Homeless Archives - WMNF 88.5 FM: Recent Episodes
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An appeals court will hear a case about restrictions on medical treatment for transgender Floridians A federal appeals court will hear arguments in January in a battle over Florida’s restrictions on treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for people with gender dysphoria.
2024 Hurricanes impacted sea turtle nesting in PinellasAfter a series of hurricanes left beaches and dunes flooded, sea turtle nesting season was cut short, but conservationists still documented more nests in Pinellas County than last year.
$51 million park and stormwater project opens in Tampa The City of Tampa cut the ribbon on a new 48-acre park in South Tampa. The $51-million project is more than a park, it also provides flood relief.
Groundbreaking on new USF stadiumThe University of South Florida Tampa campus broke ground recently on its new football stadium. The 35-thousand-seat stadium is scheduled to open in Fall of 2027.
Environmental Protection Agency seeks comments on fish farm offshore of SarasotaThe Environmental Protection Agency is asking people to comment on modifications to the permit for an aquaculture project planned for the Gulf of Mexico off of Sarasota County. The deadline to comment to the EPA is November 25th.
The Scoop: Tampa Bay & Florida headlines by WMNFThe Scoop producer Kiley Petracek
WMNF anchors Chris Young, Lisa Marzilli, Josh Holton, Seán Kinane
WMNF News Director Seán Kinane
WMNF reporters Chris Young, Lisa Marzilli, Josh Holton, Seán Kinane, Colleen Cole
Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.
Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org – CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5
The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz / Greener Pixels / greenerpixels.com /
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Listen:The City of Tampa cut the ribbon on a new 48-acre park in South Tampa. The 51-million dollar project is more than a park — it also provides flood relief.
City leaders celebrated the opening of the MacDill 48 Park on the hot morning.
Tony Mulkey is Tampa’s Parks and Recreation Director.
“This park is not just a park, it’s not just a place for recreation, to get out and enjoy nature a little bit, a break from the city. That urban relief and that natural habitat restoration is so important – but it also serves a function for resiliency and sustainability,” Mulkey said.
The park also will alleviate flooding by storing stormwater runoff in a pond.
And it will treat the runoff and remove pollutants to improve water quality.
But, to make the park, unhoused people were moved.
Jean Strohmeyer, president of the Inner Bay/ South of Gandy Neighborhood Association, says the Tampa Police helped “clean” the site of homeless people.
“Nobody would come in because there’s homeless here and whatnot. Once I became the neighborhood association president, we started cleaning up the homeless,” Strohmeyer said.
This year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law banning unhoused people from sleeping in public.
The park is open now, the stormwater project should be fully completed by next spring.
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Listen:A new report shows some Florida residents need to work way more than the standard 40-hour workweek just to afford rent in the state. The report is by financial technology company Self, and published in Newsweek.
It showed that some Florida residents need to work 63 hours a week to cover rent. That’s based on Florida’s 2024 median rent of $2,033.
It’s a problem that Kimberly Overman, founder of the Housing Leadership Council in Tampa Bay, said has wide-reaching effects.
“When people can’t afford the rent, when they can’t provide shelter for their kids, when they’re unable to provide various different basic needs because their rent is so high, they’re not going to be happy. They’re not going to be comfortable,” Overman said.
And it’s not just families being affected.
“We’re finding that a lot of our high school and college students are choosing to stay with their parents because they can’t afford to find a place on their own that they can actually earn enough to be able to afford on their own, even though they may have a college education,” Overman said.
She says by the end of 2022, Hillsborough County added 29,000 rental units within Hillsborough County.
“We needed the rental units. The challenge is we got units that people here don’t earn enough to afford,” Overman told WMNF.
On average, the report found 50 work hours per week are needed to cover monthly rent costs in the U.S.
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Listen:With widespread evacuation orders across the Tampa Bay region, many are fleeing to shelters.
On Tuesday, People hauled trash bags and personal items into a shelter at Middleton High School in East Tampa.
Evacuee Eugene Van Noske, who’s lived in Tampa all his life, is currently experiencing homelessness.
“I’m worried about my family here in Tampa. They said that this is going to be a bad hurricane, so I’m worried about that. And I’m just wanting it to be over with, so we can get back to normal and wanting housing for ourselves.” Van Noske said.
Hillsborough County shelter manager Maaria Nelson said about 500 people had arrived as of noon.
“Because Helene was just, you know, it was recent, so I think that people are becoming more aware and conscious that they need to evacuate and come somewhere safe so we’re encouraging people to come to the shelters.” Nelson said.
Things to keep in mind at the shelter: they will provide meals, but no cots, blankets, or supplies will be available and each resident will have about the same amount of room as a sleeping bag, or 20 square feet.
Tampa resident Queen Tee went to Middleton High School in East Tampa Tuesday, too.
She’s lived in the city for half a year, and says the back-to-back hurricanes have become too much to take.
“I’m leaving Tampa after this. Yeah, we just went through Helene and yeah, I’m over it. We’re originally from New Orleans, so of course we went through Katrina, we went through Rita, we went through a lot. Yeah, I’m over it.” Tee said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Hillsborough County reports having about 93 hundred evacuees in its shelters.
Pinellas has about 10,300 evacuees, Pasco about 46 hundred, and Manatee County has over 10,000.
Sarasota County shelters have about 75 hundred residents with about 750 support staff, along with 14 hundred animal companions.
The post As Hurricane Milton nears, thousands flock to shelters across Tampa Bay appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.
Florida’s homeless population fears for their friends as public camping and sleeping is banned. Rosie Miranda has been on the streets of the Greater Tampa Bay area since her mom kicked her out in 1989. Now 29 years later, she said she had never been more invisible.
“At the very last minute, we are all gonna get caught by the cops and we won’t have anywhere to go,” Miranda said. “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 1365 in March. Starting Tuesday, public camping and public sleeping will be prohibited in the state.
Miranda, 46, said she is concerned how the recent legislation will affect her friends.
She learned about the changes through her friend Ruben Rivera, 58, but has seen police engage with camps before the law was even “spoken about.”
An organization that feeds the homeless in Tampa Bay gave Ruben Rivera a “breakdown” of how HB 1365 will be implemented. Photo by Julia Saad for WMNF News.“I have heard a lot of horror stories… people arrested or even missing, its a sad, sickening feeling. They (cops) read our rights and basically say ‘If you stand there any longer, we are cuffing you and jail it is,’ simple as that.”
Florida is “home” to 5% of the national homeless population, around 30,000 people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report.
Miranda, Rivera, and Gary are three of them.
While sharing their stories, Rivera could not hold back tears. He said he feels as if this is a turning point for the homeless population.
“We have to come together as a group and as a brotherhood,” Rivera said as he cried. “ if we don’t talk, nobody is gonna listen.”
Miranda tried comforting him with a hug, both telling each other “It’s ok.”
“We are invisible, we are degraded every single day,” She said.
To be able to sleep, Miranda said most try to ride the bus throughout the night or move as soon as the sun rises. Rivera said that even if they weren’t arrested, and simply placed at a shelter, most of them have inhumane conditions.
