes it hard for someone to get his life in order. Sometimes a financial problem compounds and spirals out of control.

"It (homelessness) could be any one of us at any day," he said. "Miss one car payment or get hurt and lose your job, you could wind up homeless."

Help

The Suncoast Partnership is a nonprofit organization that works with other nonprofit organizations in the two counties to help eliminate homelessness. More than 45 agencies participate.

Richard Martin is the chair of the Suncoast Partnership. Martin said the partnership is focusing on finding solutions to the problems of homelessness, and surveys like this one will help.

However, Martin also said there is no one specific solution for all the homeless because each situation is different.

"Some people can't just decide not to be homeless anymore," Burke said.

Martin said that the lack of affordable housing in the area is a large contributor to homelessness.

Martin and directors from the allied agencies would like there to be more shelters for the homeless in the area.

"A roof gives dignity. Dignified shelters are the first step," Martin said.

Currently, the Salvation Army in Sarasota and Bradenton provide the only shelters in the area.

Martin and other directors said government help is not enough to help fight homelessness.

"It takes a village," Martin said.

The results of the survey are expected in late March 2007.

By COURTNEY LINN

Sun Herald Staff Writer

2007-02-21T11:46:00.000-08:00

Sarasota and Manatee agencies receive homeless assistance grants:

Four local agencies made the cut Tuesday for $1.4 billion in homeless assistance funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Bradenton and Sarasota branches of the Salvation Army were big winners, along with the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness and Jewish Family and Children's Services Inc.

The four grants topped $400,000, said Adrienne Lazeroff, executive director of the Suncoast Partnership, which wrote the HUD grant on behalf of applying agencies in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

The Salvation Army of Sarasota got the largest grant, $170,432, to continue its Families in Transitional Housing, or FAITH, program, Lazeroff said.

FAITH families commit to a structured program that will help them get out of debt. In return, they are provided with rent-free apartments for one year while they save for a down payment for housing, Lazeroff said.

Among groups that lost out in Tuesday's announcement was Family Resources Inc. of Bradenton, which was denied its bid for $315,000 to build a residence for homeless teenagers and their babies.

First Step Inc., a substance abuse counseling service serving both counties, also failed in its bid for $78,483 to build permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless persons recovering from chemical dependency.

"It's really disappointing," said Anne Melton, Family Resources executive director, when she heard the news. "But are we going to quit because of this setback? No!"

The Salvation Army of Bradenton and Jewish Family & Children's Services of Sarasota-Manatee Inc. each received $100,000 for homeless-prevention programs.

The Bradenton Salvation Army will use the money to provide rental assistance to prevent evictions, foreclosures and utility shutoffs, said spokeswoman Ashley Canesse.

"It's a miracle that we have received this funding for the fourth consecutive year," said Canesse. "It's even more of a miracle when you realize how the need has escalated."

Canesse said evictions in Manatee County for 2005-06 were up 14.6 percent compared to the previous year, while foreclosures increased by 36.8 percent for the same period, according to county figures.

"I don't want to raise hopes that this money is here now," said Canesse. "The funds have been awarded but won't be received until a contract is signed, and that could take a couple of months."

Jewish Family and Children's Services provides assistance through the Building Strong Families Program for those at risk of being homeless who commit to long-term goals to stabilize their finances.

"We are delighted to receive this gift so we can continue and enhance the level of care that we can provide," said Rose Chapman, president and CEO.

The agency has helped 412 families, including 960 children, since the Building Strong Families program began three years ago.

The Suncoast Partnership received $37,793 to expand a computerized database for tracking the homeless.

"We are very pleased to get the money," said Lazeroff. "A baseline on who is homeless in our community is critical to our goal of eliminating homelessness."

An expanded database will help bring more homeless assistance funds into the Manatee and Sarasota counties, Lazeroff said.

That's good news for Melton, who is trying to raise $2.5 million to fund and operate the home for teen moms.

"All we need is one really good one to give us a kick-start," said Melton, who recalled it took eight years to raise funding to build the agency's runaway shelter. "If it takes us that long to get money for this project, we will be on the second generation of babies."

Donna Wright, health and social services reporter, can be reached at 745-7049 or at dwright@Bradenton.com.

Grant recipients

• The Salvation Army of Sarasota: $170,432

• The Salvation Army of Bradenton: $100,000

• Jewish Family and Children's Services: $100,000

• Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness: $37,793

by DONNA WRIGHT
Bradenton Herald Staff Writer

2007-02-18T02:38:00.000-08:00

Rising costs. Fewer housing options. Less help. It's a scenario that sparks fears of a spike in Florida's homeless population.

Thanks to a few tents and a couple of police officers armed with box cutters, St. Petersburg's homeless problem has gotten national attention.

But to those who track homelessness and its causes, last month's tent slashings aren't as alarming as what could happen in the future if housing and government funding trends continue. Consider:

- Staggering tax and insurance increases are forcing landlords to raise rents - Pinellas' average rent increased 12 percent in two years - even as apartments are disappearing due to hurricane damage and condominium conversions.

- Federal money for building more affordable housing is dwindling or disappearing, while state lawmakers last year refused to repeal a cap on the state's affordable housing trust fund.

- Social service programs that help keep people stable and out of homelessness, including rent subsidies, job training and health care programs, are waning even as the number of people needing them increases.

The result of these trends, housing and homeless experts fear, is that moderate income earners will squeeze low income earners out of the affordable rental market and that thousands on the brink of homelessness will topple over.

"The safety net is gone and there simply is no way for them to survive," said Sarah Snyder, executive director of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless.

The effects of stagnant incomes, shrinking housing and slackening aid already are being felt. Statewide and across west-central Florida, homeless counts are rising, from an estimated 1,500 in Pinellas in 2000 to 4,400 in 2006. Hillsborough saw its homeless population jump from an estimated 3,600 in 1999 to 11,000 in 2005.

Advocates for the homeless fear those numbers are a sign of things to come. They worry that people whose incomes sheltered them from homelessness in the past might be vulnerable now.

"We're talking about people from median income on down. People from 100 percent of median income on down just aren't making it," Snyder said.

* * *

Homelessness is getting a lot of attention these days, in St. Petersburg, in Florida and across the nation.

Specifically, states, communities and even the federal government are adopting multiyear plans to end "chronic homelessness." The chronically homeless are people who have been homeless more than a year or homeless several times in the past few years. Often they have serious underlying problems such as substance abuse or mental illness.

