The shelter has relied on donations and grants, but wants a more reliable setup like Miami-Dade County's restaurant tax.
By ROBERT FARLEY
Published September 28, 2003
The people who daily fill the 48 beds at the Clearwater Homeless Intervention Project shelter aren't all from Clearwater. Some are from Largo or Dunedin, Safety Harbor or Pinellas Park.
Yet it is the taxpayers from Clearwater who shoulder most of the expense to run the shelter.
That's not fair, said Clearwater police Chief Sid Klein, who also is president of the CHIP board of directors. Ultimately, the homeless problem needs to be tackled - and funded - at the countywide level, Klein said.
"Homelessness is not just a Clearwater issue," Klein said. "We have become the north Pinellas repository for homeless people because we are the only open shelter. Other cities really should step up to the plate and make contributions."
Klein pointed to Miami-Dade County, where a restaurant tax was initiated to fund homeless programs. The 1 percent tax on food and beverages at restaurants with liquor licenses last year netted more than $8.1 million for homeless aid.
"There has to be a dedicated funding source, either in the form of a tax, like a restaurant tax, or some other dedicated funding," Klein said.
County officials are listening.
Pinellas's county administrator, Steve Spratt, said the county first needs to assess the magnitude of the homeless program and the unmet needs.
As a former Miami-Dade County assistant administrator, Spratt helped write the legislation for the restaurant tax there.
"Assuming for a moment there is a large, unfunded need here," Spratt said, "one of the things I learned from my experience in Miami-Dade County is that you can't deal with the problem superficially and expect it to be dealt with significantly."
Shelters, soup kitchens and mobile medical units all deal with the symptoms of homelessness, he said, and need to be supplemented with coordinated mental health and substance abuse treatment programs and job skills programs.
"Certainly we need a comprehensive plan," Spratt said.
But Spratt said it was too early to talk about a tax.
"Typically, these programs do need resources to deal substantively with the problem," he said. "But I am reluctant to suggest it until I see what the resource needs are."
County Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd, who is heading a countywide homeless task force, also is convinced a countywide coordinated approach is essential.
"We are looking at this not as a problem that is unique to Clearwater, Florida," she said. "Homelessness is an issue that is applicable to the whole county."
The county is looking to split the cost of a consultant with the Juvenile Welfare Board, she said, to research how other communities have successfully dealt with the homeless issue, and also to find out ways to better coordinate the existing services.
Without a countywide dedicated funding source, Klein said, shelter like CHIP are forced to limp along, "getting by by the skin of their teeth."
In addition to private donations, CHIP receives $100,000 a year from the city of Clearwater, and $65,000 from the county.
But Clearwater's neighbors have been less generous.
So far, only Largo has chipped in. In February, Largo police chief Lester Aradi sent over $5,000 from his department's asset forfeiture account.
"I recognized this was, in fact, a regional problem," Aradi said. "Largo, like many other communities, has a problem with homelessness. CHIP has provided a service to this community."
More recently, Largo commissioners awarded CHIP a $17,000 grant.
CHIP had asked for $42,875 apiece from Largo and Clearwater, to split the cost of enclosing a wooden deck at the shelter on Park Street to make room for 13 new emergency beds.
Clearwater commissioners ponied up the city's share. But Largo officials cut their appropriation to $17,000 after deciding improvements to Clearwater-Largo Road were a bigger priority.
To help make up the shortfall, the National Seniors Benevolent Association stepped up and presented CHIP a $17,000 donation earlier this month to match Largo's. The association's president, F.J. Burr, said the non-profit group recognized the benefits the shelter provides to seniors.
The $17,000 donation represents several years worth of donations to the organization from some of the seniors it has helped with problems like homeowners association disputes or scams.
While disappointed Largo did not fully fund its grant request, Klein said he understands the extreme financial pinch on local governments these days, and the desire to prioritize their own, local projects. And he's grateful Largo will be contributing anything at all.
Klein said he may soon visit some other north Pinellas municipalities to make a personal appeal to their elected boards. But ultimately, he said, CHIP can't rely on getting municipal grants every year.
CHIP's executive director, Carole Ciokiewicz, said more needs to be done. There are about 2,400 homeless people in Pinellas County on any given day, according to the latest annual head count performed by the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless. Yet, Ciokiewicz said, there are only about 800 emergency beds in the county.
"There is such a huge need in the county," she said.