“More people need to open doors,” Rivera said. “There are so many abandoned buildings, YMCAs, there is even a big Hope warehouse that can work.”
“It was easier to be homeless in the ’80s, ‘Do you remember the time’,” Miranda said.
Listening to his friends, Paul, 62, joined in the conversation when Miranda quoted Michael Jackson’s song “Remember The Time.”
As he realized both Miranda and Rivera were emotional, he decided to show them the moves he had been practicing since he was 8 years old, in the streets of Atlanta.
Paul grabbed Rosie for a dance after seeing her cry. Photo by Julia Saad for WMNF News.Rivera said people in the state should consider the homeless population this election year, as most, he said, do not have any form of government identification to vote.
”We should voice our opinions, we should have our voices heard. But it is hard, I mean, people don’t care about us,” Rivera said.
Paul laughed at the second Michael Jackson reference.
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Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America’s Forgotten People and Pets – Carol MithersRethinking Rescue boldly confronts two of the biggest challenges of our time—poverty and homelessness—in asking the question: Who deserves the love of a pet? In Los Angeles’s most underserved communities, Lori Weise is known as the Dog Lady, the woman who’s spent decades caring for people in poverty and the animals that love them. Long before anyone else, Weise grasped that animal and human suffering are inextricably connected and created a new rescue narrative: an enduring safety net empowering pet owners and providing resources to reduce the number of pets coming into shelters. Through captivating storytelling and investigative reporting, Carol Mithers examines the consequences of bias within this overwhelmingly white movement, where an overemphasis on placing animals in affluent homes disregards pet owners in poverty. Weise’s innovative and ultimately triumphant efforts revealed a better way. As cities across the country witness some of the worst housing crises in history, and as the population of unhoused people and pets continues to skyrocket, Carol Mithers offers a story of compassion and hope in Rethinking Rescue. We must draw your attention to how accomplished a writer Carol Mithers is, not only is Rethinking Rescue an enjoyable read, Carol also has created a thought-provoking book, plus she is a delightful engaging guest.
The Inner Life of Cats – The Science and Secrets of Our Mysterious Feline Companions – Thomas McNamee“Billy, my cross-eyed Siamese cat had an unusual habit. Before he would settle in to enjoy a nice meal of whatever ridiculously expensive gourmet cat food I provided, he would clamber up to the top of a dresser in my bedroom. Once perched on top, he would skillfully reach down with a paw and open the top draw. Then, he would peek inside and carefully snatch hold of a pair of my underpants. Once secured on his claws, he would transfer the garment to his mouth. From there, he would almost bounce down from his perch and head for his food dish with Marks & Spencer’s* finest dangling from his clenched teeth. When he arrived at said dish, he would carefully arrange my undies around the edge and finally proceed to eat, with what I hope was a satisfied glint in his sadly misaligned eyes. This is a story I couldn’t wait to share with *Thomas McNamee.” Says Norman B. It makes perfect sense, after all, McNamee is the author of The Inner Life of Cats – The Science and Secrets of Our Mysterious Feline Companions. With a naturalist’s eye combined with humor and a warm heart, Thomas brings the always wild, yet domesticated cat into delightful and insightful focus. Thomas McNamee* joins Life Elsewhere to talk about his definitive book on the hidden world of felines and hopefully explain the curious antics of Billy, the cross-eyed Siamese cat.
*Marks & Spencer explained
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On August 21, MidPoint addressed the problems of homelessness with Antoinette Hayes-Triplett, the CEO of the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative (THHI) and Chairperson of the Tampa/Hillsborough Continuum of Care. Since joining THHI in 2014, she has led efforts to reduce homelessness, including a 6% overall reduction, a 42% drop in veteran homelessness, and a 19% decrease in chronic homelessness. She is also the creator of Operation Reveille, a veteran’s housing initiative replicated in seven states. Dr, John Bohn, Associate Professor of USF’s College of Public Health has served as the Director of Community Engagement for the college for 7 years, focusing on homelessness, the opioid crisis, urban food sovereignty, and suicide prevention efforts. Rev. Christian Frazier is a minister and a prominent advocate in Mental Health Case Management, Peer Support, and public health initiatives to reduce homelessness among veterans and the general population. He serves on the Board of NAMI Hillsborough, the National Alliance on Mental Illness which works to support mental health and housing stability.
Our panelists offered an overview of the circumstances and scope of homelessness in our county and the possible effects that may arise from the new Florida legislation, HB 1365, which prohibits “camping” or sleeping in public spaces. This new law, while not criminalizing homelessness as in some states, like Oregon, the Florida legislation does provide for a private cause of action that would permit individuals or businesses to sue municipalities for monetary damages if an unhoused person was sleeping in public near their premises. Obviously, cities and counties do not want to be liable for such court awards so they are incentivized, some may say “forced,” to find solutions for the homeless problem and develop more places for unhoused individuals to go. As Ms. Triplett pointed out, the new law provides a “grace period” until January 2025 to permit municipalities to develop such solutions, but that is not a very long time for the development of sufficient resources for the unhoused people who need permanent affordable housing. And, whatever proposed solutions come to be, they will cost money, and the Republican-controlled Florida legislature has mandated that those costs be borne by the local municipalities working with private developers, rather than by the state.
The causes of homelessness and the lack of affordable housing are many, but some that are particularly affecting the local community are the impact of private equity’s ownership of so much of the affordable housing stock, the homeowners’ insurance crisis which prices people out of their homes, and the looming threat of the high special assessments sure to follow the newly required inspections of aging condominiums which are such a large part of our affordable housing stock. Also contributing to the lack of sufficient shelter housing is the extremely high land costs in Hillsborough, and the absence of a robust public transportation system that would allow more affordable housing or shelters to be built in areas outside the urban core. Finally, since the new law also restricts the development of shelter housing to only those areas where the existing property values will not be negatively impacted, that precludes most of the opportunities for rehabbing existing buildings in the urban core into shelters.
Rev. Frazier and Dr. Bohn both also spoke of the public health issues that arise in the homeless community and noted that even when people are moved into shelters, in any congregate living they are more likely to suffer from contagions like Covid and RSV. Rev. Frazier emphasized the need for more resources to address the mental health needs of the homeless population and veterans in particular. Without meeting their needs for mental health services, along with other accessible wrap-around services, simply moving people off the street is unlikely to be successful in integrating them back into society.
You may listen to the entire show on demand here, or in the WMNF app, or as a WMNF MidPoint podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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In these times we are witnessing a geopolitical realignment between autocrats and pro-democracy defenders.
CS for August 12, 2024
As much of the world votes the tension between autocracy and democracy are laid bare. Authoritarian leaders clinging to power are turning to Russia to censor and control online content and sow disinformation. Microsoft reports that Iran is accelerating online activity intended to influence the U.S. election.
Also, a new analysis by the Associated Press of federal hospital investigations finds that more than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away. This happening in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion two years ago.
August is Labor and Economic Justice month as Mayoral candidates all agree there is a homeless crisis plans to address varies among cities.