Conventional wisdom says these people need "supportive housing" - long-term living units with access to counseling and other services. Many states and cities, Florida and St. Petersburg included, are working to create more of those living areas.

But experts say it does little good to have a homeless policy without a housing policy. Many people who are homeless on a given night simply couldn't make the rent due to a short-term financial crisis like a medical or auto repair expense, or a lack of cash for security deposits. And the drug-addicted and mentally ill need a place to live after they've stayed in a shelter or similar space long enough to stabilize.

"Homelessness is a housing issue at its root," said Tom Pierce, director of the state's Office on Homelessness. "And it's not just a low income issue anymore. The middle class is being priced out of the market. Teachers, firefighters are having trouble finding housing in their communities."

Last year, Pierce's office, which gives $400 per year per qualifying family facing eviction when unexpected expenses eat up the rent money, ran out of money in October. Lawmakers added more, but Pierce plans to ask for almost twice as much - nearly $4-million - for the next fiscal year.

But if people can't find an affordable place to live in the first place, the emergency fund can't help much. That's especially true in Pinellas, where units of affordable housing are disappearing and there's little land left on which to build. From 2003 to 2005, some 4,500 of the county's mobile homes disappeared; developers bought out the mobile home parks to build more expensive developments.

From 2000 to 2005, 4,400 Pinellas apartment units were converted to condominiums. Meanwhile, average home values in Pinellas jumped 72 percent during that time, while the average rent jumped 12 percent from 2004 to 2006.

* * *

Both county and state homeless strategy plans acknowledge the need for more affordable housing. But it's ultimately up to the Florida Housing Finance Corp. to arrange for construction.

But don't look for a rash of building soon. The housing corporation's most recent annual report - for 2005 - outlines the difficulties facing the state right now.

"This past year has been a year unlike any other for affordable housing in Florida," director Stephen P. Auger wrote in the report. Hurricanes, storm evacuees, the costs of land, construction, insurance and utilities, plus apartments converting to condominiums have put significant pressure on the state's ability to provide affordable housing, Auger said.

On top of that, many agreements the state made years ago with apartment complexes to set aside units for low income renters will soon expire. (The complexes received favorable loans through the housing corporation in exchange for the set-asides.)

Funding for federal Section 8 rent vouchers has been flat for a number of years - most housing authorities, including St. Petersburg's, have long waiting lists. And state lawmakers, over the objections of affordable housing advocates, last year chose to retain a $243-million cap on the state's affordable housing trust fund, and to keep the rest of the $940-million free to use for other emergencies.

"From afar people look at our housing trust fund and they salivate, but only a small percentage gets spent," said Freyja Harris, program director of the Florida Coalition for the Homeless.

"The problem is only going to get worse, but the funding is not going to increase unless that cap is reversed," Harris said.

But restoration of significant spending, whether directly on housing programs or indirectly on supportive social programs, is considered unlikely in this budget environment.

On the state level, lawmakers are expecting a very tight budget year, and community organizations that provide social services to the homeless and other low income Floridians are gearing up for a fight for funds.

Recent changes in the state's Medicaid program, which provides health care to the poor, have forced some community mental health organizations to lay off workers whose job it is to ensure that mentally ill clients at risk for homelessness follow their treatment plan.

Florida likely will give back some $17-million in federal funds because the state, to control its share of cost in a joint children's health care program, tightened eligibility requirements.

At the federal level, at a time when wages are stagnant and a St. Petersburg resident must earn $13.31 an hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment (or else work 80 hours a week at minimum wage), funds for a job training program considered key to preventing homelessness have been reduced the past few years.

President Bush has proposed a second round of cuts to the country's social service programs, including Medicaid and Medicare, as well as eliminating the Social Services Block Grant.

These things keep Snyder of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless awake at night.

"It's one thing to get people off the street today," Snyder said. "But the long-term issue of where are people going to live is a real concern."

By ALISA ULFERTS St. Petersburg Times
Published February 18, 2007

2007-02-13T05:30:00.000-08:00

Let us consider safe and sanitary homeless camps. Robin Miller of Bradenton recently wrote a thoughtful post about one approach to homelessness. Readers of “Sarasota Speaks” may already have encountered his post. The entire article may be found here: http://www.roblimo.com/node/192 I asked Robin for permission to excerpt portions for this blog, and it was kindly granted. What follows is from Robin:

Homeless shelters are chronically underfunded and almost always overcrowded, especially in the winter. Remember, shelters aren’t just there for the “visible homeless” — the booze-smelling panhandlers who bother us in the supermarket parking lot — but also for families and non-boozing singles who have been hit with high medical bills or lost their jobs, and because they had no money (or on a landlord’s whim) got evicted from their homes and couldn’t find someplace else they could afford to rent.

Some municipalities rent hotel or motel rooms to house homeless when their shelters are full. This is a hugely expensive short-term solution to a long-term (and growing) problem. My solution is simpler and cheaper: Licensed, legal homeless camps. The reality is that homeless camps are the wave of the future. We are going to have more of them, so we might as well have clean, decent ones with toilets, showers, and electricity.

Except they don’t need to be “homeless” camps, just campgrounds where anyone is free to stay as long as they pay minimal rent and/or help maintain the place.
Campgrounds are far cheaper to run than indoor shelters. The same $10,000 that might only help a dozen people stay in a homeless shelter for a month might help 100 or more “live rough” in tents, but with water, electricity, and showers available, along with simple firepits and lanais where they could cook without burning down their tents. A $25/week, $100/month tent campground would be the perfect place to live for someone who is truly serious about going to school or saving up for a monthly (instead of weekly) apartment or who wants to set aside enough money to eventually buy a house. It could be a haven for a poet who wants to devote full-time to her writing and is willing to put up with crude living conditions in exchange for a chance to live for six months on a few thousand dollars.

Naturally, this kind of living situation wouldn’t work well in Maine or Michigan. People would die there in the winter. But I live in Florida, where simple, outdoor-based living is feasible (if not necessarily comfortable) year-round.
A modern tent is nearly as comfortable as many of the shacks early settlers here built. And what about trailers? As in all those Katrina-surplus FEMA trailers? Wouldn’t they be good enough for rock-bottom housing? I could live in one and get by. Even my wife could, if she really had to. We’ve discussed all this, and have decided that while we really like our comfortable house and two cars, we could survive life in a camp trailer or tent — and still find many moments of joy.
The thing is, this level of living is now illegal almost everywhere. A woman down south of us on Florida’s west coast was running a non-subsidized homeless shelter that was really just a fenced lot with some tents and junk trailers on it, and she got shut down over building code violations even though her beneficiaries were undoubtedly living better on her property than they had lived elsewhere.
So change the laws!

