Feeding the Homeless in Clearwater--an Interview with Bill Horne, City Manager
Posted: 3/30/2004 1:52:41 PMAuthor: Zalala
Last week I got a chance to interview Bill Horne, City Manager for Clearwater who is really more of the decision-maker on what goes in in Clearwater, and not the Major as I had assumed. After a brief explanation of what IndyMedia is and what had happened with an arrest of one of the Food Not Bombs people last weekend in Tampa for feeding the homeless in Massey Park, I wanted to get Mr. Horne's take on how Clearwater takes care of the homeless, what they are doing to feed them or allow them to be fed, and what restrictions there are if any for doing that. I found this man easy to talk to and sincerely wanting to help people. I did not think he was telling me what I wanted to hear, but that he would like to do more at some point for the homeless of Clearwater.
Bill Horne became City Planner in 2001 and when he arrived in Clearwater, the city's homeless population was increasing. At that time, one of the organizations in the downtown Clearwater area that still maintains a long term program for the homeless population is the St. Vincent de Paul which currently has a thrift store, a homeless shelter called the Clearwater Homeless Intervention Center (CHIP) and a soup kitchen.
In 2002, after noting the increase of people in the parks and public areas and these people making use of the public facilities in the downtown area, complaints from residents living near or visiting the parks, Mr. Horne knew that policies must be implemented on taking care of the homeless and doing all of that within the laws. After many talks with the other city officials and law reviews with the city attorney, standard operating procedures were implemented but no laws, per se other than apre-existing Ordinance that restricts people from certain practices within a public park, ie., such as pan-handling, sleeping on park benches, distributing food, etc. Of course, statutes were also written in so the Ordinance can be enforced. Bill Horne did mention that NOT allowing certain activities to happen within public parks could have to do with infringment on constitutional laws. The city of Clearwater's procedures were enacted on January 28th, 2002.
One of the first things done was to implement a designated area where the homeless could be fed at the same times every day. This area was would be chosen knowing that there would be a large amount of foot traffic as well as large sized vehicles so clothing and food could be distributed and taking safety into consideration. The area now utilized is right across the street from the Clearwater Police Department and next to the Municipal Parking Garage and the Municipal Facilities. The homeless are fed Monday through Saturday from 4PM to 6PM and on Sunday from 1PM to 3PM. There are 40 to 60 people at any one time getting food and clothing from different local charities that go to this meeting spot regularly.
Some lawmakers in Clearwater would like nothing more than to take the homeless people to city limits, get them out of the city, drop them off and just have them stay away from the parks and the downtown area. Just another group of disenfranchised people. Like subhuman. Mr. Horne mentioned to me that this was not the answer. I told Mr. Horne that this particular way of dealing with this was done back in the 1930's, when hobos were taken to the city limits, jumped on a train and went to the next city for food and jobs during the Great Depression. He laughed and told me more!
Mr. Horne's take is there are two different kinds of people. Some do not want to be homeless. They will do whatever it takes to change their situation. The other group has mental problems, societal problems, substance abuse problems. They want to eat and take whatever free services are available and not fulfill obligations that are required within programs that are already set up. Shelters have specific long term programs for anyone that lives in these locations. Homeless people staying at the shelters must adhere to these programs while staying in the shelters. If all the homeless want is food and they do not want to work or do anything constructive to better their situations, then all programs will not be available to them.
A current law does not exist and the city has decided not to implement one, because if they get the cooperation from the transient population and from the charities then this is better. Less overhead for the city to enforce the law, the homeless get fed, the charities and the people who give are able to and everyone is happy. It also gives the transients, the charities and organizations and the people that want to help to be able to enter into the programs and get a hand up with less red tape surrounding them and their situations. The city can always create a law if they need to at a later time. Mr. Horne did mention that the city of St. Petersburg does things differently that Clearwater does and that Pinellas County as a whole needs to develop a new strategy as the homeless population continues to grow and these trends continue.
The following is an old St. Pete Times article all about Bill Horne.
http://www.sptimes.com/News/071501/NorthPinellas/Bill_Horne_is_ready_t.shtml
Read all about a really good guy!
Clearwater Homeless Intervention Project
http://www.clearwater-fl.com/cpl/ref/frog/FrogDetails.asp?item=117
City Meeting and Docket
http://www.pinellasclerk.org/bc101502.pdf
posted by Zalala @ 4/02/2004 01:05:00 AM
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