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©2024 The News Service of Florida
The sponsor of a new Florida law designed to prevent people who are experiencing homelessness from sleeping in public places praised a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Friday that upheld the constitutionality of an Oregon city’s ordinance cracking down on public camping.
Rep. Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island, called the Supreme Court ruling in a Grants Pass, Oregon case a “victory for common sense.”
The ruling came after Florida lawmakers in March passed a controversial measure (HB 1365) that will prevent cities and counties from allowing people to sleep on public property, including at public buildings and in public rights of way.
It will allow local governments to designate certain properties for sleeping or camping if the sites meet standards set by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Such areas, which could only be used for one year, would have to include access to such things as restrooms and running water, have security and be deemed alcohol- and drug-free.
Also, the sites could not harm values of nearby properties or safety.
“Florida has chosen to reject comfortable inaction and tackle this problem head on,” Garrison, who is slated to become House speaker in 2026, said in a prepared statement Friday. “That is our right, and our obligation. We will continue to work with all 67 counties in our state to support innovative solutions that simultaneously protect public spaces and respect the dignity of every human being.”
But Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, blasted the ruling.
“This is a devastating ruling that ignores the reality of homelessness in America,” Eskamani said in a statement. “We will continue to do what we can at a local and state level to push back against the criminalization of our fellow Americans who deserve evidence based interventions, not incarceration.”
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Listen:The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that cities can enforce bans on the unhoused population sleeping outside.
But homeless advocates say punishing people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness – which grew nationally by 12 percent last year.
For the last two months, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has been tracking where the unhoused are sleeping.
WMNF’s Chris Young spoke with Tampa Bay Times reporter Justin Garcia about a list he received with homeless people’s names and the agencies tracking them.
A state law will go into effect in October that bans people from sleeping in public places.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office declined a request for an interview. But did give a statement:
“HB1365 takes effect on October 1, 2024, and we are coordinating with all partners to ensure that we are compliant throughout Pinellas County. Part of our effort to ensure compliance by the law’s effective date is to ensure that the homeless population is educated and provided with options to impermissible sleeping or camping in public spaces. We are using social workers and other personnel in this effort. In order to have the outreach to the affected homeless population we need to know where they are and that is what the list you referred to has helped accomplish. Our goal is compliance without any enforcement being required, and we believe that can be accomplished by the law’s effective date. All of Pinellas County will be compliant with HB1365 by October 1, 2024. We are unavailable for an interview.”
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What is NIL, how has it changed college sports and why are schools under investigation?Collegiate sports, largely unchanged for more than a century, has experienced unprecedented change in less than one year. Much of that change has been centered around name, image and likeness (NIL).Amateurism has been part of the fabric of collegiate sports since the NCAA’s earliest inception. To oversimplify it: Players could not be paid to play. Student-athletes received only scholarships. But in June 2021, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the NCAA in NCAA v. Alston that the NCAA could not limit education-related payments to student-athletes. The NCAA then deferred to state laws on NIL — and, in states that hadn’t passed laws, the schools themselves. Two things remained verboten, per the NCAA: No pay-for-play, and no quid pro quo. Athletes weren’t supposed to receive compensation tied to performance, and recruits weren’t supposed to sign deals contingent on going to a certain school.
Article credited to By The Athletic College Football Staff
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Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put his signature on HB 1365, a controversial new law that prohibits municipalities from allowing homeless individuals to camp or sleep on public property.
Enforcement of the law is unclear, and lawyer Aaron Swift argued that anyone who sues the municipality for not enforcing the bill and wins gets their attorney fees paid by the municipality.
“Private attorneys now are going to basically be stepping in the shoes of the government and suing to enforce the government regulation,” Swift, Vice Chair of the Homeless Leadership Alliance of Pinellas, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
Daniel McDonald, a former TPD officer who has worked on homeless issues for 23 years, joined “The Skinny” on WMNF to discuss his take on the legislation.
Margi Dawson, Director of Development at the Turning Points nonprofit which provides services to individuals and families at-risk of homelessness also joined the program.
Download audio from the show via wmnf.org. Listen via podcast services like Apple Music, TuneIn, Google Podcasts and Spotify.
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Violence in Haiti and war in Gaza, Palestine Territory is leading to famine, an extreme scarcity of food.
World Food Program update: https://www.wfp.org/
Three Famines: Gaza, Sudan and Haiti
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/03/25/opinion/opinion-contributor/three-famines-gaza-sudan-and-haiti/
Confronting famine the violence in Gaza and Haiti poses a challenge to the world.
The courts across the United States face challenges to right wing laws from abortion to homelessness.
Listen in archives.
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New Florida law targets homelessnessGovernor Ron DeSantis signed a controversial bill yesterday designed to prevent people experiencing homelessness from sleeping in public places. The bill will prevent cities and counties from allowing people to sleep on public property, including at public buildings and in public rights of way. But State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D) says the new law is “actually making a bad situation worse.”
Sustainability wins and lossesThe sustainability advocacy group 1000 Friends of Florida recapped what they feel are the wins and losses of the session during a presentation on Wednesday.
Flights from Haiti to FloridaA plane with 14 Floridians arrived in Florida from Haiti amid the ongoing gang violence. The director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said about 300 Florida residents have reached out for help as of Wednesday morning.
Florida will buy conservation landThe Florida Cabinet will consider a $122 million proposal on Tuesday to buy 25,000 acres of agricultural land in Southwest Florida and allow current owners to lease and manage the property. The purchase is tied to a statewide wildlife corridor. It’s in the Caloosahatchee-Big Cypress Corridor in Hendry and Collier Counties.
The Scoop: Tampa Bay & Florida headlines by WMNFThe Scoop producers: Kerilyn Kwiatkowski, Spenscer Tesch, Aida Sarsinova, Seán Kinane
WMNF anchors: Chris Young, Lisa Marzilli, Josh Holton, Seán Kinane
WMNF News Director: Seán Kinane
WMNF reporters: Chris Young, Lisa Marzilli, Josh Holton, Seán Kinane, Colleen Cole
Special thanks to Taylor Lovejoy and Corey Beltran.
Theme music, Fresh06, by Stian via archive.org – CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5
https://archive.org/details/jamendo-001084/02.mp3
The Scoop logo by Robin Milcowitz / Greener Pixels / greenerpixels.com / WMNF
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By Jim Turner ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed a controversial bill designed to prevent homeless people from sleeping in public places, continuing to say he doesn’t want Florida to become like places such as San Francisco.
DeSantis, who signed the measure (HB 1365) during an appearance in Miami Beach, said the bill will keep sidewalks from becoming “tent cities” and “ensure that Florida streets are clean and that Florida streets are safe for our residents.”
Democrats and homeless advocates who opposed the bill contended it would increase local government costs and drive homeless people into wooded areas.
But DeSantis said the bill “is the absolute right balance” of providing safety while addressing issues facing people who have fallen on “hard times.”
“I don’t think there’s any other way you could approach it and expect to have a result different than what’s happened in places like San Francisco and New York City,” DeSantis said.