I suspect that many churches and social service groups would happily fund and run simple “homeless” campgrounds if such things were legal. I’m sure many church-run campgrounds would prohibit drinking and drugs on the property. Some might require attendance at religious services. As long as they weren’t receiving government money, why shouldn’t they set up whatever rules they like?
And if laws allowed, I’m sure some private operators might even open for-profit campgrounds — and make a go of them. 20 camping spaces per acre, each bringing in $100 per month or more, could pay a considerable mortgage. Even with a two-acre campground only half-full, that’s still $2000 per month, which is more than enough to build and maintain a simple place, especially if residents are required to pitch in a certain number of hours every month to keep the place tidy and secure.
The thing is, we have this dichotomy in our society: There is (duh) more money in building expensive houses than in building cheap ones. Ditto apartments. Hardly anyone is building new apartments that auto parts store clerks can afford to rent. And even as “regular” housing gets further out of reach for low-income workers almost every year, we are unwilling — as a society — to consider simple, low-cost alternative housing. Indeed, in many areas building codes have made it illegal to even try to build something bottom-rungers can afford.

We are going to have homeless people camping out, like it or not, and current real estate and employment trends mean we’ll have more of them doing it 10 years from now than today. The least we can do is make the “homeless” experience as clean and safe as we can, for as many people as possible. And that means legal camping, with rules and regulations designed to keep campsites clean and safe, instead of consigning our “homeless” to lives of filth and misery the way we do today.

2007-02-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

Should panhandling be illegal in Manatee County?

I attended the Manatee County Commission “workshop” on the proposed panhandling ordinance. Commissioner Ron Gettman chaired the meeting. He was joined by representatives from most law enforcement agencies.
He was careful to begin the meeting by pointing out that this was not about homelessness, the ordinance was about panhandlers. The primary justification offered for the ordinance was that there had been complaints from the community. Gettman also said that it was a public safety issue.
A powerpoint presentation was then given describing all of the current financial assistance that the commission is currently providing for homeless services. Manatee County is currently providing approximately 1.4 million dollars to social service agencies to work on homelessness issues.
The county attorney then outlined the proposed ordinance. Essentially, the ordinance would outlaw: 1) “aggresive panhandling,” and 2. any solicitation conducted within 15 feet of any roadway. This ordinance may be presented to the full county commission for a public hearing on March 13, 2007. The law enforcement community voiced their support for the ordinance. A representative from a homeless coalition pointed out that their might be problems with the proposed penalties, and suggested that violators be required to perform community service.The floor was then opened for public comment.
Approximately ten people spoke in favor of the ordinance. Some of the comments had little to do with panhandling but instead focused on other issues, such as public urination or campsites built on private property. A realtor complained that the panhandlers were depressing the home market. Others complained about enabling the lifestyle choices of those who used solicited money for cigarettes or alcohol. There were also legitimate complaints about panhandlers that were disturbing particular neighborhoods.
I spoke out against the ordinance. A similar law from St. Petersburg has been declared unconstitutional. In 2002, Cook County, Illinois paid $475,000 to settle a lawsuit filed after persons were arrested under a similar unconstitutional ordinance. I also argued that jail beds should be treated like a scarce resource and not used to confine those who have “lifestyles” that we disagree with. Manatee County will be responsible for paying for legal representation for anyone jailed under the new ordinance. Furthermore, anyone arrested will be responsible for court costs and other fees. Failure to pay will result in additional consequences, such as further incarceration or driver's license suspension. The Suncoast Partnership to end Homelessness is willing to work with Manatee County and law enforcement to come up with creative solutions to the problem that do not involve criminalization.

For the Bradenton Herald article on the workshop, go to:
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/16648585.htm

Here is a letter to the editor from Adrienne B. Lazeroff, executive director of Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness, serving Manatee and Sarasota counties.

As Manatee County considers an anti-panhandling ordinance, we must stop to ask ourselves, is criminalization the solution to the problem?

We can all agree that panhandling impacts our community, but there is a lot of disagreement on the solution for curbing it. The solutions that we seek should address the underlying problem: poverty.

When people are arrested and charged under panhandling ordinances, they develop a criminal record, making it more difficult to obtain employment or housing, thereby exacerbating poverty and its problems. It is also paramount that we consider the effects of criminalization on the accessibility of needed services, as such measures often result in moving people away from services.

Our community needs to consider constructive approaches, such as outreach (directing those who panhandle to mental health or substance abuse services). We should be working together to achieve real solutions to prevent and end poverty, such as dedicating more resources to affordable and transitional housing, health care, and the creation of jobs with a living wage.

Here is the editorial from the Sarasota Herald Tribune from 2/9/07
The risk of banning beggars
County needs to consider potential costs of ordinance

Adam Tebrugge doesn't hold popular views about Manatee County's proposed panhandling ordinance, but they warrant a full discussion before the County Commission votes on the plan.

Tebrugge, a member of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness and an assistant public defender, was the only person who spoke against the ordinance at a forum this week. He says the proposal may prove more costly than its proponents foresee.

The ordinance, drafted by a task force of law-enforcement officers and attorneys led by County Commissioner Ron Getman, would ban people from panhandling within 15 feet of a public road in the county and its cities. Also targeted are beggars who threaten or intimidate people on roadsides and in public places, including business parking lots.

Violators would be warned, then face up to 60 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $500.

For safety reasons, the restrictions also would apply to people using sidewalks for charity fund-raisers such as car washes.

As many speakers pointed out this week, panhandlers who create traffic hazards and harass passers-by pose a genuine problem. County intervention is justified.

But Tebrugge warns that Manatee's proposal could face a costly legal challenge. He cited a Second District Court of Appeal ruling in 1995 declaring a St. Petersburg panhandling ordinance unconstitutional, and a $475,000 settlement that Cook County, Ill., paid in 2002 as the result of a lawsuit involving its panhandling ordinance.

Getman asked the county's legal staff to examine those cases. Other issues raised by Tebrugge deserve a closer look, too.

Tebrugge pointed out that those arrested would be entitled to legal representation, an expense that would most likely be borne by taxpayers. And panhandlers who are jailed will take up increasingly scarce bed space -- again, at a cost to taxpayers.

