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But a shortage of youth care workers could kink the plans for the much-needed facility.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2001
BROOKSVILLE -- Hernando County's first runaway shelter, just an idea two years ago, should open late this month.
Construction of the 7,000-square-foot, tin-roofed building, located just west of the Sheriff's Office on Clinton Road, quickly is nearing completion. Workers were painting the interior walls pink and beige last week and also laying carpeting and tile.
The bulk of the $1-million funding also was in place, said George Magrill, chief executive of the non-profit Youth and Family Alternatives.
"Based on where we are right now, we're hopeful -- that's the key word -- that we'll be able to open some time in July," Magrill said. "On the day that we would open, we would begin to take kids."
There's just one potential problem, he said. The organization is having trouble finding youth care workers.
"Those are the folks spending the most time with the kids," explained Doug Leonardo, program manager for the new shelter and also for the RAP House in Pasco County.
They do everything from making sure youths in the shelter do their chores to enforcing the shelter rules. In three 8-hour shifts, youth care workers work with the residents around the clock. The state requires that a shelter must have one such employee for every six children.
"We like to overstaff for safety and security reasons," Magrill said.
But the job pays an average of $7.50 an hour, making it difficult to recruit. The organization is about four people short.
"Even if we're short a couple of folks, we may be able to bring a couple of people up from our shelter in Pasco temporarily," Magrill said.
If the shelter cannot meet the state's licensing requirements, though, the shelter will not open even if it's built, he said.
That would be unfortunate for the community, which has a large and growing population of runaways, said Jean Rags, Hernando County social services director. Of all the areas in Florida without a runaway shelter, the Hernando-Citrus-Sumter county region had the greatest need as measured by the state Department of Juvenile Justice, Rags said.
By putting a shelter here, she said, the communities will save time and money in getting children needed services.
"With the shelter, you have immediate intervention," Rags said. "Eighty-five percent of kids that have been in a shelter have returned to their families without a repeat. They stayed home. They fixed the problem."
A shelter provides a structured, safe environment for children in crisis, Leonardo said. It offers counseling as well as a place to stay, so the children will not end up either a victim or a perpetrator of crime, he said.
When it opens, the shelter will have 12 beds for runaways, chronic truants, kids thrown out of home, children involved in domestic violence cases and court-ordered children in need of services. The age range will be 10 to 17.
"Typically, the kids who would be coming in because of having run away or chronic truancy ... we would not keep them beyond 14 days," Magrill said.
Youth and Family Alternatives is negotiating with the Department of Children and Families to add four or five beds for youths who have been abandoned or chronically abused, and who are awaiting placement in a temporary or foster home.
Planning for the shelter began in 1999. It quickly fell victim to "not in my backyard" sentiment when a site was proposed in Istachatta.
After a countywide search for alternatives, Tom Mylander, then the county sheriff, offered land on his department's campus. The state provided $500,000 to the project, and Youth and Family Alternatives also won a $230,000 federal grant.
Hernando County donated $200,000 to the shelter, and Citrus County gave about $70,000 toward the operational costs.
After initial hesitation, the city of Brooksville waived about $12,500 in sewer connection fees for the project.
- Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek covers Hernando County government and can be reached at (352) 754-6115.
-- Discuss this and other issues in our Web-based discussion forum at http://www.sptimes.com/hernandoforum.