The bill will prevent cities and counties, starting Oct. 1, from allowing people to sleep on public property, including at public buildings and in public rights of way. It would allow local governments to designate certain properties for sleeping or camping if the sites meet standards set by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Such areas, which could only be used for one year, would have to include access to such things as restrooms and running water, have security and be deemed alcohol- and drug-free. Also, the sites could not harm values of nearby properties or safety.
The law also will give legal standing to residents and business owners to file civil lawsuits against local governments that allow sleeping or camping on public property.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said the measure “targets individuals who are homeless and creates a scenario for local governments, where the only option — if they can’t meet the demands of the Legislature — is to potentially criminalize homelessness.”
“So, not only are we not offering clear solutions,” Eskamani said. “We’re actually making a bad situation worse and not helping people get out of that economic instability that they’re facing.”
Jeff Brandes, a former Republican senator who founded the non-profit Florida Policy Project think tank, cautioned the measure is an “unfunded mandate” on local governments.
“Nobody kind of said, ‘What happens next’ and followed the natural progression of that question,” Brandes said March 8 during an appearance on the “Florida This Week” program on WEDU in the Tampa Bay area. “I think when you get to the end of that, you realize people are still going to be living on the streets. Either the cities are not going to be able to do that or the jails are going to be full. And you’re going to hear from the sheriffs that you’re going to need to expand the jails.”
An annual report from the Florida Council on Homelessness released last June said “over the past five years, Florida has seen a 9 percent increase in the rate of Floridians experiencing ‘literal homelessness.’”
While acknowledging the accuracy of recent homeless counts were limited because of COVID-19 restrictions, the report pointed to issues such as rising housing costs.
“According to an analysis conducted by the Government Accountability Office, for every $100 monthly median rent increase there is a 9 percent increase in homelessness,” the council report said. “Therefore, Florida’s unprecedented increases in rent rates will have a significant impact on the rate of homelessness.”
DeSantis has repeatedly compared Florida’s handling of homeless people to other parts of the country.
During his Jan. 9 State of the State address to open this year’s legislative session, DeSantis said, “Cities throughout the land have decayed: Washington, D.C. has experienced its deadliest year in more than two decades and San Francisco has fallen into a ‘doom loop’ whereby crime, homelessness and drug abuse have eviscerated the quality of life.”
He held a news conference Feb. 5 in Miami Beach to support the homeless restrictions and stood behind a podium that said: “Don’t Allow Florida to become San Francisco.”
House bill sponsor Sam Garrison, a Fleming Island Republican who appeared at Wednesday’s bill-signing event, also described “the great cities that we grew up idolizing” being “brought to their knees,” where families aren’t comfortable to have their kids walk the streets, and business owners close shop “because it’s just not safe.”
The House voted 82-26 to pass the bill March 1, and the Senate followed with a 27-12 vote on March 5.
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©2024 The News Service of Florida
The Legislature on Tuesday formally sent a bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis aimed at preventing people experiencing homelessness from sleeping in public places.
The controversial bill (HB 1365) passed during the legislative session that ended last week.
It would bar cities and counties from allowing people to sleep in places such as public buildings and in public rights of way.
It would allow local governments to designate certain properties for sleeping or camping if the sites meet standards set by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
DeSantis has voiced support for the bill.
In all, DeSantis received nine bills Tuesday from the Legislature. He will have until March 27 to sign, veto or allow the bills to become law without his signature.
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Sharon Streater has led a fascinating life. She met Mother Teresa, marched with Cesar Chavez and even dressed as a soup can to call attention to farmworker issues.
But perhaps her greatest, sustained impact has been in Tampa as chief organizer for the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality, or HOPE. For more than 30 years, Streater worked to identify problems plaguing marginalized communities, researching solutions and advocating for change.
Streater discussed her journey from the child of missionaries to community organizer during an appearance on WMNF WaveMakers with Janet & Tom. Last month she received the 2024 lifetime achievement award from the Hillsborough Pasco League of Women Voters.
HOPE has a long list of accomplishments that Streater had a hand in since joining the grassroots, faith-based group in 1992.
On April 16, over 1,300 people will come together to press for commitments from local elected officials to address serious problems related to affordable housing, mental health, criminal justice, and the environment.
To be a community organizer, Streater said, takes hard work and persistence. Persuading the Hillsborough County Commission to budget $10 million a year for affordable housing took five years of work. And that work continues because a majority of commissioners recently reduced the amount budgeted to just $2 million.
“You’ve got to have a sense of real passion for people,” she says about being an organizer.
Hear the entire conversation by clicking the link below, going to the WaveMakers archives or by searching for WMNF WaveMakers wherever you listen to podcasts.
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By Jim Turner ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — A controversial proposal designed to prevent homeless people from sleeping in public places while requiring local governments to address the issue is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday voted 27-12 along party lines to pass the bill (HB 1365), which would bar cities and counties from allowing people to sleep at places such as public buildings and in public rights of way. The House approved the bill last week, and DeSantis has voiced support for it.
Senate sponsor Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, said the goal is to provide safer locations for people than sleeping at places such as parks or under overpasses and pavilions.
“Insufficient shelter beds and insufficient permanent housing solutions result in unsheltered sleeping and camping in public places, places that we want our kids and grandkids to enjoy, like the parks,” Martin said. “This bill is a compassionate response to the shortage of shelters and supportive housing by providing an alternative to sleeping in the streets.”
But Democrats argued the state would provide limited resources to local governments to carry out the measure, potentially exposing the local governments to lawsuits.
Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, said the measure is “literally reshuffling the visibility of unhoused individuals with no exit strategy for people who are experiencing homelessness.”
“I understand that this bill does not make it illegal for people to sleep in public places,” Jones said. “But rather, it appears to make it illegal for local governments to ignore people sleeping in public.”
The measure would allow local governments to designate certain properties for sleeping or camping if the sites meet standards set by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Such areas, which could only be used for one year, would have to include access to such things as restrooms and running water, have security and be deemed alcohol- and drug-free. Also, the sites could not harm the values of nearby properties or safety.
The bill would give residents and business owners standing to file civil lawsuits against local governments for allowing illegal sleeping or camping on public property.
Fiscally constrained counties — mostly rural counties — would be exempted from certain requirements if complying would create a financial hardship.
Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Sunny Isles Beach, said the bill isn’t designed to solve homelessness but to clean streets of a “nuisance.”
“When you say that Jefferson County will not have to provide behavioral health services to this, but in Broward County you will, you don’t really mean it that you’re trying to help all those people,” Pizzo said, referring to rural Jefferson County being fiscally constrained.
Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Windermere, said costs for local governments could top $500 million and cautioned that the planned “encampments have the potential to increase human trafficking.”
Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat who was once homeless, said the approach would create greater mistrust between people experiencing homelessness and law enforcement and could divide communities.
Martin said a $117.46 billion state budget, which lawmakers are expected to pass Friday, includes $30 million in challenge grants for local governments to provide mental health and substance abuse services, short-term and traditional shelters and sanctioned camping and safe harbor sites.