It's possible, of course, that this ordinance will generate few arrests or jail terms and serve, instead, as a giant "Panhandlers Unwelcome" sign that prompts most beggars to leave Manatee.

But before county officials commit to displaying that sign with this ordinance, they should be certain they have a strong grasp of what could go wrong.

In the meantime, all Manatee residents should heed the advice of advocates for the poor: Don't give money to panhandlers. The donations are better directed to local agencies equipped to help the needy. Handing cash or coins to panhandlers, some of whom use the money to feed alcohol and/or drug addictions, will only perpetuate the problem.

2007-02-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

In Orlando, a law against feeding the homeless – and a debate over Samaritans' rights:

At Lake Eola park, there is much beauty to behold: robust palms, beds of cheery begonias, a cascading lake fountain, clusters of friendly egrets and swans, an amphitheater named in honor of Walt Disney.
Then there are the signs.

DO NOT LIE OR OTHERWISE BE IN A HORIZONTAL POSITION ON A PARK BENCH ... DO NOT SLEEP OR REMAIN IN ANY BUSHES, SHRUBS OR FOLIAGE ... per city code sec. 18A.09 (a) and (o).

Visit the park's restrooms, and you'll find this sign on the wall above the hand dryers:

BATHING AND/OR SHAVING IN RESTROOM IS PROHIBITED ... per city code 18A.09 (p) ... LAUNDERING CLOTHES IN LAKE EOLA PARK IS NOT PERMITTED.

Since joggers and dog walkers tend not to snooze in flower beds, and because employees at the glittering office towers around Lake Eola don't scrub laundry in park sinks, it's clear, says Monique Vargas, at whom the notices are targeted.

“They're talking to us, to the homeless,” says Vargas, 28, who says she has lived on the streets, in parks or under overpasses, since age 16. “It's a way of saying, 'Your kind isn't wanted in our city.'”

Orlando, population 200,000, works hard to conjure the image of a true-life Pleasantville: a safe, welcoming place where visitors can soak up year-round sunshine and devour choreographed experiences at palm-ringed theme parks. But its spotless sidewalks, sparkling lakes and twinkling skyline belie a real city with real maladies – most notably, a surging homeless population that authorities are struggling to control.

After a law that banned panhandling was struck down by the courts, the city tried to discourage aggressive beggars by obliging them to carry ID cards, and later by confining them to 3-by-15-foot “panhandling zones” painted in blue on sidewalks downtown.

Despite these laws, the number of people living on the streets of the Orlando metro area swelled, from roughly 5,000 in 1999 to an estimated 8,500 today, dwarfing the city's shelter capacity for 2,000 people.

So in July, the city commission tried a “supply-side” approach: It passed an ordinance regulating the feeding of large groups of people in Orlando's downtown parks.

Those who wished to feed more than 25 hungry individuals at parks within a 2-mile radius of City Hall could do so, but only if they obtained a “Large Group Feeding Permit” from the parks department – and no one would be granted more than two feeding permits a year.

No exceptions.

For the first time anyone in Orlando could remember, not only would panhandlers find themselves in the crosshairs of the law, but so would those trying to help them.

“It's now illegal to feed the homeless in Orlando, Florida,” Jay Leno, host of NBC's “Tonight Show,” told a studio audience last summer in Burbank, Calif., during his opening monologue. “Have you seen the fat people walking around Disney World? We should make it illegal to feed THEM.”

But when the Orlando Sentinel posted Leno's wisecrack on its Web site, local bloggers weren't laughing.

“Feeding the homeless only encourages more homelessness,” one resident, with the moniker “Justin Credible,” wrote. He then summed up his argument in an equation. “Less Homeless
Less Problems
Better Place to Live.”

Another, “TG,” didn't oppose feeding the destitute. “But there are places set up for this. Soup kitchens exist ... It is not unreasonable to want to keep Lake Eola Park from becoming a homeless cafeteria.”

William Beem added: “For what it's worth, Las Vegas enacted a similar law at the same time as Orlando. Tourist towns think alike.”

Indeed, a week before Orlando's ordinance took effect, Las Vegas criminalized giving food to even a single transient in a city park.

In August, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit challenging the Las Vegas ban, saying it violated constitutional protections of free speech, right to assembly and right to practice one's religion. A federal court in Nevada has prohibited the city from enforcing the ordinance until a final ruling is issued.

Advocates for the homeless feared it wouldn't be long before other cities passed similar laws. As it happens, they were right.

Already, the cities of Dallas, Fort Myers, Fla., Gainesville, Fla., Wilmington, N.C., Atlanta, and Santa Monica, Calif., have laws restricting or outright prohibiting the feeding of the homeless. In Fairfax County, Va., homemade meals and meals made in church kitchens may not be distributed to the homeless unless first approved by the county.

Other cities, including Miami, are considering similar anti-feeding measures.

“We've seen cities going beyond punishing homeless people to punishing those trying to help them, even though it's clear that not enough resources are being dedicated to helping the homeless or the hungry,” said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, NLCHP, a non-profit in Washington, D.C.

A 2006 report on 67 cities by her group and the National Coalition for the Homeless, a nonpartisan, non-profit network, found an 18 percent increase since 2002 in laws prohibiting aggressive panhandling; a 12 percent jump in laws outlawing “passive” begging; a 14 percent rise in laws defining sitting or lying in public places as criminal acts.

Says Michael Stoops, the coalition's executive director in Washington, D.C.: “The idea is to drive the visible homeless out of downtown America, so that cities can attract developers, big money.”

What's wrong with attracting investment?

Nothing, Stoops says – unless it comes at the expense of decency. “It's a sorry state of affairs when you can feed the squirrels, the doves and pigeons at Lake Eola, but not a hungry guy down on his luck.”

Undeniably, a quarter century has done much to Orlando.

Once a sleepy town, it is today a city with a growing skyline, widening freeways, sidewalk cafes, and strip malls with neon signs in Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Japanese.

Its mayor, Buddy Dyer, ran for office in 2003 promising downtown revitalization, and revitalization is what locals are getting.

On streets around Lake Eola, where drug dealers and prostitutes once roamed, residential towers like “The Paramount,” “The Metropolitan at Lake Eola,” and the “The Vue at Lake Eola,” are now rising. In addition, the city is finalizing plans to renovate the downtown Citrus Bowl and build a new performing arts center and “Events Arena” by 2011 – at a cost of $1 billion.

