County makes pledge to help the homeless
The County Commission approves a 10-year plan to help end homelessness and accepts a grant to expand medical van services.
By NICOLE JOHNSON
Published March 14, 2006
Pinellas County has given itself a 10-year deadline to end homelessness in the area.
On Tuesday, the Pinellas County Commission unanimously approved a multistep plan it says will help achieve that goal in the next decade.
In a separate move to help the homeless, commissioners also accepted a $265,000 federal grant to expand its medical van services.
The grant will enable the county to hire two advanced registered nurse practitioners to provide mental health services to the homeless. The county plans to spend a total of $455,458 this year on its medical services van, which provides care to the homeless and medically underserved.
The larger 10-year plan comes from the Homeless Policy Group, which consists of local elected officials from Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Largo, Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg. The group joined forces with the business sector and law enforcement to shape the 10-year plan.
"It's really critical that we act on this in a new way," said Sarah Snyder, executive director of Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless. "The issue of homelessness affects everybody, and it was important for everybody to be at the table to think about it."
In recent years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has encouraged communities to develop strategies to end homelessness, Snyder said.
On any given night in Pinellas, an average of 4,450 people go to sleep homeless. Of those, about 98 are families with children, according to the 2005 Homeless Survey conducted by the county. It is estimated that Pinellas spends $13-million annually on homeless-related services.
The 62-page report, developed by the policy group, outlines about 200 strategic goals for fighting homelessness. The key themes are better coordination between localities, seeking more funding, outreach and preventive measures.
Preventive measures include mentoring for families at risk of becoming homeless and incentives for employers to give jobs to the homeless, according to the report.
"It's really critical that we address prevention," Snyder said. "If we take everybody off the streets today, there would be new people on the streets tomorrow."
The goal is to adapt a "housing first" approach, said Cliff Smith, assistant director of Pinellas Human Services. That means that once people are brought into a shelter, they are provided with services that they need such as employment and health care.
Smith estimates it could cost an additional $6-million to fully implement the 10-year plan.
The homeless task force is scheduled to meet on a monthly basis. The group expects to take some of its strategies to the streets within one year, Smith said.
"We're going to be asking for more staff to do outreach in the community," Smith said. "We're going out into the streets talking with people. It will be a community effort."
Though a noble effort, at least one county commissioner questioned whether the goal of ending homelessness in 10 years is realistic.
"I've said this before, and obviously no one heard it," Commissioner Bob Stewart said during Tuesday's meeting. "For Pinellas County to offer a program to end homelessness ... it is not going to happen."
The goal may be unrealistic, but the new approach is better than what's been tried before, Smith said.
"That term came from the federal government," Smith said. "You're never going to end homelessness, or end people suffering from mental illness and substance abuse, but you can do it better than we're doing it now."
Nicole Johnson can be reached at njohnson@sptimes.com or 727 445-4162.