In February, DeSantis pointed to homeless problems in San Francisco as he expressed support for legislative efforts to provide “some support for counties for additional sheltering, providing some financial support for both substance-abuse (programs) and mental health.”
“What we don’t want to see in the legislation is any incentive to create homeless camps, particularly in areas that would interfere with the public conducting normal business,” DeSantis said during a Feb. 5 news conference in Miami Beach.
The post The Florida Legislature passes a controversial plan to curb sleeping in public appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.
By Jim Turner ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House on Friday approved a controversial proposal that would prevent people experiencing houselessness from sleeping in public, despite concerns about increased costs for local governments.
The Republican-controlled House voted 82-26 along almost straight party lines to pass the bill (HB 1365), which is backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. It also would make it easier for residents and business owners to challenge local officials over how homelessness is addressed.
The Senate is scheduled to take up a similar proposal (SB 1530) on Monday.
House sponsor Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island, acknowledged the measure “isn’t going to eliminate homelessness,” but he said current efforts aren’t working.
“This is not a bill designed to put people out of sight, out of mind. It’s quite the opposite,” Garrison said.
He said the goal is to keep Florida cities from becoming like San Francisco and other cities “where the problem exceeds the resources to address it.”
The bill would prevent cities and counties from allowing people to sleep on public property, including at public buildings and in public rights of way. It would allow local governments to designate certain properties for sleeping or camping if the sites meet standards set by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Such areas, which could only be used for one year, would have to include access to such things as restrooms and running water, have security and be deemed alcohol- and drug-free. Also, the sites could not harm values of nearby properties or safety.
But without state funding to carry out the bill, Democrats contended it would increase local government costs and force homeless people into wooded areas.
Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee, said the measure seeks to criminalize homelessness while “bullying municipalities and counties into doing what we want them to do.”
“We must acknowledge that pushing the unhoused out of sight isn’t a solution. It is a failed attempt to sweep a societal problem under the rug,” Bracy Davis said.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said lawmakers should focus on “robust investments in transitional housing and shelters, but no. Instead, we want to designate a location that’s probably going to be really hard to identify.”
The bill also would give residents and business owners standing to file civil lawsuits against local governments for allowing illegal sleeping or camping on public property.
Fiscally constrained counties — mostly rural counties — would be exempted from certain requirements if they would create a financial hardship.
Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, said the bill would start to clean up streets, while providing safe shelters and mental-health services.
“Will you all have to come back here next year and do some more work? Possibly,” Massullo, who is term-limited, said. “But when the cities aren’t acting, the state needs to, and that’s our responsibility.”
The House on Thursday rejected a series of amendments proposed by Democrats, including proposals to bar perpetrators of domestic violence from being allowed in the designated homeless areas and allowing the areas to remain in place for more than 365 days.
The post Florida House passes regulations to prevent people from sleeping in public appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.
Listen:A bill that restricts people experiencing homelessness from sleeping on public property moved forward in the State House Thursday. The bill faced support and pushback for various reasons.
The bill is sponsored by Republican Representative Sam Garrison. It bans public sleeping and camping. It also allows for counties to turn certain public areas into homeless encampments.
Democratic Representative Dianne Hart voted against the bill. The Tampa representative’s district is the home to 100 tiny cottages to house Tampa’s homeless population.
“I don’t think that forcing municipalities to do what we’re doing in Tampa with our 8 million bucks that we’re putting into an encampment and even having a security does not necessarily make it completely safe, but I just cannot support this piece of legislation.”
Republican Representative Michelle Salzman voted for the bill, saying the streets weren’t safe for her when she was an unhoused child.
“There’s a reason why my parents would go hunting for a home for us to hide in. It wasn’t because we thought the streets were safe, and we just couldn’t be there, it’s because we knew if we were there we would be vulnerable.”
Others, such as Republican Representative Randy Fine, seem to just not want to see the people experiencing homelessness. At 17 years old, Fine was so shaken after seeing a single homeless person sleeping off-campus in New Haven that he wrote off attending Yale entirely.
“That was the end of his interest in potentially attending that university. It was me, it was Yale, and who knows, maybe I would’ve gone there, God forbid, had that not happened.”
The bill passed the House Health & Human Services committee 17 to 3.
The post Bill targeting Floridians experiencing homelessness advances in House appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.
On MidPoint with Shelley Reback, and today’s co-host Maj Vasigh, we review some of the more significant legislative proposals that are moving forward in the legislature and our listeners chime in. Of special interest is the governor’s proposal to criminalize sleeping in public spaces and to create homeless camps throughout the state with security, sanitation, and access to behavioral health services. Although the governor has said the legislation is still a “work in progress,” he endorsed its primary goal of moving homeless people off the public streets and out of the parks.
Homeless Camps: Good or Bad?This proposal has divided lawmakers and homeless advocates alike. To Democratic lawmakers and most homeless advocates, it is a clumsy and meanspirited one-size-fits-all approach that will lead to more arrests of homeless people. It could also run counter to federal best practices encouraging moving the homeless into transitional or permanent housing. The listeners raised some excellent questions and comments. Greg wondered if the homeless camps would be run by private enterprises and whether this was another opportunity for the cronies of Governor DeSantis to profit. Another caller who said he was homeless himself said that the homeless don’t necessarily want to be moved out to areas of the county where there is little to no public transportation available to allow them to get around. The legislation has the backing of a Texas think tank that favors tent cities over permanent housing for the homeless. But, as Maj pointed out, how can tent camps be made safe in hurricane season, and protect residents from the Florida extreme heat? Yet, some, like Jennifer from St. Pete, favor the homeless camps. She urged the advantages of centralizing social services for the homeless population and keeping urban areas like downtown St. Pete free of the homeless.
Is corporate housing decreasing affordable housing and increasing the homeless population?A related issue is the prevalence of private equity firms buying up swathes of smaller, starter homes in the Tampa Bay region and turning them into rentals with inflated rents and inadequate maintenance. There is no doubt that the homeless population is increasing in our tri-county region of Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties. Some 5,500 local single-family homes are owned and rented out by one private equity firm alone. A caller pointed out that with the enormous increases in property insurance rates, utilities, and mortgage interest rates, more people are losing their homes to foreclosures, allowing private equity companies to scoop up and purchase these homes at depressed prices, and sometimes, relegating their former owners to being homeless.
Stay tuned as MidPoint will continue to bring you the news of current legislative proposals as the session continues.
You can listen to today’s show here, in the WMNF app, or as a WMNF MidPoint podcast from your favorite podcast provider.
Remember our Spring Fund Drive begins on MidPoint on February 21. Please support WMNF and designate your donation to MPW, MidPoint Wednesday, to allow us to continue providing you with the news and public affairs from a local perspective.
The post MidPoint: Homeless Camps and Other Legislative Plans appeared first on WMNF 88.5 FM.
Gun control activist David Hogg joins The Skinny on WMNF Tampa 88.5-FM today to discuss his new hybrid PAC, Leaders We Deserve, which hopes to get more candidates under 35 years old on into races for federal office and candidates under 30 years old old running for state offices. Also on the show today, Homeless... Read more »
The post David Hogg, St. Pete Beach SunRunner woes, today on WMNF Tampa appeared first on WMNF.