Homelessness, in the view of Dyer and members of his staff, adversely affects public safety and economic development, and therefore must be addressed.

Ultimately, “it's a balancing act,” says Brie Turek, Dyer's spokesperson. “We need to balance the needs of our citizens and our businesses with the needs of the homeless.”

The large feedings were unbalancing constituents who lived near the parks, she says.

“We were receiving dozens of complaints about individuals sleeping in people's bushes, urinating on private properties. Some citizens reported finding homeless people doing drugs in their stairwells. There were reports of carjackings. There was even a stabbing.”

Alana Brenner, a city clerk who serves as the mayor's point person on the homeless problem, dismisses critics who say that Orlando's feeding ordinance discourages Good Samaritanism. “It's a restriction on the time, place and manner of feedings, nothing more.”

While the city would prefer that feedings be done through existing agencies such as the Salvation Army, it has also set up “an alternative location near downtown, on Sylvia Lane,” where, Brenner points out, “feedings can take place any day, any hour.”

The locale she referred to is roughly a 15-minute walk from City Hall, a sweep of blacktop where charities fed groups of destitute men and women several years ago. Shadowed by an overpass, the parking lot is surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire and flanked by an electrical power station and railroad tracks.

The city has provided portable toilets and picnic benches, but there is no running water to wash one's hands, says Jacqueline Dowd, a lawyer with the ACLU, which has also sued to overturn Orlando's feeding ordinance.

And the neighborhood, she says, is unsafe. “I've documented five cases of homeless people being beaten around there in the past year.”

One was August Felix, 54, who was found on March 26, severely beaten and lying motionless on a sidewalk one block from the Sylvia Lane feeding site. He died in the hospital a month later from the head injuries, police say.

Five boys, aged 15 and 16, were arrested on second-degree murder charges. “This was a case of bored kids – kids with time on their hands,” says Sgt. Richard King, who investigated the killing. “They targeted Mr. Felix because he was easy prey.”

The city acknowledges that it presently lacks resources to adequately provide basics for people with no place to live – bedspace in emergency shelters, for one thing. (“There is a capacity issue,” is how Brenner puts it.)

Permanent housing for those with very low incomes is also in short supply, despite Orlando's decade-long residential building boom. “A lot of apartment complexes have gone condo, which has removed affordable rental units from the local market,” says Brent Trotter, president of the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. “What's being built today, the average family in the service industry can't afford.”

The fastest-growing segment of central Florida's homeless population is families with children, the coalition says. It recently reported that shelter nights for children climbed 70 percent in 2005-2006, to 64,548.

Orlando has taken some steps to address this. In December, it sponsored “Project Homeless Connect,” an outreach program that paired 600 homeless people with 60 charities, service providers, religious groups and employers. Twenty-two individuals were placed in housing after the event.

Last fall, the city earmarked $860,000 to refurbish 299 apartments for low-income families and homeless people. It plans to spend $329,258 more this year to renovate the Health Care Center for the Homeless, and it will give $2 million to the Coalition for the Homeless, the Christian Service Center, the Harbor House, the United Way and the Center for Drug Free Living.

More outreach is needed, concedes Turek, the mayor's spokeswoman, but the city needs help from surrounding counties, the state and local businesses. “The city itself can't shoulder the burden of the homeless problem for the entire central Florida region,” she says.

At city council meetings, Brenner notes, “We heard almost no complaints from our own citizens about the ordinance. Sure, there are activists from other cities that are against it. But sometimes you want to ask them, 'Why aren't you feeding in your OWN community?'”

It's ideal apple-eating weather; coppery sunlight descends the purest of skies, and a warm breeze rustles the silvery moss in the live oaks above the 22 or so men and women waiting in a crooked line along the sidewalk.

Winter rewards the homeless who have persevered through Orlando's humid summer months, and now Suzanne Peters, a volunteer with Food Not Bombs, a group that feeds the homeless here once a week, wants to reward their patience.

It's nearly 5:15 p.m. when her tan, Chevy Blazer rolls up to the corner. The homeless stir, chatter, as Peters opens the hatch.

Out comes a serving table, vats of stew, eggplant, mashed potatoes and salad, ladles, stacks of paper plates, plastic cutlery, cartons of fruit juice, and boxes half-filled with apples, bananas, oranges, bagels and French rolls.

“Folks!” she calls out, “you can't sit on that wall. That's private property. The big, bad men will come and arrest you.” She motions to the curb. “You can stand on the sidewalk, or sit on the curb here. Sorry.”

Peters and her partners used to feed 75 to 150 homeless people at a time in Lake Eola Park, just a block north. Then, after the ordinance took effect, patrol cars, four at a time, would roll up, officers would step out and ask who was in charge.

“They'd tell us it was a 'no-feeding zone,'” says Brett Mason, a 19-year-old college student, who joined Food Not Bombs when it came to Orlando in January 2005.

The officers, he says, would “park nearby and watch us, in unmarked cars with tinted windows. Sometimes they'd take pictures of us, shoot video of us. Then they'd say, 'You have to get a permit to feed here,' and shoo us away.”

So the group retreated to this street corner and began feeding out of the back of members' cars. On occasion, to show defiance, Food Not Bombs fed in front of municipal buildings, even City Hall.

That's because the ordinance, says Ben Markeson, who belongs to the group, is based on a misguided premise.

City officials “think groups that share food with the homeless are attracting the homeless to downtown neighborhoods. But the homeless are already here. And they'll be here with or without the food.”

That opinion is shared by Paul Johnson, 34, and his fiancee, Ericka Holder, 26, of San Diego; Dave Whipkey, 37, of Kissimmee, Fla.; Carlos Gonzales, 64, of Orlando; Scott Phillips, 30, and his wife, Sherri, 39, of Lorraine, Ohio; Broderick Williams, 42, of Tampa; and, Derrick Wiley, 31, of Daytona Beach – all of whom have no place to live, all of whom are grateful for the hot meal they're getting.

Some days of the week, says Johnson, are “good food days” – meaning he and other homeless people can find three squares a day by hopping from church to church, charity to charity. “But there are lots of days – Mondays and Tuesdays are the toughest – when it's hard to get one meal.”

Wiley, a part-time cook at a downtown eatery, came to Orlando in 1998. What keeps him here? “It's a beautiful city. There are jobs. And there are people like this, who help others out of the goodness of their hearts.”

The feeding ordinance, however, was a shock. “They are trying to make downtown beautiful, which is cool. But, please, don't step on me, just 'cause I'm trying to make it.”

