Some of the reasons why we object to this tent city... This list is the result of concerns voiced by hundreds of community members who have spoken out.
1) IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
Pinellas Tent City has drawn homeless people to that area who would not otherwise be there. While it makes sense that homeless persons migrate South to Florida in the winter, why are they housing people who have migrated North from Miami? Hillsborough Tent City WILL draw additional homeless people into our area to utilize our homeless services, which are already at capacity and struggling financially.
2) COMMUNITY SAFETY
The Diocese allows drug addicts, alcoholics and persons with mental illness into their Tent City. They have stated to the media that a violent felony or sex offense conviction does not necessarily preclude admission to their Tent City.
Why is it that to work for the Diocese you must submit to a thorough national database background check, but as a resident of Tent City you only need a simple FDLE internet check to get in? What if an out of state pedophile is off the grid and gives a false ID?
A very high percentage of those in Pinellas Tent City have either refused or failed drug and alcohol treatment, or have refused mental health care. They are chronically homeless, and have made a conscious choice to be homeless. Frank Murphy himself has admitted that half of those in Pinellas Tent City end back up on the street. We do not want untreatable addicts, alcoholics, and mentally ill people brought into our community. As a local homeless services minister recently told us, they WILL wander into our neighborhoods and loiter at our local businesses. Will our children be safe to freely ride their bikes and play in our neighborhoods as they have done for many years? Will our elderly be safe? Will we be able to walk our dogs in the evenings? Will our neighborhood events be clouded with fear for our own safety?
Where will these people go if they are kicked out of the facility or are denied entry? The Church is not going to put them on a bus and ship them back to where they came from, or take them to another facility. What about when the facility is full? Where will those that have been turned away sleep that night or loiter during the day?
3) THE PROPOSED TENT CITY WILL NOT ALLOW, NOR WILL IT SERVICE, FAMILIES OR CHILDREN
Is this because the Diocese does not want children exposed to these homeless residents? Why then should we allow our children to be exposed to them? The more recent homeless population includes families with children. Shouldn’t this program address this growing need?
4) WRONG LOCATION
The proposed Tent City property is less than 265 feet from the entrance of a neighborhood. There is an undeniable difference between the Hillsborough location and the one in Pinellas County – we have 7 schools, numerous residential areas, and numerous retail businesses within 2 miles of the proposed site. Pinellas Hope is located in an all-industrial area with no residences or retail for miles. The closest school is approximately one mile away.
5) PINELLAS HOPE IS NOT A MODEL OF SUCCESS ON SO MANY LEVELS
Pinellas Tent City guarantees the residents one meal per day. And even that meal is furnished by local churches, not the Diocese.
The diocese claims to have a “successful discharge” rate of about half of the residents, but the reality of the situation is very different. The Diocese considers a successful discharge as placement in a motel, with family, or in a treatment facility. And if the resident returns to the streets after only a few days, as long as they do not return to Tent City, they are still considered a successful discharge. According to the study conducted by USF, 15.75% of the residents are arrested after admission. And less than 14% of them have left with employment. Remember that, to the Diocese, even a temporary and/or part time job is considered gainful employment. This type of employment is most certainly inadequate to end their cycle of poverty and homelessness.
According to the study conducted by USF, they do not have adequate case managers to properly network the residents to outside services. One homeless person, who claimed to have been a resident of Pinellas Tent City stated, “they are so disorganized I didn’t even know they had mental health services until I had been there for two months.”
They do not offer any of the needed in-house services except Narcotics Anonymous meetings and AA meetings once a week or bi weekly.
6) THE DIOCESE COMES TO THIS COUNTY WITH THEIR HAND OUT – THIS IS A COUNTY WIDE PROBLEM
Despite their wealth and vast real estate holdings in the Bay Area, the Diocese is not going to foot the bill for this project. Just as they did in Pinellas County, they expect our county to give them our tax dollars, and will use tax funded programs that are already at capacity to service the residents of Hillsborough Tent City.
To date, Pinellas Hope has received more than 1.6 million tax dollars from local governments in Pinellas County, and hundreds of thousands more from private donors.
We will end up paying for this disaster of a project with our tax dollars when there are so many other vital services that need our tax dollars (like adult education and job training to equip these people with the skills necessary to break the cycle of poverty).