Bathrooms at Florida colleges Florida education officials voted to approve a new rule requiring students and employees to use the bathroom corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. The rules apply to schools in the Florida College System. Pinellas SunRunner The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority voted to charge a full fare of $2.25 for... Read more »
The post The Scoop: Thurs., August 24, 2023 Tampa Bay & Florida headlines by WMNF appeared first on WMNF.
Veteran housing The Manatee County Commission is delaying moving forward with a project for veteran housing. Earlier this month, they heard the proposal to use county-owned property for affordable housing. Prescribed burning Two prescribed burns are scheduled in the area this morning. The Southwest Florida Water Management District tweeted today that if conditions permit... Read more »
The post The Scoop: Tues., August 22, 2023 Tampa Bay & Florida headlines by WMNF appeared first on WMNF.
City improvements in parks, roads, housing, and public safety are all included in the mayor’s budget proposal that would raise Tampa’s millage rate by 16%. Last night at a budget workshop, Tampa City Council tried to strike a balance between avoiding adding costs to homeowners experiencing rising costs from all directions, and funding housing as... Read more »
The post Tampa City Council considers the mayor’s budget, and how to make room for affordable housing appeared first on WMNF.
Charles Holsopple of Sukhi 222 talks about his idea for human sustainability. Journalist talks about her life living in downtown Tampa.
The post Slice of Life: Sukhi 222 & journalist to homeless appeared first on WMNF.
On today’s Slice of Life we’ll hear about the Buffalo Soldiers (https://www.nabstmc.com/) who are in town for their national convention. The Buffalo Soldiers is a Black motorcycle club who think of themselves as part of the legacy of the all-Black Army regiments. Their chapters ride and do good work in local neighborhoods. In addition to... Read more »
The post Buffalo Soldiers, Bautista Project (Homeless), Teens on Health appeared first on WMNF.
In 2021, Juneteenth became a federal holiday remembered as an end to the institutional chattel slavery in Galveston, Texas(1865). Union General Gordon Granger and his troops traveled to Galveston, Texas to announce General Order No.3 on June 19th, 1865. June 19th would go on to be known and celebrated as Juneteenth. The people are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, All slaves are free. This was true in all but two states Kentucky and Delaware, those states received their freedom on December 6, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified. - Washington Post, 2021
Juneteenth has been commemorated for over 150 years throughout America and some Black Americans consider the day as their Independent Day.
The controversy over Juneteenth is that Black Americans did not request a holiday and because it was already being celebrated. May 20, 1865, is Florida Freedom Day, the day when Black Americans were freed from institutional chattel slavery. Emancipation was proclaimed in Tallahassee on May 20, 1865, eleven days after the end of the Civil War, and two years after the Proclamation first issued by President Abraham Lincoln freed those enslaved in the Southern States. Emancipation Day is traditionally celebrated on May 20, in Florida.-History Channel, 2021
The post Episode 16, June 19, 2023: Commemoration of Juneteenth History at WMNF 88.5 FM appeared first on WMNF.
Episode 15, May 30, 2023: Code Enforcement Undergirds Black Reparations-Mentesnot
Local code enforcement offers a convincing debate for Black people’s Reparations.
Mentesnot is an established longtime citizen of Hillsborough County, and the property owner continues to advocate and fight to remove fines that have been excessive code enforcement, which put his family property in jeopardy due to growing financial debt that the homeowner cannot afford to pay. The nationwide problem is that Code enforcement targets low-income neighborhoods, primarily Black communities; it is prevalent and ongoing in East Tampa. Is this another local and state commandeer of land supported by the federal government to remove Black people from their communities as a form of gentrification? For over 200 years, Black Americans have been demanding Reparations, and this code enforcement adds another layer of the need for Black Reparations.
The post Episode 15, May 30, 2023: Code Enforcement Undergirds Black Reparations-Mentesnot appeared first on WMNF.
https://wmnf.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/WMNFHeadlinesDigest2023Mar17.wavBill that bans abortions after 6 weeksA Florida Republican bill that bans nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy had its first hearing in the state legislature yesterday. Regan McCarthy reports the measure would go into effect after the state Supreme Court rules on Florida’s current 15-week ban.
Cracking down on higher educationFlorida’s government continues to crack down on higher education, and WMNF’s Chris Young reports that the new focus is on faculty unions.
Universal School Choice The Florida House and Senate are 430 million dollars apart on their cost estimate for a plan to bring what’s called “universal school choice” to the state. The Senate’s 640 million dollar figure for t
The voucher expansion is much closer to the price tag seen in other states with similar programs. Opponents like Leon Superintendent Rocky Hanna see it as a diversion of dollars away from public schools as kids leave to go to private ones. Arizona’s universal school choice program has gone way over budget—it’s at 300 million now and is expected to climb to nearly 500 million dollars. Meanwhile, a similar proposal in Ohio is estimated to cost a billion dollars.
College professor has been firedA longtime Palm Beach Atlantic University professor has been fired — after teaching lessons on racial justice. Administrators at the Christian university terminated the contract for English Professor Sam Joeckel, who announced the news in a statement Wednesday. Here’s Joeckel in an interview earlier this month. University administrators notified Joeckel a month ago they were investigating a complaint raised by a parent that he was “indoctrinating” students. Joeckel has taught at the Christian school for two decades and said he has long included lessons about racial justice in the class. The former instructor also said in the statement he would pursue legal action.
Senate Bill 236A new bill supported by Governor Ron DeSantis could deny crime victims civil damages. If passed, Senate Bill 236 would also shield businesses and insurers from liability. Gerard Albert the third has more.
California building houses for homelessCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom says the state will pay to build 1,200 small homes to help house the homeless population. The Democratic governor made the announcement yesterday in Sacramento flanked by prototypes of the homes. It’s the first stop of his planned four-city tour which is replacing Newsom’s traditional State of the State address. Newsom said local governments will decide where the small homes will go. He said the homes could go on state-owned land if it is available and can quickly house people currently living in encampments.
The post WMNF’s daily digest of news headlines for Friday, March 17th, 2023 appeared first on WMNF.
Thad Bereday, host of the Redemption Radio podcast, a former corporate lawyer and former prison inmate, and his pastor, Rev. Justin LaRosa of The Portico, a non-traditional, social justice-focused church in downtown Tampa, both joined Shelley on MidPoint to discuss the meaning of “redemption” and the need for criminal justice reform.
Redemption: What is it? Who needs it?Thad was a high-powered corporate lawyer who had risen in his career to be General Counsel for Wellcare Health Plans in Tampa when 200 FBI agents raided the company in 2007 looking for evidence of what the government said was essentially a Medicaid fraud scheme. The raid was followed by indictments of the top executives of the company, all but one of whom were eventually convicted at a trial in 2013. But, Thad’s own trial was delayed when he learned he had leukemia and needed treatment. After beating cancer– twice–he had had enough of the uncertainty and the pressure of the criminal case still hanging over his head. When the government offered him an agreement with the possibility of a lower sentence in exchange for his guilty plea, Thad took it. He then spent 6 months in a federal prison camp, a year on house arrest with an ankle monitor, and a period of supervised release before he was surprised by a Presidential pardon from Donald Trump. It was a gift of mercy that motivated Thad to use his freedom to promote more compassion, justice, and mercy to others in the criminal justice system. He is now a full-time advocate for criminal justice reform who is called by his faith to believe that redemption is available to all of us, “even to people like me who’ve made mistakes.”
