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Putting homeless in complex won't work

Complex may house homeless Feb. 9, story 

This article states, "City Council member Jamie Bennett is pushing a plan to temporarily relocate more than 150 homeless residents into empty apartments at the city's largest public housing complex."

This is a sad example of looking at short-term solutions for long-term problems. Why don't we post an ad in the New York Times, "Welcome winter residents! Free off-street housing!" After this, we can invest in a PR campaign to figure out how to remove these 150 residents once we want these housing units returned.

This proposal by St. Petersburg City Council member Jamie Bennett has too many problems to be considered seriously. Placing 150 homeless into the city's largest public housing complex will be almost guaranteed to fuel an explosion of problems.

The homeless problem is a difficult one. Florida is a magnet for many out-of-state homeless, especially this time of year with our relatively warm climate. To reduce the homeless population you need a firmer hand, not a gentle one. If the homeless do not want to go to a shelter at night, their only choice could be for the police to take them to a homeless center that would find relatives to take these individuals and to help get them off the streets.

Some individuals would be best served in psychiatric facilities, some in longer term shelters, but no individual would be placed directly into an apartment without some intervention to determine their fitness and ability to properly care for and support themselves.

Elizabeth Salvucci, Safety Harbor

Prepare for more

Well, this compounds the stupidity. Will somebody please tell the St. Petersburg City Council that these people are not registered voters.

When you accommodate 500 "homeless," you will find that 1,000 more will have nursed a dying car a couple thousand miles or ridden a bus to get here and become "your homeless" too.

With the exception of the few citizens who really did get hit by misfortune and are glad to accept a program to get back into productivity, those people are there because they want to be.

Better wake up before you have to build housing for 10,000.

Max R. Loick, St. Petersburg

Why work?

I quit! Why work, pay taxes, scrimp and save? Let us all move to a tent city where the city, state and bleeding hearts will take care of us - just because I'm lazy and can't be bothered with feeding myself and my family. I'll let the suckers do it!

What ever happened to the WPA?

Ronald Payne, Safety Harbor

Immigration

Leaders are failing us

The president, his administration and (except for a few courageous members) this Congress, are sleepwalking through the nightmare of immigration. They continue to ignore the stated desire of their constituents to do something, anything, to kill this move toward amnesty, and to prevent the ever-continuing influx of illegal aliens into this country.

The failure of the federal government to give serious thought to the problem has given the likes of La Raza and the ACLU the moxie to make "demands," and to accuse those performing their stated duties, of racial profiling and terrorism.

It is time for the sleepwalkers to wake up and face the problem. They are permitting the day-by-day growth of illegal aliens, and as these illegal aliens grow in number so does their rhetoric. So much so that they now speak in fearless, threatening language against this country. That this is occurring is, in my opinion, a distasteful affront.

It is no wonder that more and more state and local governments are beginning to take matters into their own hands. For whatever reason, the federal government continues to sweep the problem under the rug. By virtue of their weakness, this Congress has allowed the illegal aliens to presume that the United States is a soft touch, and that once they have successfully entered our country, nothing but good can happen.

Sleepwalking is, in this case, escape from responsibility, and it smells bad.

Orfeo Trombetta, Seminole

A taste of disgust 

Early pain set Couey on path of perversion Feb. 11, story

John Couey's childhood of abuse and family dysfunction hardly justifies the crime for which he is being tried. Are we to feel sorry for him and pardon his actions because of his childhood?

How many others grew up in foster homes and orphanages, were abused by their family, friends or clergy and grew up to be responsible adults, adults who did not murder while on a drug high.

This article left me with a taste of disgust and was not worth a place on your front page.

Joanne Kuzyk, Palm Harbor

Roll back taxes 

New budget model: restraint Feb. 8, story

The Hillsborough County Commission voted 6-0 to cap property tax revenues at current levels with adjustments for inflation and population growth. What a magnanimous gesture!

If the St. Petersburg Times only had one vendor for newsprint and that vendor almost doubled the price in a five year period, would you be happy with a cap? I bet there would be no dancing around the water cooler.

It's the same situation with Hillsborough County and property tax revenue. The taxes need to be rolled back to 2001 levels and then calculated with inflation and population factored in. All the county is doing is trying to protect the gouging of the last five years.

I sure hope we're not as dumb as they seem to think we are.

Mike Lyons, Apollo Beach

Still waiting

Federal Alliance for Safe Homes is still on the job Feb. 8, letter

The letter from the president and CEO of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH Inc.) was very interesting, but it still did not answer our question. When are we going to receive the results of the inspection that was performed on our home on Nov. 7, 2006? Yes, three months ago.

The gentlemen who inspected our home indicated that we should receive it in about a month. We have called both FLASH as well as the state financial agency that is handling this program but have not been able to get a definite answer.

Alex Sink, the state's new chief financial officer, oversees this program and maybe we should contact her next. Every day we are moving closer to the 2007 hurricane season and we would sincerely appreciate receiving the results of our home inspection.

Ron Bowman, Dunedin

Fighting Christianity 

Ten Commandments will get their day in court Feb. 8, news brief

The ALCU appears to be a major part of the war on Christianity. They believe that posting the Ten Commandments on public property is a violation of the Constitution. Does the ALCU think they know more about the Constitution than the justices of the Supreme Court? The Ten Commandments are posted on the wall of the Supreme Court meeting room. There are biblical quotations on many public buildings in Washington, D.C.

The First Amendment to the Constitution means that citizens are not compelled to join a government-decreed church or to be compelled to pay taxes to that church.

If the ACLU is really an American organization, there is a need for their intelligence and abilities. Much of what the federal government does is in direct violation of the Constitution. The ACLU could be a great help to the American people by working to enforce our Constitution.

All public officeholders have sworn to uphold the Constitution. They should become familiar with the Constitution that they have sworn to uphold.

Charles Derer, Hudson

Not our law book 

Ten Commandments will get their day in court Feb. 8, news brief

This item tells how Dixie County is displaying the Ten Commandments on the courthouse steps. Here is why every American should fear entering any such court.

The Commandments' authority is based on belief in the Bible as the word of God, and the "word of God", in Leviticus and Exodus, calls for the death penalty for breaking commandments 1, 3, 5 and 7 and probably others as well. That is not American law as we have it, so let us not open that particular book when an American goes to court.

Richard Strader, Pinellas Park

[Last modified February 13, 2007, 01:07:23]