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Groups Say More Shelters Needed

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 30, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - When temperatures dip into the 30s or lower, homeless people across central and eastern Pasco County are often left to shiver in the cold.

Members of the Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County and Fresh Start for Pasco want to change that. On Tuesday, about a dozen people attended a meeting at Harvester United Methodist Church on Collier Parkway, where representatives with Fresh Start and the homeless coalition distributed information on how to establish more cold-weather shelters.

The homeless coalition is conducting an annual count of the county's homeless today.

"Florida has the third-highest foreclosure rate in the U.S.," said Jan Martini, chairwoman of Fresh Start. "A lot of these people are homeless, and a lot of them have children. We just want to get kids under a roof."

Martini was joined by Trish Kley, interim president of the county's homeless coalition.

Pasco's only permanent shelter is the Holy Ground Homeless Shelter on Denton Avenue in Hudson; volunteers staff a temporary shelter at First United Methodist Church of New Port Richey on Indiana Avenue on especially cold nights.

Martini said there was no shelter at First United Methodist until Jan. 1, when church officials opened it on request.

Pat Dwyer, president of the St. Vincent De Paul Society at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church on Collier Parkway, said about 15 people regularly visit her church's food pantry. She said they live in nearby woods.

"I don't think our church can do it, but there needs to be a shelter in central Pasco," Dwyer said.

Lisa Karolewski, a member of Harvester United Methodist, said she attended the meeting so she could pass along the information to church officials.

Kley said the homeless coalition also wants to establish a "contact point" that the county's Emergency Operations Center can use to spread the word when shelters need to be opened.

It may behoove future shelters to seek help from local Citizens Emergency Response Teams, Martini said. She added her group could train volunteers.

"They're highly trained. Look at how they responded to the Christmas tornado" in San Antonio in 2006, she said. "The CERT team over there got immediately involved. They didn't care that it was Christmas."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at gfox@tampatrib.com or (813) 948-4217.

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