Thad felt called to service after prison and Pastor LaRosa was among the first people Thad looked to when he was released so that he could be “taught to serve.” According to Thad, Pastor LaRosa’s church, The Portico, is a “citadel of social justice warriors” where Thad found his new spiritual home.
“Charity is a lot easier than justice.”To Pastor LaRosa, redemption is about “restoring relationships, between you and a higher power, between you and yourself, and between you and others,” and maybe fixing the systemic inequities like those “that we’ve been talking about in criminal justice.” The Portico, as a faith community, has among its many resources for the underserved community a justice ministry through which it does “charity,” as in helping individuals and doing “good works” for people on the margins or edges of society who are suffering. But, as Pastor LaRosa emphasized, “Charity is a lot easier than justice.”
Listen to the full episode here:
https://sound.wmnf.org/sound/wmnf_221214_100600_12newsW1_423.MP3The post Redemption Radio appeared first on WMNF.
The Salvation Army is making more housing available for people experiencing homelessness in North Lakeland.
The post The Salvation Army adding more housing appeared first on WMNF.
Manatee County is making major developments to ensure that people experiencing homelessness have resources.
The post Manatee County makes strides toward reducing homelessness appeared first on WMNF.
As the Sunshine City continues to seek solutions to its unaffordable housing crisis, city leaders in St. Petersburg are exploring the idea of guaranteeing a right to legal counsel for local tenants facing eviction. This policy, known as a tenants’ right to counsel, has been enacted in multiple cities and several states nationwide, but nowhere... Read more »
The post St. Pete could become the first city in Florida to enact a tenants’ right to legal counsel policy appeared first on WMNF.
On MidPoint members of the Tampa City Council, St. Pete/Tampa Tenants Union and Hillsborough Social Services discuss the housing crisis.
The post MidPoint: “The rent is too damn high!” appeared first on WMNF.
When it comes to fighting for equitable treatment and a healthier lifestyle, Jennifer Yeagley is at the forefront. She is the CEO of St. Petersburg Free Clinic, an organization helping to give everyone an opportunity to live healthily. Yeagley spoke with WMNF WaveMakers on March 1.
The post WaveMakers: Jennifer Yeagley, CEO of the St. Petersburg Free Clinic appeared first on WMNF.
A list of Tampa Bay area cold weather shelters open during a January 2022 cold snap in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties and beyond.
The post Tampa Bay area cold weather shelters open Friday and Saturday nights appeared first on WMNF.
The Tampa Bay area is facing a housing crisis, with rent prices rising and citizens being forcefully evicted from their homes without another place to go. For the past year, the St. Petersburg People’s Council has pressed its case against the local government, and two weeks ago the Council led a demonstration at a local... Read more »
The post WaveMakers with Aaron Dietrich of St. Petersburg People’s Council appeared first on WMNF.
A vigil for homeless people who died in Pinellas, took place as part of the 14th Annual National Homeless Persons Memorial Day.
The post St. Petersburg honors homeless people who died appeared first on WMNF.
What happened? How did we get to where less than one percent have more wealth than everyone else in America combined? Why are so many people holding down jobs but living in their cars because they can’t afford rent? Who are the people panhandling at every busy intersection of every American city? How is it... Read more »
The post More Questions Than Answers? appeared first on WMNF.
Throughout the years, the United States (U.S.) has been affectionately called “The Land of Opportunity”. It is a country that many feel offers opportunities for personal growth and financial success if you are ambitious and work hard. Condoleezza Rice, who was the first female African-American secretary of state and the first woman to serve as... Read more »
The post “Homelessness In America And Beyond” on Morning Energy appeared first on WMNF.
The Portico in Tampa Monday held its annual homeless memorial service. The downtown Tampa arm of the Hyde Park United Methodist Church reads names of those who’ve died while homeless every year. This year’s list was remarkably longer. LISTEN: Whitney Smith and Rick Cabigas stood at lecterns in the breezeway of The Portico in Tampa.... Read more »
The post He made millions in funeral business but died ‘pauper’ in Tampa. He was among 112 honored Monday. appeared first on WMNF.
Here is a link to many coronavirus resources
It’s nearly impossible to get some types of government assistance without proper identification. But it’s difficult for many people to get an identification card because they don’t have access to their birth certificate.
So Gulfcoast Legal Services is making it easier for people in Manatee County to get that important document.
Kathryn Hynes is a staff attorney Gulfcoast Legal Services and heads their birth certificate program.
“Primarily it is a program to help homeless and low-income persons obtain valid ID.”
Why is it important for people to have access to birth certificates?
“One of the things that I’m sure you’re aware of is the so-called Gold Star or Real ID requirements on our driver’s licenses and Florida IDs. That establishes that we have been verified and our history and background is known. And that is now by legislation required of all of us.
“And it’s important for my clients because they have to establish who they are, their identity, in order to receive whether it’s Social Security benefits or Medicare or Medicaid or food stamps through the stamp program, so-called food stamps. These are all public benefits that require us to prove our identity. All of us.”
Gulfcoast Legal Services’ birth certificate program is being expanded from Pinellas County to Manatee. Robin Stover, another attorney at Gulfcoast Legal Services, says during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s necessary for peoples’ safety to have access to housing.
“The program is really the gold standard program for this type of a service. Our birth certificate program in Pinellas, through our partners who we work with up there, is just the gold standard. Katherine’s done such an excellent job with that. That was recognized. And Manatee County recognized that this would be a very valuable service to be able to offer residents here.
“When the pandemic struck us, one of the important values that Manatee County recognized was that if people do not have their birth certificates, they can’t obtain their ID and very importantly if they don’t have ID, and they’re struggling to obtain housing, or do not have housing and have a path to get housing, they’re not going to be able to get housing unless they have valid identification.
“So, one of the important aspects of this is that Manatee County recognized that to keep people safe from the pandemic, and to give them a chance to isolate, they’re going to need to have their own housing. That was an important reason at this time that they thought to bring this birth certification down here. So that people can obtain identification to obtain housing, to protect themselves from the spread of COVID-19.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a directive yesterday halting the eviction of some renters through the end of 2020 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Watch much more of this interview here:
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Here’s the AP story:
“The Trump administration has issued a directive halting the eviction of certain renters through the end of 2020 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Senior administration officials say the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has broad authority to take actions deemed reasonably necessary to prevent the spread of a communicable disease. The president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Diane Yentel, says the order will provide relief for millions of anxious families, but adds that the action delays rather than prevents evictions. Officials say local courts would still resolve disputes over whether the moratorium applies in a particular case.”
