-St. Petersburg Times
Hillsborough has more homeless people than any county in Florida — twice
as many as other large counties such as Miami-Dade, Broward or Pinellas.
Given the size of the challenge, an offer by Catholic Charities to house
and feed as many as 1,000 homeless people a year as the county cuts
essential public services ought to be attractive. But so far, county
leadership has been lacking. It’s time for commissioners to step up and
work with the church to make this proposal a reality.
The Diocese of St. Petersburg, the administrative body of the church in
five Tampa Bay area counties, has offered to build and operate a “tent
city” on 12 acres of church-owned land east of Tampa, near where
Hillsborough Avenue meets Interstate 4. The church would build a camp of
250 tents and casitas (6-by-8-foot sheds) plus a building where residents
could eat, bathe, do laundry and receive services aimed at making them
self-sufficient and employable.
No county needs these services more than Hillsborough. The county’s 10,000
homeless make up one-sixth of Florida’s total street population. Catholic
Charities is offering to fill a void that local government ignores even as
the homeless situation worsens amid the economic recession. Modeled after
Pinellas Hope, a similar program with broad-based support, the
Hillsborough effort would offer the homeless up to 90 days of safe shelter
while they sought jobs and learned new skills.
In a victory for bureaucracy over common sense, county staff in May
convinced a hearing officer to recommend that county commissioners deny
the project. The hearing officer said the facility did not meet the
county’s definition of a camp. Residents near the site also opposed it.
Commissioners are to hear the proposal July 21.
The church’s plan is not ideal. Placing the camp along a major commercial
corridor would not help the businesses there. It would add to the visual
blight and depress the potential to attract industry to the area.
Residents also have a point that a field of 6-by-8-foot sheds might lower
their property values.
But none of these are compelling reasons to kill a good idea. The
technical barriers county staff are hiding behind could easily be fixed by
commissioners. As the hearing officer noted, the county is obligated under
its own policies to address homelessness. Yet it has no process to
accommodate transitional housing. That Catch-22 is an unfair barrier to
the church, which has brought everything to the table — the land, plans
for security and job training, and a solid track record in Pinellas.
The concerns of East Lake Park residents also should not drown out this
debate. The community is at least 300 feet from the south side of
Hillsborough Avenue. The camp would be in a mixed-use area situated across
a four-lane divided highway and behind a trucking business.
The lack of support by county staff and the hearing officer leave the
church’s plan weakened as it goes before the commission. The church should
explore whether a compromise would work — an alternate site or a redesign
of the original location. But the county needs to find a way to make this
work. The church, after all, is taking on the county’s responsibility.
Commissioners risk the worst of all worlds: chasing away a willing partner
even as Hillsborough’s financial straits prevent it from serving a rising
number of homeless. That is in no one’s interest.
Filed under: Anti-poverty, Homelessness, Tampa, tent city