He smooths out his black T-shirt, looks down at his gray sweat pants, sky-blue socks and bedroom slippers. “I guess to them, I'm an eyesore ... They don't want to see me around the prestigious areas anymore.”

A police car crawls past. Wiley waits for it to turn the corner, then adds, “It's discrimination.”

So far, no one has been arrested in Orlando for feeding a hungry person. But the day it happens, says Sgt. Barbara Jones, a police spokeswoman, “we know we're going to look like the bad guys.”

Still, an ordinance is an ordinance, she says, and “our job is to enforce the law.”

By Todd Lewan
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 3, 2007

2007-02-02T04:41:00.000-08:00

Homeless fight back with high tech: A tent city resident with a videocamera allows people around the world see police slashing tents.

Tina May grabbed a $30 disposable plastic videocamera when she saw police officers cutting down tents at the homeless camp she called home.

The police kept cutting. May kept filming.

Just a few hours later, May's video of the Jan. 19 raid went up on the Web site YouTube. It has logged over 13,000 views in a few weeks, been shared on blogs and Web sites like MySpace, and promoted St. Petersburg as a national poster child for cruelty against the homeless.

May's video shows how new media technologies allow even the most destitute draw attention to their causes. They don't need expensive digital equipment, just a cheap camera, a compelling image and the Internet.

Cassandra Van Buren, an assistant professor at the University of Utah who studies new media issues, said the inexpensive cost of digital cameras, coupled with easy-to-use sites such as YouTube, now mean that nearly everyone - even the homeless - can become a watchdog.

"What we're seeing now is that regular citizens have access to their own distributions through YouTube and the Web in general," Van Buren said. "That's the big shift you're seeing that enables this type of citizen countersurveillance."

May, just 14 years old when she first ran away from home, is a tiny 32-year-old woman who wears bulky jackets and fuzzy pink slippers with red hearts. She was arrested six days after she made the famous video, accused of pawning a stolen drill that she said was hers.

May is proud that she made the video.

"I didn't think it was right that they were slashing our tents," May said. "I'm glad I did it. People know all about us."

Since the initial raids, more homeless people have put up tents at two locations: On 15th Street near Fifth Avenue N and on 18th Street near Central Avenue. Mayor Rick Baker has since said the decision to cut the tents "was a mistake." Police officials - who initially said they took away the tents because of concerns with fire codes - say they don't anticipate any more raids.

Eric Rubin, an advocate for the homeless, said many people in the city's two tent cities now have disposable cell phones and videocameras. A MySpace page called homelesstentcitystpete offers regular updates and a list of needs water, toilet paper, portable shower.

"The reality is that a picture is worth a million words," Rubin said. "It's now being used as a form of protection as well."

May says an advocate for the homeless bought the plastic videocamera and gave it to her boyfriend, who gave it to her before he was arrested. She had just brought her stuff to the tent city at Fifth Avenue N and 15th Street and hadn't even put up her tent when she saw police pull up.

After shooting the video, May went to a CVS drugstore to get some DVDs of the video made for $51.99. She kept one DVD, and several other copies were passed around. One advocate for the homeless - May isn't sure who - uploaded the video to YouTube on a home computer hours after the raid. The credit reads: "Video by Tina May."

The views and outrage soon followed, as viewers registered their disgust: "Outrageous. ... This is a terrible act. ... This is atrocious."

The local music group Meyer Baron & the Spaghetti Band even wrote a song called Walk On By after watching it.

The song begins:

"In a city known as paradise

Under a picture postcard sky

folks in uniform came to haul

your a-- away

They sliced up your tent city

and drove you to the streets

Where nothing is a heavy price to pay."

by ABHI RAGHUNATHAN St. Petersburg Times

2007-01-31T05:22:00.000-08:00

Manatee's homeless count:

Cold weather worked to the advantage of homeless advocates who fanned out across Manatee and Sarasota counties from noon Monday to noon Tuesday to take count of the homeless.

"I don't like to think of anybody out in the cold, but the weather should help us get a higher count," said Adrienne Lazeroff, executive director of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness.

Results won't be announced until the end of March, but Lazeroff said wide participation indicates success.

"Thousands upon thousands of surveys were administered by hundreds of volunteers," Lazeroff said. "I feel we are going to have a really successful count."

That data is vital to securing more than half a million dollars in federal funds, as well as state and local grants to provide services to the local homeless, Lazeroff said.

The hope of more services sat well with homeless residents of a camp located in Ellenton, just north of Interstate 75 in a wooded area off U.S. 301.

A middle-aged man named Doug identified himself as the camp's spokesman.

"If it will help us get jobs and more services, then we ought to do it," said Doug, who declined to give his last name.

Lack of steady employment is the main reason many people are homeless, said Doug, who has been on the streets for more than five years. Both Doug and his fiancee, Kim, also a camp resident, had jobs at nearby restaurants until their employers found out they lived in the woods.

"When they find out you are homeless, they don't want anything to do with you," said Kim, who didn't want her last name used. "But we are people, too. Give us a chance. Get to know us. "

The Ellenton camp, with its wind chimes and potted plants hanging from the trees, has been home to Kim and Doug for more than two years. They share the clearing with about 50 other campers, living in a circle of tents that surround a common area defined by a tarp stretched over a tent pole and secured to the ground.

The camp is guarded by a dog named Molly.

The biggest threat to the camp is not from law enforcement, Doug said, but from what he called the "bad homeless" - the ones on crack cocaine and other hard drugs.

"People who are on crack and stuff, man, they'd come in here and slit your throat, just to get more of it," said Doug, who takes pride in keeping order.

"When anybody comes here, the first thing I ask is, 'Do you do hard drugs, any kind of hard drugs? If you do, you might as well turn around and leave 'cause that is something we don't tolerate back here. We never did and we never will," said Doug.

The Ellenton camp was one of nine surveyed by volunteers Avery Burke, Connie Insley, Mike Mahan and James McEntee, all homeless outreach specialists with Manatee Glens.

During the 24-hour period, they surveyed 41 people living in the woods.

A homeless man who said his name was Jack completed the survey at the Manatee County Central Library. He arrived in Bradenton two weeks ago from Rhode Island. Although experienced in just about every construction trade, Jack said he has been unable to find work.

"You have to get to the day labor places by 4 in morning just to get in line," he said. "There are hundreds of men lining up for work and they just don't have enough jobs to go around."

