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Help All Neighborhoods By Helping The Homeless

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 2, 2009

East Lake Park residents are alarmed by a proposal to build a facility for the homeless nearby. You would be too if a "tent city" was proposed near your neighborhood.

Like the people of East Lake Park, near the Florida State Fairgrounds, you would worry that transients - perhaps drunk, delusional or both - would wander onto your streets, threatening your family's safety, peace of mind and property values.

So it will be easy for sympathetic Hillsborough County commissioners to quickly give thumbs down to the rezoning requested by Catholic Charities for 12 acres on Hillsborough Avenue. The hearing is scheduled March 16.

But while the welfare of residents should be their paramount concern, commissioners should look beyond those understandable fears to the specifics of a project that would meet a desperate community need and appears to pose little threat.

Hillsborough, after all, has some 10,000 or more homeless and the numbers are surely growing during these tough times. And most are not the scruffy ruffians of popular perceptions.

Homeless experts say about one-third of the homeless are employed. One in four is a child. Only about 10 percent are the stereotypical homeless person who is deranged or hopelessly addicted.

Yet, according to the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, on any given night only about 1,500 of the homeless will be able to find safe shelter. This means more than 8,000 end up making do - in the woods, under bridges, in vacant lots and such.

This doesn't mean that the neighborhood's concerns are baseless. If the plans were to make "Hillsborough Hope" a gathering place for any and all homeless, the fears would be justified.

But access to "Hillsborough Hope" will be carefully controlled. Participants will have to be referred to the camp after being screened by social workers. Only those who are deemed likely to become self-sufficient will be admitted. Background checks will be conducted. The participants will be required to follow a strict code of conduct.

The homeless are not going to be gathering around the shelter, as if at a soup kitchen. Frank Murphy of Catholic Charities stresses, "There will be no walkups."

There will be only one entrance and it will be staffed full-time. An off-duty police officer will be on site at night.

The plan is to house 250 people. Originally the shelter was to have tents, much like Pinellas Hope, a homeless sanctuary on 10 acres in Pinellas Park. But because of neighbors' objections, Catholic Charities now plans to house the homeless in individual casitas, six-by-eight wood structures. Residents will be allowed to stay about five months.

Moreover, the facility is on a commercial site across Hillsborough Avenue - a four-lane highway - from East Lake Park, which should buffer the neighborhood.

All individuals admitted to the shelter must work with counselors to develop a plan for regaining self-sufficiency and then execute it. That may include job training, alcohol treatment, mental-health treatment, vocational training and saving enough money to pay rent. Meanwhile, they would have a safe place to shower, sleep and eat.

Most, Murphy says, will leave during the day to work, go to school or look for a job. Anyone caught wandering aimlessly in the area or panhandling will be kicked out of the program. Packages brought onto the site will be inspected.

Health care officials, attorneys and others who assist the homeless will pay the shelter regular visits.

The similar Pinellas Hope has had few problems with surrounding areas. Murphy says, "If you break the rules, you are out of here."

To their credit, East Lake Park residents, some of whom have visited Pinellas Hope, have been thoughtful and civil in their objections. They can't be blamed for not wanting to take any chances with their neighborhood's welfare. The sad truth is that there is virtually no place a homeless shelter can be located without generating concerns. But this location, across a busy highway from the neighborhood, is hardly intrusive.

And if Catholic Charities fulfills it pledge, Hillsborough Hope should scarcely affect East Lake Park residents.
Hillsborough County commissioners should make sure adequate safeguards are in place. But all neighborhoods, including East Lake Park, will benefit if more homeless can be steered from the streets back to productive lives.

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