Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The measure, which passed the Senate last week, is slated for a vote next week in the House.
By RYAN DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 26, 2001
Pasco County's failure to reel in federal money aimed at helping the homeless has sparked lawmakers to introduce legislation that could aid the entire state.
Two state legislators with powerful supporters have crafted legislation that would aid homeless services statewide. Booming suburban areas like Pasco stand to benefit the most, lawmakers said.
The bill, which passed the Senate last week and is slated for a vote next week in the House, would:
Create a statewide office on homelessness. The office would coordinate state, local and private efforts and financial plans for projects to fight homelessness.
Allocate funds for social service agencies to build and operate transitional and permanent housing for homeless people.
Provide money for 25 county homeless coalitions to hire full- or part-time coordinators.
"At the state level,this is absolutely landmark legislation," said Greg Mellowe, executive director of the Orlando-based Florida Coalition for the Homeless.
Most money to combat homeless comes from the federal government, Mellowe said. This bill will help several Florida counties, including Pasco, tap into that federal funding.
"The state money's a drop in the bucket compared to what the federal government has," said John Legg, chief aide to Rep. Heather Fiorentino, R-New Port Richey.
The federal government requires that groups get state and local support before they can receive federal money. The proposed state money would meet that need, said Fiorentino, one of the bill's sponsors.
The state funding would allow a social service agency, working with their county coalition, to apply for up to $500,000 to operate homeless services, Legg said.
An agency could also seek $750,000 to build permanent or transitional housing. It would be distributed by the new state office, which we be a part of the Department of Children and Families.
"The coalitions will now have a contact at the state to assist them," said Fiorentino, whose counterpart in the Senate is Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs. "There's been a lack of chain of command there."
The total amount of funding available will not be known until the House and Senate work out differences in their versions of the bill.
The bill would also help the coalitions seek federal money by providing money for them to hire a coordinator, Mellowe said. Several county coalitions face the same struggles as Pasco. The coalition here consists largely of higher-ups from social service agencies. They spend most of their time at their agency and often have little left for the coalition.
"It would be wonderful if we would be able to pay a professional grant writer," said David Barzelay, the president of the Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County.
As counties like Pasco grow, so do their homeless problems.
While this legislation stands to benefit the state's large cities, the growing ones are its intended beneficiaries, Legg said.
"Suburban areas don't have the tax base to address the issues but are too large for mom and pop social services to handle what's going on," Legg said.
At last count in fall 1999, Pasco's homeless population, including people who have lost their homes but are temporarily living with friends or family, numbered 2,188. Coalition members have said they believe the number is actually much higher -- and growing.
Pasco is the largest county in the state to have never received or even applied for funding from the federal government's biggest source of homeless assistance money, which was first awarded in 1995 and totaled more than $900-million last year.
Earlier this month the coalition decided again that it is not ready and will not be able to submit an application this year. Members have said the group failed again to organize itself in time.
- Ryan Davis covers higher education and social services in Pasco. He can be reached at (800) 333-7505, ext. 3452. Discuss this and other issues on our web-based discussion forums at http://www.sptimes.com/pascoforum.