Lack of steady work was the primary cause of homelessness cited by people surveyed by Trudy Bailey, a volunteer who worked the survey table at the library.

She said she believes that past counts in recent years have greatly underestimated the size of Manatee's homeless population.

Bailey is seeing more families, especially single women with children, seek help through the Open Door, where she volunteers.

"Homelessness is not going to go away unless we do more to help these unfortunate people," said Bailey. "There but for the grace of God go I."

Most residents do not realize how many working homeless they encounter during the day, said Lazeroff.

Case in point, Lazeroff said, was the Publix cashier who checked out the sandwich platters for the press conference after the end of the census. Turns out she is homeless, too.

"No one would ever know she is homeless," said Lazeroff. "She does not fit the typical profile."

But that was the typical profile of people interviewed by Lt. William Evers of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, who volunteered for the census.

"The ones I encountered were working homeless," Evers said. "I think most people assume that if you are homeless, you are not working, but that's not necessarily true."

Homelessness is not a government issue, said Sarasota County Commissioner Paul H. Mercier, a member of the Suncoast board, at Tuesday's press conference.

"It's a community issue," Mercier said. "We need to identify the homeless, and local businesses must be part of the solution."

"Of all the people we have surveyed, there is not one of them that would not work if they could find employment," said Bailey.

The solution is not just jobs, said Lazeroff, but employment that pays a decent wage so people can afford housing.

by DONNA WRIGHT
Herald Staff Writer

2007-01-31T05:11:00.000-08:00

Homeless census crucial for help:
Sarasota County counts its homeless, a step in getting them assistance.

Unfortunately, the Sarasota Herald Tribune has asked me to remove the article. I am very disappointed in this request. I am simply attempting to maintain an electronic scrapbook so that the community can find recent information about homelessness in one place. I will see if there is any room to negotiate with them about use of their material. In the meantime, in the interest of civility, I have removed the article. Below is a link that you must cut and paste into your browser bar.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070131/NEWS/701310315

2007-01-30T06:09:00.000-08:00

Homeless census underway in Manatee County: Cold weather forced the homeless to the Salvation Army shelter in Bradenton, which housed 149 on Sunday night, 47 over capacity, according to Robert Greubel, the men's lodge manager.

With all 102 beds filled, the men found sleep on mats and blankets in the TV room.

"We do what we can. We try not to turn anybody away when it gets cold," said Greubel, who expects to see just as many men throughout the cold snap. "It's pretty much given on nights like this."

Meanwhile, on the eve of the coldest day of the year to date, the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness has joined with 45 local agencies to administer a 24-hour bicounty census, which began at noon Monday and ends at noon today.

The homeless survey is required by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development to take place during the last seven days of January, when the cold is more likely to drive them to shelters, said Adrienne Lazeroff, executive director of Suncoast Partnership to End Homeless.

"It's quite literally a snapshot of who is homeless at a particular time," she said. "It's very likely we will see many more people seek shelter because people in this climate may not have winter jackets and heavy blankets. No one wants to sleep outside when it's 34 degrees."

2007-01-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

Miami's poverty a grim backdrop to Super Bowl glitz: The bomb-sniffing dogs are training. Fleets of limos are on the way. The ink is dry on anti-gouging pledges. Thousands of volunteers are on the march. Concierges are hustling to fill every VIP whim.

And Miami's newest homeless camp, a plywood and pallet shantytown, is gussying up to take center stage, if only for a moment.

With South Florida gearing up to host its record-tying ninth Super Bowl next Sunday, community titans have the drill, the details and the mission down pat. Their primary aim is to show off South Florida's best side, then revel in the estimated $350 million tourism bonanza.

As hundreds of posters and banners hanging on windows and from streetlights in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties say, "One game. One dream. One chance to shine."

But the world's most-watched sporting event is also offering an opportunity to shine a laser beam on the other Miami: the third-poorest city in the nation, where living wages and affordable housing are out of the reach of many of the residents helping to foot the Super Bowl tab.

Against a backdrop of lavish parties -- some with admission rivaling the $3,000-plus going rate for tickets to the Indianapolis Colts/Chicago Bears game -- advocates for the homeless and poor are staging a "Reality Tour." On Wednesday, a bus will take a few of the thousands of journalists converging on South Florida on a short drive to communities a world away from trendy Miami Beach, where the reporters will work, stay and presumably play.

"There is one game and one dream, but different realities," said Joseph Phelan, an activist with the Miami Workers Center. "Miami is the playground of the rich and famous, but it is not paradise for the poor . . . and the only thing the city and county are doing about it is filling their pockets with tourism dollars from the Super Bowl."

New foe: Gentrification

Among the stops will be Umoja Village, a shantytown established last fall by squatters who claimed the city-owned land under a 1998 court settlement reached after Super Bowls past, when the city cleared out its homeless by confiscating and burning their belongings.

That practice is now illegal, but the squatters hope to highlight what they contend is the newest way of displacing the poor: gentrification. In many depressed neighborhoods, low-income and public-housing apartments have been razed to make way for pricey new condos, or for "affordable housing" that, despite millions spent, was never built.

Ironically, the most visible example sits across from one of the most tangible payoffs from the 1995 Super Bowl, the National Football League Youth Education Town Center in Liberty City. Started with a $1 million donation from the NFL, the YET Center is an oasis for children who live in one of Miami-Dade's toughest neighborhoods.

Inside the brightly painted walls, elementary kids are learning to build robots on brand-new Dell computers. Tutors help with homework and coaches teach an array of sports, from basketball and football to dance and fencing. All for free.

"It's fun," said David Spivey, 6. "You get to play games. You get to build stuff."

But more than six years ago, the county began bulldozing 850 public-housing units near the center, promising to replace them with half as many affordable homes. Today, $22 million later, only 10 houses are complete, and the number of kids the center serves has plummeted -- from about 800 a day to about 300.

Habitat for Humanity has since taken over the project, and the housing agency is under investigation for fraud and mismanagement.

"Substance is a lot more important than image, and it bothers me that the county is more interested in maintaining the illusion of glitz and glamour than it is in dealing with the reality of poverty and corruption," said Max Rameau, a community activist who organized the squatters village.

Local economy's boost

But for South Florida, the Super Bowl is all about image. In the view of community leaders, the region's economic future rests on the Super Bowl's success. Not on the game at Dolphin Stadium, but on the impression that sunny South Florida leaves on the estimated 120,000 visitors, including 3,500 credentialed media, and 1 billion worldwide TV viewers expected to watch the game.

