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Officials meet over Pinellas Hope concerns
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008 |
PINELLAS PARK - City officials, local police and others met Dec. 28 to discuss ongoing problems at the new Pinellas Hope homeless facility.
Located on 126th Avenue, about a mile off 49th Street in unincorporated Pinellas County, the facility is composed of about 200 small tents and other portable buildings that are filled to capacity.
Constructed on land located in the county, the property is virtually surrounded by Pinellas Park. It is owned by Catholic Charities, the creator of the tent city.
Since opening early last month street people from as far away as St. Petersburg have been housed at the camp. They are transported by police homeless teams and buses. In some cases street people get to the front gate on their own steam.
Councilman Rick Butler, who is also a member of the Homeless Planning and Policy Group of Pinellas County, called last week’s meeting after city officials began receiving complaints from businesses located near the facility. He said the exact amount of calls is undetermined, but there are enough of them, he said, to cause concern.
Business owners voiced the same concerns as their counterparts along Park Boulevard earlier last year when the Suncoast Haven of Rest Rescue Mission was feeding homeless people from its facility at 5626 Park Blvd. The city eventually stopped the daily meals and worked out a solution with the rescue mission that allows it to provide box lunches at day labor shops.
“There have been issues at and near Pinellas Hope of public urination, people rummaging through garbage cans and roaming around asking work,” Butler said.
One problem are the restrictions imposed as to who can be admitted into the facility. Homeless people that are drunk or using drugs, for example, are not allowed in. Criminal background checks apparently have also found some to be wanted by the police. They, too, are barred.
The concern is that these people have not only been deprived of the facility, but they reportedly are escorted out the front gate and left to fend for themselves without being returned to the location from which they came.
Most people, ranging from public officials to the homeless themselves, believe that the facility is a success.
Butler, however, said there are problems and concerns that need to be resolved.
Besides Butler at the Dec. 28 meeting was Frank Murphy, executive director of Catholic Charities; Michael Gustafson, city manager; Capt. Michael Haworth, head of the patrol division; Sgt. Tracey Schofield, head of police special operations, and police Chief Dorene Thomas.
Butler said it was decided to schedule a meeting with local business owners in an effort to resolve the problems. That summit is expected to be held in about two weeks, through no set date has been established.
Pinellas Hope was built on a plot of land to house about 250 homeless people. There street people receive medical and psychological assistance, learn how to obtain jobs and otherwise turn their lives around.
The facility is scheduled to close in April. No decisions have been made about the tent city’s future.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008
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