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The St. Petersburg Free Clinic will charge for prescriptions, close its thrift store and open its shelter for men only on weekdays.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG -- Not unlike major corporations, the St. Petersburg Free Clinic is feeling the pinch of a tightening economy.
Starting Monday, patients of the clinic will be asked to pay a nominal fee for prescriptions. In September, Maggie's Closet, the clinic's thrift store that employs a full-time staff of four, will close. And Beacon House, the Free Clinic's emergency shelter for men, is no longer open on weekends.
"As every organization is doing, we're trying to use our resources in the best possible way and trying to give the best service to our clients and patients, and that really means taking a look at what we do and how we're doing it," Jane Egbert, executive director of the Free Clinic, said late last week.
"People really want you to be good stewards. We are looking at how we can do things in the most caring way, but also the most practical, efficient way. ... It's a tight financial time for us, and we are trying to be careful about how we spend our pennies and our dollars."
The Free Clinic, whose administrative offices, social services agency and food bank are located at 863 Third Ave. N, depends heavily on donations from individuals, businesses, religious organizations and civic groups. The independent organization assists the poor throughout Pinellas County, but the majority of its clients are from St. Petersburg.
Until now, patients served by the clinic got their medicines free.
"I guess we all know that the cost of medications is very high," Ms. Egbert said.
"In order to continue to help as many people as we can, we're asking for a little help from those people who are using our services. It's a very minimum amount. ... We're trying to keep it as reasonable as we can. Obviously, there's still no charge for doctors' visits. Our doctors and nurses and pharmacists are all volunteers, and we're very grateful for that help."
The Free Clinic has 35 employees. Its health clinic is located at 2335 22nd Ave. S, on the Sanderlin Center property. Its We Help program provides food, limited financial assistance and referrals. The agency also runs a women's shelter at 812 and 814 Fourth Ave. N and a men's shelter, Beacon House, at 2151 Central Ave. Beacon House provides emergency housing for men and dinner for anyone without food six days a week, Sunday through Friday.
The decision to close Beacon House on weekends does not represent a major change for the shelter, said Ms. Egbert, who has headed the Free Clinic for three years.
"Sometimes we are able to keep it open, but finding the staff to do that has proven to be difficult. It's not like we're open to everybody every weekend. What we have been able to do is extend the stay for some people that've been there, but we're only able to do that when we have staff," she said.
Maggie's Closet, at 48 Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) St. N, opened in 1989 and was named after the late Sister Margaret Freeman, an indomitable nun who greatly expanded the Free Clinic's services to the community's poor.
Shutting the doors of the thrift store will help the Free Clinic conserve resources, Ms. Egbert said.
"There are other thrift stores in the community, and that may be one way that we were duplicating our services. We will still be able to use many things that are given to us, because many things that are given to us will be able to be used at our women's shelter and our men's shelter," she said.
Despite the faltering economy, financial support to the Free Clinic has remained consistent, though substantial gifts through bequests are down considerably, Ms. Egbert said.
"Our regular contributors have remained steady. We have, however, seen an increased need by clients and patients. And our expenses, like everyone else's expenses, have increased," she said.
"The community just has always been very supportive of the St. Petersburg Free Clinic, and we've always been grateful for that. We've been here 31 years now. Sometimes I believe we've become enough of a fixture that people don't realize that we do need continued support."
The organization receives little government funding, Ms. Egbert said.
"We don't want to have to rely on it. We want to keep our services open ... without many of the restrictions that come with it," she said.
But, she added, the agency might not be able to maintain that position much longer.
Meanwhile, the work of the organization, founded in 1970 by Drs. Warner "Butch" Anderson and Linda Shaffer and nurtured by Sister Margaret, continues.
"Our focus still is ... to provide basic needs to people in the community, food, shelter, medical care, financial assistance and referral information," Ms. Egbert said.
"Our food bank continues to serve almost 100 other organizations in the community. We are still seeing anywhere from 60 to 80 people a day in our We Help program. We're still seeing 400 patients a month at the health clinic. We're still serving anywhere from 50 to 100 people at Beacon House for dinner as well as sheltering 30 men a night. And our women's residence continues to house up to 20 single homeless women."
Still, what would Sister Margaret say about these changes?
"I think she would be out in the community reminding people about how many people are in need of this help and asking what are they doing about it," Ms. Egbert said.
"I think she'd say and understand that we were not capable of helping everybody, that we needed to stay grateful and mindful of what we could do."