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Giving is up, so are homeless
By RYAN DAVIS, Times Staff Writer Some Pasco County social service agencies and workers made news in 2001 for what they did. Two government-funded agencies poured money into an unlicensed medical training school. Two Pasco men went to the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. And farmworkers marched on Tallahassee. Others drew attention for what they didn't do. The Coalition for the Homeless of Pasco County didn't apply for federal money. The Salvation Army's domestic violence program turned away money. Rick Hess didn't sexually harass employees at Pasco Family Protection Team. And the so-called "Sept. 11 effect" didn't plague Pasco social service agencies. Volunteers deluged the Port Richey American Red Cross in the hours following the terrorist attacks. Only 10 were sent to New York, but the volunteer lists grew. The United Way of Pasco County, which runs the largest social service fundraising campaign in the county, hasn't seen any indication of less giving. "Not yet," agency president Susan White said. Some locals even suggested a much-needed opposite effect: increased donations to meet the growing need. "Maybe there are some people that are donating food that never thought about it in the past," said Karen Buck of the Pasco Food Bank. "That changed so many people's focus." Proof of the growing need: the homeless count. A Nov. 27 census found the number of homeless school children has nearly doubled since 1999. In all, the homeless population has grown 31 percent to 2,856. The homeless continued to need this year. So did domestic violence victims in west Pasco. But both the homeless coalition and the Salvation Army domestic violence program missed out on money. The financially strapped Salvation Army turned away about $100,000 because of internal regulations. The agency's director said accepting the money would have created a debt with the agency's state office, even though that so-called debt has been repeatedly forgiven. Once again, the homeless coalition -- a group of representatives from social service agencies -- didn't pull together in time to apply for a federal grant. About $850,000 slipped through its hands. Next year, they said. Former coalition director David Barzelay was busy, though. He and Michael Murphy of Bayonet Point traveled to the Nobel Institute headquarters and met with the director to advocate for a New York doctor to win the Nobel Peace Prize. They have raised money for the doctor, Sharadkumar Dicksheet, to perform plastic surgery on deformed children in India. He didn't win, but Dicksheet certainly proved much more qualified in the medical field than graduates of Associated Medical Arts Institute. A state Department of Education investigation found the Zephyrhills school churned out graduates with classes that were too short, with unqualified professors and without a state-required license. But that didn't stop two government funded agencies -- state Vocational Rehabilitation Services and Pasco-Hernando Jobs and Education Partnership -- from pouring more than $170,000 into the unlicensed school. That drew ire from Tallahassee. So did Rick Hess, the executive director of the Pasco Family Protection Team. A private investigator found he didn't sexual harass employees as they claimed, but he and state reviewers found several administrative flaws with the agency, which investigates child abuse cases in Pasco. Now the agency is under scrutiny. It certainly got more attention in Tallahassee than local farmworkers did. In January, nearly 40 farmworkers from east Pasco marched -- along with protesters from across the state -- 22 miles from the farming town of Quincy to the governor's mansion. The walk didn't bother them. "This is nothing for people who work in the fields," said Lorenzo Ortiz, a former farmworker from Dade City. "When you pick oranges, you are tired everywhere."
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