Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Higher toll of life on streets

Even during a heavy rain, people conducting the annual count of the homeless in St. Petersburg find an increase.

By CARRIE WEIMAR
Published March 7, 2006

	[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
	Piles of belongings from homeless camps sit outside the concrete barriers Monday as workers install the fencing along Bayshore Drive SE for the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. The homeless are losing access to the area by the Mahaffey, a frequent camping spot, until the race is over.

ST. PETERSBURG - James Cianfrani spends his days on a bench in Williams Park with his belongings in a duffel bag next to him.

He eats his meals at St. Vincent dePaul's, sleeps in empty alleys and dreams of the day he will own a home.

"I want to be respected, like any other person," said Cianfrani, 41, who said he has been homeless since age 18. "I want to work. I want to live in a house."

Cianfrani is not alone. The number of people like him grew in 2005, according to the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless. Despite heavy rain, volunteers counted 4,710 homeless men, women and children during the coalition's annual one-day count Jan. 30, an increase of 3 percent over last year.

Sarah Snyder, the coalition's executive director, said the number would have been even higher if it weren't for the rain.

"People were really hiding," she said. "They were looking for shelter everywhere they could."

The number of homeless has been steadily increasing in the county for more than five years. The number jumped 11 percent between 2004 and 2005.

With a growing lack of affordable housing, there is potential for an even bigger problem in 2007, Snyder said.

"There are getting to be a lot more people, and their problem is they can't find a place they can afford, even if they are working," she said. "For families, it's especially difficult. They have the hardest time."

A coalition of elected officials, caregivers and homeless advocates is trying to reverse the upward trend. They recently created a 10-year plan they hope will drastically reduce the number of people who live on Pinellas County streets.

The plan emphasizes "housing first," getting people off the street before trying to solve mental health or substance abuse problems. It also focuses on prevention and helping people avoid homelessness.

In St. Petersburg, where downtown development threatens to squeeze out the homeless, Mayor Rick Baker recently created a position: homeless outreach coordinator, charged with matching homeless people with resources such as emergency shelter or medical treatment.

While a permanent coordinator hasn't been selected, an interim worker began last week and helped relocate the 20 to 30 people who were living in a tent city near the Mahaffey Theater, said Beth Eschenfelder, the city's social services manager.

Some people were given emergency shelter while others were hooked up with friends or relatives, she said. Any expenses were covered by a private grant.

The coordinator had a strict deadline: The city on Sunday began preparing for the Grand Prix, which meant the area by the Mahaffey, part of the course, was off limits.

St. Petersburg also is funding 37 emergency shelter beds, a resource that is sorely needed, Eschenfelder said. There is a 300-bed shortage in St. Petersburg, she said.

Baker also directed the city legal department to explore a "no-camping" ordinance that would prohibit sleeping in parts of downtown. City Attorney John Wolfe said he is gathering information for the ordinance.

The annual count is used by advocates to track the number of homeless in the county. About 100 workers handed out surveys and searched for the homeless at 110 sites around the county, including food pantries, transitional housing centers, day labor sites, hospitals and motels that accept homeless people with government-supplied vouchers.

Fred Fearday, research director for the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless, said the count helps draw attention to those who most desperately need help, including families.

Fearday said 18 percent of the county's homeless are children and 21 percent are women.

"They're not as visible to the public," Fearday said. "But they need services to help get them into housing."

--Carrie Weimar can be reached at 727 892-2273 or cjohnson@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 7, 2006, 01:13:07]