Though some analysts question the figure, officials with the South Florida Super Bowl XLI Host Committee estimate that visitors and the NFL will pump more than $350 million into the regional economy. That's 35 times more than the $10 million the committee raised -- a total of $2 million from Miami-Dade and Broward counties and the rest from corporate sponsors -- to house the teams; throw parties for the media; hire a concierge service to line up yacht slips and tee times for corporate high-rollers; extract anti-gouging pledges from hoteliers; recruit 8,000 hospitality volunteers; and infect residents with Super Bowl fever.

"There's a huge multiplying effect," said Rodney Barreto, the host committee's chairman. "If visitors have a good time, they come back. They buy real estate. They move their companies here."

If the Reality Tour is the worst publicity that South Florida has to contend with this week, Barreto will be happy. A member of three previous host committees, he knows too well that calamity can knock at inopportune times.

In 1989, just six days before kickoff, the Super Bowl was upstaged by the fatal shooting of a black motorcyclist by a white policeman in Miami's poorest black neighborhood. Instead of Miami's new skyline and tropical sophistication, newspapers and broadcasts around the world were dominated by combat-ready cops, rampaging youth, burning cars -- and stories about the two Miamis.

But, Barreto notes, a good deal has changed since then, most notably a concerted effort to ensure the NFL and host committee's largesse reaches every segment of the community. To date, he said, minority and female-owned businesses in South Florida have been awarded $14 million in NFL contracts for catering, barricades and other services needed to throw the grandest party around.

That sum eclipses the $10 million record set in Detroit last year and is one reason Darryl Holsendolph, a Miami native who grew up blocks from the shantytown, would prefer activists chose a different time to air the county's dirty laundry.

As the holder of the contract to sell NFL souvenirs at Miami International Airport, Holsendolph, 43, says he is proof of a Super Bowl's trickle-down effect. For his first Super Bowl in 1995, his company, Holsen Inc. Merchandising, hired about 25 people. For the 1999 game, his staff grew. And for next week's game, he has about 100 people on the payroll -- 60 percent of them from his old Liberty City neighborhood.

"What happened with housing is a shame, but it has nothing to do with Super Bowl," he said. "I suggest now is the time to start looking for opportunities in 2010."

And that, of course, is when South Florida is set to host the Super Bowl for a record-breaking 10th time.

by Maya Bell
Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer

2007-01-27T06:57:00.000-08:00

A homeless survey is underway throughout the state of Florida. Here is a report from central Florida:

More than 60 agencies are asking questions in 3 counties with the hope they will get an accurate count.

Waiting in line for his noontime meal Friday, Larry Allen agreed to tell how and why he ended up homeless.

The 50-year-old laborer was among more than 1,000 homeless people across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties interviewed by volunteers in the first homeless census in three years.

The headcount helps determine how much federal cash will flow to Central Florida to tackle the problem. The survey identifies what help -- beyond shelter -- the homeless need.

A similar tally, minus the questionnaire, was done in Volusia earlier in the week. The main goal is to get a fresh idea of the number of the homeless, which at last count was about 9,000 across the region.

This time, the homeless and advocates both predict the same results: an increase in homeless families and homeless who work, and not enough emergency beds, much less enough for people who want detox or mental-health care.

"I've been hoping to find a place so I can get over this and get on with my life," said Allen, who wants out after six months of living in the woods and the occasional shelter.

Allen's story is familiar to those who work with the homeless.

Allen said he has always worked, but he started drinking too much. He tried to dry out on his own but said alcohol seems to surround him.

Thursday night, when temperatures dipped near freezing, Allen said he drank too much again. It kept him warm as he slept outside a downtown building but kept him from getting to work on time Friday morning.

"I know I can quit, if I just get a little time away. There just isn't a place for me to go," he said.

Orlando is home to a handful of large shelters with programs in job training, life skills and how to stay straight once an addiction is kicked.

With the jump in the numbers of working poor and needy single women with children, some facilities also have playgrounds, day care and Headstart pre-school on site.

But only the Men's Pavilion at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida accepts people who are intoxicated. And they can be booted if they cause trouble.

"Any addiction or mental illness, those people don't have anywhere to go," said Don Moody, who heads the Orlando Union Rescue Mission.

The mission's men's shelter used to take in those clearly under the influence. After too much commotion and anxiety, it began screening.

Now, the 120-bed men's center includes 50 set aside for those living there longer term and going through education training and 12-step recovery.

Those will be the easy people to find, log into the census and approach with the questionnaire.

The more invisible homeless -- who stay in the woods or camps or blend into the downtown landscape -- simply will be counted.

A medical-outreach team that works in the three-county metro area has been recording numbers of those homeless all week. Police in downtown Orlando, Kissimmee, Sanford and St. Cloud will report Thursday and Friday night counts in their cities on those overnights, said Cathy Jackson, director of the Homeless Service Network of Central Florida.

In Volusia County, this year's count of the homeless was taken Sunday and Monday. That's earlier than other counties, because with thousands of fans in town for a 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway, advocates said they would have a hard time figuring out who was homeless.

"When you have visitors carrying around blankets and backpacks, how do we know if they are going to the race or if they are homeless?" said Lindsay Roberts, executive director of the Volusia-Flagler Coalition for the Homeless.

Past counts have been unclear. Anywhere between 2,600 and 3,000 homeless have been estimated to live in Volusia and Flagler counties.

Advocates routinely say that about 7,000 homeless live in the metro area, but some agencies claim it is closer to 5,000.

Results of this year's tally, scheduled to be released in March, should include a more firm number.

And with federal money going to communities based on successful programs, not just total numbers, the total will be less important than the details about who the homeless are and what works in helping them.

"The main reason for doing this is to keep the issue on the public agenda," said James Wright, the University of Central Florida professor who will analyze the data. "This issue is not going away."

Neither is Allen. As he talked with an interviewer and reporter, his eyes drifted to construction at a nearby lot.

A backhoe scooped up mounds of dirt, while men in hard hats graded the slope down to a retention pond. Working on heavy machinery, Allen said, was how he had always made a living.

Seeing the work being done all over town reminded him how far he had fallen, working day-labor jobs when he could.

"I look at it every day," he said. "I didn't lose my skills, but I lost my ability to hang in there. I just need a place to go, and I will win this war."

April Hunt
Sentinel Staff Writer

January 27, 2007