Guy and Anthony, two homeless men, sat under a tree on a wooden bench to escape the scorching Florida heat last week.
Sweat trickled down Anthony’s tan, sunken cheeks, passed his shaggy white beard and splattered onto the white skull on his black shirt. Guy pursed his lips as several people passed, as if he was holding back a question that he wanted to ask for a while. A third man named Amilo approached them on a green bike, and they began to talk. None of them had bags or asked for money like other homeless people you might encounter.
Each morning before the lights come on, these men and many other homeless people have to find a safe place to stay for the day. There are 2,243 homeless men, women, and children just in Tampa alone who are forced to find shelter on the streets, according to the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.
On July 18, 2013, Tampa placed further restrictions on panhandling and asking drivers for money in downtown and Ybor City. The only exception to the ban are those selling newspapers and waters at intersections.
“The city doesn’t help us, but the churches do,” Guy said.
Unable to ask for money, many have to rely on the Metropolitan Ministries for food. On Sundays, the organization gathers to serve thousands of the homeless.
Another church involved in helping the homeless is Sacred Heart. Its ministry the “Hands of Hope” partners with another local church to hand out meals every Saturday. The homeless are sometimes given five free evenings to stay at a shelter, along with vouchers. For those struggling to pay bills, the St. Vincent Paul ministry helps raise money to keep them off the streets.
Friar Frank Critch describes the purpose of the church. “Pope Francis called for the Church to be a Church of the poor for the poor and we are answering this call within the community,” said Critch.
Tampa’s panhandling restrictions resulted in 281 arrests, according to a Tampa Police Department official who addressed the City Council in January.
In addition, the ordinance prohibits storing property, urinating, and sleeping in public. Due to this law, many homeless people have to sleep behind buildings, under highway bridges, and in abandoned buildings if they can’t find a shelter with room. If caught sleeping in a public area a homeless person is given an order for trespassing and can end up in jail. If they can’t afford to stay in a shelter or find somewhere to stay hidden, it leaves many with no choice but to go to jail.
Norma Winston, a sociology professor at UT who has studied and worked with Tampa’s homeless community, said, “I understand why cities like Tampa do it. It looks bad when people come into the city and see homeless people lying around, but if you are homeless what choice do you have?”
The biggest problems homeless people face are getting jobs, keeping clean and having a place to stay.
“It’s hard to get a job and it’s hard to get cleaned up,” Anthony said.
“I lost my ID and I can’t get a new ID because I don’t have an address to get it,” Guy said.
Without an ID, Guy admitted to having a hard time finding a shelter and has faced difficulty in finding a job. Many shelters require the homeless to show an ID or social security card to spend the night, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Michael LaForgia and Will Hobson, both Tampa Bay Times reporters, received the Pulitzer Prize this year for their investigative reporting in the series of articles titled “A Home, But No Help.” Their reporting uncovered squalid conditions in Hillsborough County’s homeless-recovery housing.
In “A Home, But No Help” the reporters revealed that the agency — created in 1989 to provide transitional housing for the poor — “funneled millions of public dollars to slumlords and placed families in unsafe living conditions,” according to the Times. When the reporters went to see the mobile homes, they found many “crawling with insects and rank with the smell of human waste.”
“They were not places you would want people to live in,” Hobson said.
Since LaForgia and Hobson published their work, social workers are no longer sending the homeless to these locations. Eight out of a dozen of Good Samaritan Inn buildings were found to be decaying. They had mold outbreaks, crumbling walls, cockroach infestations, bedbugs and rats, according to the articles. Homeless Recovery had allowed caseworkers to send clients to stay in rooms like this with another tenant for $11 a night. There are several shelters that have remained in excellent condition. Metropolitan Ministries offers arrangements for people to choose to sleep in a bed “under the stars” or indoors. Donations made by private companies and the public help pay for their stay or items they need such as medication, according to the organization’s website.
Another nonprofit organization, Homeless Helping the Homeless, has six facilities: one for battered women, one for children, two for men, and two six-month transitional housing. The nonprofit offers jobs to those who have difficulty finding them due to issues such as not having a license, an education, or having a chronic disability inhibiting them from obtaining a job. The company has been able to expand its capacity from 25 beds to 89 through funding. Each resident is required to pay $10 a night, but they can receive three nights free.
The homeless can also live in transitional housing like the Salvation Army’s house for women, men and families. The two facilities hold up to 44 residents, and clients pay based on income. Along with job search assistance, residents are able to shower, eat three meals a day and receive clothing and counseling.
Housing First, a program that helps homeless find places to live, has partnered with a company to build housing for the homeless. They are unable to disclose much information yet. Winston is doing research for the company that is involved with Housing First, which bought an apartment complex in Tampa in partnership with the program. They plan on housing 23 homeless veterans who will have their own bedroom, living room, and kitchen. They hope that with time these individuals will be capable of providing for themselves. The business is working toward remodeling the building to make it suitable for the future veterans.
Shelters can only take on a certain amount of people, so many are left to sleep on the hard ground, under bridges, or in other hidden areas out of sight.
“We need bigger shelters [because] there’s lots of overcrowding,” Guy said.
Compared to last year the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative found there were only 32 fewer homeless people as compared to the previous year.
“I think society has a bigger commitment than we actually make to the homeless,” Winston said.
Theresa Stanton can be reached at theresa.stanton@spartans.ut.edu