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In case you haven’t heard by now, another tent city is coming to Pinellas County.
On a 10-acre tract of land off of 49th Street at 126th Avenue North, next to a UPS warehouse and surrounded by swampy woods, a camp of tents will emerge by Dec. 1.

The tent city (called a “soft shelter” by its proponents) is Pinellas Hope, an audacious Catholic Charities emergency shelter program that will offer shelter, meals, showers and bathrooms to nearly 250 homeless men and women. Catholic Charities donated the land, the Pinellas County Commission kicked in $460,000 and charities donated $500,000 to run the camp from Dec. 1 to April 1, which also happens to be the county’s prime tourist season.

“It’s a first step,” says Sheila Lopez, chief operating officer for Catholic Charities, who contributed the land for Pinellas Hope. “Somebody has got to do something.”

But — as is the case with all homeless issues in the county — not everyone agrees this is the best step to take. Some advocates say the presence of Pinellas Hope could actually harm homeless individuals on the streets.

Last week, while the Florida Coalition for the Homeless held its annual conference in St. Petersburg, another type of homeless summit took place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg.

In the church’s reception area, homeless men, women and their advocates worried aloud about the effects of Pinellas Hope on those who sleep on the streets of St. Petersburg. And the irony of Pinellas Hope’s location, between the county jail and a cemetery, was not lost on attendees.

Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition of Homelessness, spoke about St. Pete’s three murders of homeless men this year. Tulin Ozdeger, coordinator of the Civil Rights Project at the National Law Center of Homelessness and Poverty, spoke about the ordinances passed by the St. Pete City Council earlier this year banning camping and sleeping on the city’s streets.

“There are a lot of people that won’t go,” says Brad Bradford, who is homeless and a vocal advocate for his friends on the streets. He brings up the most recent murder of a homeless man, Charles Cummings, whom Bradford said would never leave a half-mile radius in downtown St. Pete.

According to Eric Rubin, one of St. Pete’s most vocal homeless advocates, several homeless people have been told by St. Pete police officers that come Dec. 1, if they don’t move to Pinellas Hope, they will be arrested. (Police deny the charge.)

In response to these concerns, the Pinellas County Coalition of the Homeless Board passed a resolution yesterday urging city officials to view Pinellas Hope “as a voluntary shelter program, and that no one be coerced through threat of arrest to go or reside there.” A letter will be sent to the city today.

“We want to make sure this isn’t going to be grounds for enforcement,” says Sarah Snyder, PCCH’s executive director, “because there is still not going to be enough space for homeless to go.”

Despite reservations over the effectiveness of Pinellas Hope — even Catholic Charities’ Lopez admits it’s an “experiment” that “may not work” — there are no other solutions on the horizon. The PSTA shelter proposal unveiled earlier this year is dead and a promising shelter program using area churches has not yet materialized. So the county is back in the same spot as eight months ago: a temporary tent city that nobody is excited about.

“My problem is it’s not a permanent solution,” says St. Petersburg City Councilman Jamie Bennett, who also heads up the county’s Homeless Leadership Network. “Every other city I’ve gone to visit has created permanent facilities.”

“[Homelessness is] getting worse, not getting better,” says PCCH’s Snyder. “We get 100 phone calls a day. And I’m not just talking about homeless, it’s people in danger of being homeless.”

The homelessness issue has been an up and down roller-coaster this year in Pinellas County. Check out CL’s previous coverage:

City officials and advocates declare homelessness a “crisis”

Fallout from the first Tent City debacle

The homeless summit at which everyone agreed “no more tent cities.”

St. Pete City Council passes anti-homeless ordinances

Roadblocks for the mid-county shelter

Church denied permit for their own tent city

First mention of a possible Catholic Charities tent city

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