Meeting spot for mentally ill opens doors

As the Drop-In Center moves to spacious rooms, it absorbs a blow from Publix, which no longer supplies some foods.

By KWESI WREKON OBENG
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 14, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- The St. Petersburg Drop-In Center, a mecca for the mentally ill to socialize and meet with support groups, earlier this month moved into spacious new quarters that are just a short walk from the clients' primary caregiver.

Steve Kersker, chairman of the St. Petersburg Homeless Task Force, said the new space at 3822 Central Ave. "is the best Fourth of July gift to the center in many years." The center relocated on Independence Day.

With the good news came some bad. Barely a week before the center relocated, Publix informed the center's managers that they no longer could collect the supermarket's expired meat and dairy products. The center has been serving bread and peanut butter at its daily lunch.

For seven years, the Drop-In Center rented space in a Fourth Street N building owned by the American Legion that had only a large hall and one room that functioned as a storeroom and the manager's office.

The new Drop-In Center has a spacious hall, five rooms, a kitchen and two restrooms. There will be TVs, a room dedicated to music and a computer room where clients can play games.

"I love it. It's much cleaner," said J.J. Wanda, a client.

The new site is two blocks from the Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health, 4024 Central Ave., which provides medical and other services to the mentally disabled and administers the Drop-In Center.

The center provides its clients -- 60 to 80 each day, 460 overall -- a daily lunch. Kersker said a third of the Drop-In Center's clientele are homeless, and all of them suffer from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic depression.

Kersker speculated that Publix was responding to a recent national news report on the methods grocery stores used to resell their expired products.

But Publix spokesman Lee Brunson said that the decision was taken for health reasons. The supermarket will continue to donate expired but nonperishable items, Brunson said.

Kersker agreed that Publix is justified in withdrawing the dated meat and dairy products. "But you have been giving us meat for two years and we've had no problems, so why now?" Kersker said he wondered.

Center manager Ronnie Farrar said, "We're taking it pretty hard. It's not a good feeling." Farrar said he is finding it difficult to explain to clients that they have to put up with meals without meat until another charity comes to their aid.

Meanwhile, the Drop-In Center is bracing itself for more mentally ill persons to patronize its facilities and services.

Renee L. Kilroy, director of case management at the Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health, said the center expects the number of homeless and mentally ill persons visiting the center to rise by 50 a day.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright