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Why no cots in churches?

We are retired and full-time residents of a lovely mobile home park in Dunedin for the last five years. Last year was our first encounter with hurricanes in Florida, although we have been through several in our former home in Rhode Island. Just residing in a mobile home means we must evacuate whenever a hurricane threatens.

A younger couple from our church extended the invitation to stay with them during all of last year's hurricanes - such a generous yet simple solution to the problem of scurrying to a shelter, which involves taking clothing, bedding, food and water, etc. My husband and I are both elderly and handicapped to a degree (I can no longer walk and use an electric cart, and my husband uses a cane), and the idea of "camping out" in some gym and sleeping on the floor is impossible even to contemplate.

Why couldn't all our local churches, synagogues, mosques or other places of worship ask for volunteer "hosts" to provide a bed and companionship to an elderly resident of a mobile home during such evacuations?

Such host homes might even welcome pets. This could be the answer to the plight of even those mobile home residents who hesitate, or outright refuse, to go to a hurricane shelter because they have a pet.

Extending friendship and shelter to someone is more than an act of charity; it is sharing in each other's joys and bearing each other's burdens, which every religion teaches. Just knowing that I don't have to worry about where we'll be going if there is the call to evacuate our home again is a priceless gift of peace of mind.

Mobile home residents not a Largo priority

Three years ago the Largo commissioners voted to buy the Largo Village Mobile Home Park near downtown Largo. They paid twice as much as the park was worth, claiming it was needed for a retention pond that would encourage downtown development. The end result: 43 families that were living in the park were thrown into the streets without a penny of compensation.

Downtown Largo died 30 years ago, and it looks like the money-wasting "work" Largo officials have done so far has done little to revive the area.

According to an article I read in the Times, it looks like Largo officials are once again planning to throw hundreds of families that live in mobile home parks into the streets under the guise of "downtown" redevelopment. State law now requires park residents to receive some moving expenses. However, there is now no place to move trailers in Pinellas County. Also, low-income or affordable housing is very scarce. Where will these residents go?

It appears, no matter how low they lower the ethical limbo bar at Largo City Hall the city commissioners are always able to slither under it. In my view, the municipal corporation of Largo is rotten to the core and bad to the bone.

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[Last modified September 7, 2005, 01:01:15]