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Are we sending a deadly message about homelessness?

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published February 22, 2007

Florida is, shamefully, No. 1 in violence against homeless victims. As reported in a CNN series and derived from the recent report by the National Coalition on Homelessness (see http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/02/19/nch.2006.pdf), last year Florida had 42 separate incidents resulting in eight fatalities and 40 nonlethal acts.

As summarized by Sarah Snyder, executive director of the Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless, in the Wednesday's St. Petersburg Times article (Homeless attacks up in '06), most of the predators are "bored youth." Almost invariably parents are shocked that their fine kids could commit such senseless cruelty, and inexplicably the rates are far worse in Florida than other states.

Possibly we have a broader community problem where we have effectively communicated to "bored youth" that homeless individuals are not really humans entitled to respect, but bums who are routinely insulted by parents, penalized by government authorities and generally despised by the community, and therefore free game. And making groups of them disperse and pushing them into the back alleys and out of sight simply makes them more vulnerable to attacks, as recently illustrated in St. Petersburg and around the state.

So sometimes NIMBY can become a death sentence.

On the more positive side, there are many in local government, faith-based and other community organizations that are making mighty efforts to produce local solutions. So hopefully our No. 1 status in violence can be yielded to another state in years to come.

Mike Switzer, Tampa

A complex problem on our doorstep

On Saturday, at the Studio @ 620, I watched Easy Street, a new film about the homeless in St. Petersburg. On Sunday, I read a host of stories in the Times about homelessness in Pinellas County. St. Petersburg, you have my attention.

Each morning upon awakening, I pour myself a cup of coffee, walk out onto my balcony and contemplate a half dozen souls sleeping on the sidewalk nine stories below at the Bank of America Plaza on First Avenue S. The irony of their circumstances compared to mine and my neighbors' is not lost: There but for the grace of God ...

If you pay attention, you can see the effects of lying on concrete all night. Some, especially the older people, rise only with the greatest difficulty, staggering first to their knees and then pushing themselves to an unsteady standing position. After they work out their kinks, they light their cigarettes, fold their kits, pack their carts or bicycles, and head to Williams Park. Some, especially the men, walk across the street through McNulty Station en route to the Midtown Sundries restaurant dumpster. There, they urinate into the stormwater grate. We could nod to one another if they looked up. Another day begins, but something is diminished here.

We are learning, slowly and uncomfortably, that houselessness is a civic reality that probably can be understood, described or addressed only in a matrix context. For a start, the interests include aesthetics, economics, health and safety, law and order, food, shelter, employment, education, information and substance abuse. With a problem this multifaceted, politicians, civic leaders and service providers will have to get better at matrix planning, situational awareness and especially triage because everybody's needs probably can't be met.

Imagination will be useful if the city is to mitigate the increasing aesthetic, health and safety crises attendant to homelessness in this otherwise beautiful city. Meantime, a Band-Aid in the form of 24/7 portable toilets would be a nice start.

Gary Harrington, St. Petersburg

Priced onto the street Feb. 18, story

Battered by Bushes

The state of Florida has been hit by the Bush-Bush double whammy, with a president and governor who both worked to reduce taxes on the wealthy and pay for it by reducing services to the less fortunate. Then there is their push for free trade, which is not free for the one whose job has been shipped overseas, leaving the worker flipping hamburgers.

The fact is that middle class and lower wages do not support a worker and family. The Bushes both brag about producing jobs, many of which are below living wage. Many well-off acquaintances say that the homeless would be okay if they worked as hard as I do or did. When a person is working two jobs to make do, believe me they are working hard.

Furthermore, if parents are not at home to discipline and train children, school failures result, and the society goes into the ash can. Such a condition led to the election of a socialist dictator in Venezuela. Could it happen here?

John B. Mooney, Hudson

Priced onto the street Feb. 18, story

Life takes effort

For God's sake, will it ever end? Why is it that the Times continues to print its agenda in the paper week after week? In recent weeks, we have endured at least a half dozen articles about the plight of the homeless, and Sunday there was another one emblazoned on the front page. Aren't we lucky?

The only point in the article I can agree with is that making a living here is challenging at times. Once again the people who are expected to be responsible, work and do what they must to make ends meet are made to feel guilty.

By your own numbers, there are 18-million people in Florida and an estimated 86,000 homeless. That is less than 0.5 percent. Again the Times and liberals for that matter seek to cram their agenda down the throats of hard- working Floridians. When will you guys quit trying to redistribute the wealth? For the record, we already do: It's called welfare, WIC, Section 8 housing and the all the rest, ad nauseam.

Life in this world takes effort, not entitlement. Yes, we realize it can be quite difficult to stay on your feet and keep your housing, but nearly 18-million people in Florida have found a way to do so.

Those "homeless" need to get any job and quit crying about how "unfair" the system is!

John C. Luttrell, Clearwater

Self-help housing

I commend the local government agencies, as well as churches reaching out to the homeless. Another thing that could be done is to involve the homeless themselves in constructing or remodeling buildings to provide shelter/housing.

I've read that many homeless people have construction skills, so what better way to involve them in meaningful employment, and building a safer, better community. I believe that this is a win-win solution.

Carl E. Graham, Seminole

Where's the money?

The recent rash of articles addressing housing costs in Pinellas County raises this question:

Where is the money from the dramatic escalation in assessed values on property in Pinellas County over the last five to seven years? Any intelligent person can see that the county's income from property taxes should have at least nearly doubled.

So where is the money? Where did it go when the market and property values were skyrocketing? Where's the money now? Since your paper seems to have an article of some sort regarding housing costs several times a week, I would love to see an article addressing this.

Gary Bucklew, Palm Harbor

Plan would raise sales tax, abolish tax on homesteads Feb. 20, story

Making things worse

In their zeal to provide a painless "quick fix" to the property tax problem, state House Republicans want to eliminate property taxes on homesteads and increase sales taxes. They want to take an inequitable system and make it even more unfair and unbalanced. They want to eliminate property taxes on multimillion-dollar mansions and shift the burden onto renters (who cannot afford to buy a home) and onto the small businesses that are already struggling to survive.

And just to make certain that our sluggish retail sector doesn't rebound, they want to increase the sales tax (which has a larger impact on the poor).

A more effective approach would be for everyone to pay their fair share. If all property were appraised at fair market value, the taxing authorities could drastically reduce the millage rates, and we would all have an interest in making them do so. And if they eliminated all the exceptions to the sales tax, they could cut the tax rate by 3 percent and still increase revenue.

If Florida really wants to solve the property tax problem, we need to stop looking for ways to pass the buck and start paying our own way. I have to admit it, the Times was right. In their zeal for a quick and easy fix, the Legislature has found a way to make things worse.

Paul Starr, Treasure Island

[Last modified February 21, 2007, 23:28:22]