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Sent packing

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2009

The four Hillsborough County commissioners who rejected a proposal to build a homeless camp Tuesday say they want to help the homeless, but that the proposal to build a tent city for 250 people was flawed.

Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who joined Al Higginbotham, Kevin White and Ken Hagan in sending Catholic Charities packing, even vows to have a superior proposal before the commission within a year.

Don't hold your breath. If commissioners deem this thoughtful project unacceptable, then we doubt any homeless effort will win approval.

The location, on a dead-end street in an industrial area with ready access to bus service, was appropriate. The nearest homes were across a four-lane highway and behind a commercial area. Yet the board majority sought to appease the exaggerated fears of residents.

Higginbotham enflamed those fears by reading criminal records of some clients at Pinellas Hope, on which the Hillsborough Hope facility was to be modeled.

It didn't seem to matter that Pinellas Hope has been an impressive success - or that Hillsborough Hope would have performed background checks on clients, accepted only individuals likely to find jobs and had 24-hour security.

Nor did it seem to matter that rejecting the project ensured the homeless would remain on the streets, unsupervised.

Sharpe says he was swayed partly by the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough's opposition to tents. It favors permanent housing.

But local facilities only provide enough beds for about 1,500 of the estimated 10,000 homeless in Hillsborough.

The tents - with showers and restroom facilities nearby - would have provided a superior alternative to having the homeless sleep under overpasses or in the woods. Moreover, Hillsborough Hope was intended to be a temporary shelter - only 90 days or so - during which residents would be provided the job training and other help needed to become self-sufficient.

Demanding costly permanent housing while the demand is so great and resources so thin is excessive.

Commissioners Rose Ferlita, Kevin Beckner and Jim Norman deserve credit for not being cowed by protestors who were, as even Sharpe says, "rude and disrespectful."

The majority should explain how keeping 250 individuals on the street makes Hillsborough a safer place to live.

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