Like Pinellas Hope, a Hillsborough Tent City will most certainly find itself competing with other homeless services for public and private funding.
This will cost the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department an extra $144 thousand annually. This is the minimum.
7) GETTING HOMELESS THE HELP THEY NEED
Placing a high concentration of homeless people miles away from existing facilities, services and programs just makes it harder for them to get needed help and effectively transition out of homelessness. If they are walking distance from the labor pools, food banks that actually have enough to feed them, mental health facilities and other services, it would make more sense.
The Diocese does not provide in house job training or adult education. Shouldn't our tax dollars and donations be spent on those homeless services that do offer permanent supportive housing and real transitional services for the homeless?
8) ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
GROUNDWATER, DRINKING WATER AND LAKE WATER CONTAMINATION: The Diocese told the East Lake Civic Association Board in November that they do not intend to hook up to county sewer services. Because the property is located in the East Lake Watershed, pollutants from this location will drain directly into Bellows Lake (or East Lake), as well as the Bypass Canal and the Hillsborough River, both of which are sources for our drinking water.
At Pinellas Hope, they have Port O Lets about the property, which are locked during the day. Some residents refuse to walk to the central bathroom facility during the day and instead use the grounds as their personal toilet. The central bathroom facility has had leaky plumbing for at least one month that we know of, and is spilling onto the ground and running into the central dining tent.
GRAND OAK TREES AND WILDLIFE PRESERVATION: The Diocese has yet to present a plan or survey regarding the preservation of the Grand Oak trees and wildlife on the proposed property. In preparation for the tents and Port O Lets at Pinellas Hope, they went in with heavy equipment and bulldozed many of the trees on site. Because they were not required to (and are still not required to) comply with local building and zoning ordinances, no one really knows how much wildlife was displaced and how many protected trees were lost.
9) THE HOMELESS DESERVE BETTER
The substandard living arrangements the Diocese has in Pinellas County and is proposing here does not give the homeless the comfort of a bed or heat in the winter, or good protection from the harsh elements. There is no security for their belongings in tents that can't be locked. They do not have the resources to supply three balanced meals a day to the homeless, and when they do, it is only 1 evening meal, which is supplied by local churches and not the Diocese. Where are they expecting them to get the rest of their food? Maybe the Hard Rock Casino dumpsters, Westshore Pizza's dumpsters, your trash cans?
10) SLIPPERY SLOPE
Less than two years ago, we agreed to Bank of America’s request to rezone this property from Church to 240 affordable housing units. Here we are again, faced with an even more liberal rezoning request. If we allow this project to happen, despite the Diocese’s good intentions and promises, the program can change at any time and we won't be able to do a thing about it. What if they decide they want to let violent offenders or sex offenders in, or they stop having an off duty deputy? What if they quit screening tenants all together because they think it too time consuming or costly? What if they decide not to drug test? We will not be able to do anything about the problems this will cause because we allowed this rezoning to happen. We will have no way to stop this if we let it start!
11) DECLINE IN PROPERTY VALUES
We must be realistic. A Tent City on Hillsborough Avenue will decrease our property values because it will degrade the appearance and the overall quality of our community. No one will buy a home in a community plagued with hundreds of drug addicts, alcoholics and mentally ill people wandering the area. This project will be the tipping point of a decline in the quality of life as we know it. Unlike hard shelters that have a much lower density and a more effective screening process, a tent city like this will make all of us lose the money we have in our single largest investment – our homes. I cannot afford a sharp decline in the value of my home or my community. Can you?
12) PROPOSED TENT CITY IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
This type of temporary housing does not fall within the parameters of any allowable zoning classifications and is therefore inconsistent with our County’s Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is in place to manage growth, regulate appropriate uses of properties, and generally to protect the health and welfare of our County’s residents. Deviation from our Comprehensive Plan to allow this type of temporary homeless housing will not facilitate the health, education and welfare of the residents of our county.
13) HARD ROCK CASINO
The Hard Rock Casino recently announced their plans to build an 800 million dollar addition to their property at Orient and Hillsborough Avenue. This Casino has become an international attraction, which supports our local hotels and retail businesses. Why would you put homeless people with drug and alcohol addictions within half a mile of the Casino?
Why do you object to this tent city? If you have other reasons, we would love to hear your concerns. Please email us at stoptentcity@yahoo.com
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