Listen to the 5:30 p.m. WMNF News headlines for 2 September 2020:
https://wmnf.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sean530Wed0902.mp3
Listen to the 4:30 p.m. WMNF News headlines for 2 September 2020:
https://wmnf.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sean430Wed0902.mp3
Listen to the 3:30 p.m. WMNF News headlines for 2 September 2020:
https://wmnf.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sean330Wed0902.mp3
The post Gulfcoast Legal Services makes it easier for Manatee County residents to get birth certificates appeared first on WMNF.
Food Not Bombs
by www.foodnotbombs.net
Here is a link with many coronavirus resources More and more people are losing their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic and many of them need food and other services. Several local groups are organizing food sharing today and tomorrow and are taking social distancing precautions both for food donors and people who need food. Z Ramos is a volunteer with Tampa Food Not Bombs and several other local groups that are sharing food on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The other groups are Sex Workers Solidarity Network, Tampa Dream Defenders, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief and Occupy ICE Tampa. They’re organizing a food share Wednesday until 7:00 p.m. at the Waters Avenue Church, 609 West Waters Avenue in Tampa.
Listen:
https://wmnf.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/FoodShareWed1.mp3
“Our base for Wednesday from 3:30 to to 5:00 p.m. we will be cooking at Waters Avenue Church which is 609 W. Waters Avenue, Tampa, Florida. We have posted this on Tampa Dream Defenders page as well as a couple other pages.
“So March 18, Wednesday; March 19, Thursday; March 25, Wednesday; and March 26, Thursday, we’ll be at Waters Avenue Church from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m cooking and then 5 to 7 doing food distribution and mobile food distribution.
“You can call the Sex Workers Solidarity Network hotline at 813-816-2796 if you want something to be picked up. If you need food dropped off you can go to the church and physically just leave outside any donations that you have and we don’t need to physically come in contact with you. After you leave we can retrieve them from 3:30 to 7:00 pm. at 609 W. Waters Avenue, Tampa, Florida.
“Tampa Dream Defenders is collaborating with myself Tampa Bay Housing Justice committee working group. You can find us both on Facebook and we have posted that petition specifically to get Gov.
DeSantis to suspend rent, mortgage and evictions currently and it’s set up so you can just at the click of a button sign that petition.
“Specifically because one naturally with the virus a lot of people for good reason were not going out to entertainment venues, restaurants and the like and all of the workers are being directly impacted by that initial lack of income.
“Then Gov. DeSantis declared yesterday all bars and clubs have to close for 30 days and in that requirement there was nothing said that those workers have to get a required stipend or paid time off during that time and from reports we’ve gotten from everyone from folks working at the courthouse to people working in all different sorts of industries.
“A lot of folks like at Publix, for instance, were fired outright because they don’t want to pay them the paid time off and then on top of that with the firings and with the lack of paid time folks can’t find a new job because all these places are closed or not hiring because all they’re to do is limit their spending.
“One really important thing is suspending payment for medical care. It should be a sliding scale from zero to whatever it actually costs so that folks that can pay are able to contribute what they can and folks that can’t aren’t aren’t put into debt by seeking medical care that they need because of coronavirus, COVID 19 specifically.
“And also the lack of response form the federal government and Trump’s administration at the initial stages when it could have been controlled better is one of the main reasons that experts like the World Health Organization have pointed out that has partly led to this wide spread so these workers are being directly impacted because of this lack of response. As well as the fact that the federal government gave 1.5 trillion dollars in a bailout to Wall Street which absolutely should have been used to make certain that everyone has the money they need for their housing and their food and there’s free delivery systems that could have been paid for with part of this this 1.5 trillion for folks who are for instance in food deserts and now that in places like California where Uber has suspended the ride sharing it’s made the transportation that is left more expensive and so many different things. Each person should just be able to flatout request the funding for whatever their needs are as well as the suspension of anything the government can control in terms of collecting fees at this time.
“Also they need absolutely to let every single person that’s nonviolent or held on pretrial detention or cash bail out of federal prisons and federal jails as well as private prisons and jails. That needs to be a mandate immediately because it’s a huge risk with so many people locked up in cages so close together with an already well-documented lack of medical care.
“That’s one of the biggest reasons so many groups are getting together to do the food shares at the church because almost every single, if not every single, food share or facility like Community Cafe or the coffee shop where folks can get free showers and free food have closed down. The public libraries in Hillsborough have closed down. Now they are recommending federally that people don’t gather in more than groups of 10 a lot of houseless people who were already getting harassed while now having this lack of access to food are getting harrassed by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s department and TPD. Another thing that we’ve asked is that the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s department and TPD don’t arrest people, give them paper arrests.
“And now Food Not Bombs and the shares that have started with the Tampa Dream Defenders are the only food sharers I know of besides the Waters Avenue Food Pantry that’s held every Monday from 6 to 8 pm.
“So it’s getting really serious. We fed on Monday for instance because blankets Tampa Bay canceled their share day and only left folks a note there. So they got there tired and hungry and would have left had we not come. We fed 250 people.”
The post Tampa groups feed hungry people while practicing social distancing in coronavirus era appeared first on WMNF.
Radioactivity with Rob Lorei
Listen Here:
https://wmnf.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Radioactivity111219.mp3
Or follow this link and select 11/12/19 from the drop down menu:
Radioactivity: Interviews & Live Call-In
Intro:
Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I’m Rob Lorei. Yesterday was Veterans Day. Many people serve in the US military and never see combat and do no dangerous jobs.
Others have taken part in combat or have performed dangerous tasks. As a result PTSD, injuries, homelessness and other problems follow ex military into civilian life.
Today we’re going to talk with two attorneys who specialize in legal issues for veterans.
But first we are still receiving comments about last Friday’s interview about televangelist and former mega church pastor who is now a spiritual advisor to President Trump. Here’s what one more listener had to say:
Tape
With all the wars the US has been involved in since there are an enormous amount of veterans living in the US—
There were around 20.4 million U.S. veterans in 2016, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, representing a little less less than 10% of the total U.S. adult population.
As Americans observe Veterans Day, here are key facts about those who have served in the military and how this population is changing.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/10/the-changing-face-of-americas-veteran-population/
The number of homeless veterans across America is estimated by
Housing and Urban Development officials to be roughly 40,000.
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2017/12/06/number-of-homeless-veterans-nationwide-rises-for-first-time-in-seven-years/
An estimated 6.5% of all current veteran’s who’ve left the military since 2001 have left without an honorable discharge- denying them some basic services. That’s a higher percentage of less than honorable discharges after either the Vietnam War or World War II.
https://portside.org/2019-11-11/other-honorable-veterans-bad-paper-seek-long-overdue-benefits
We’re joined now by two attorneys who specialize in representing veterans- David Cory and Rick Hurley. They’ve joined us on or near Veteran’s Day over the past five years.
The post Legal Advice for Veterans on Appeals, Spousal Benefits, Burn Pits, Blue Water, Upgrading “Bad Papers”, Veterans Courts and the New Form System appeared first on WMNF.
Tampa Food Not Bombs posted on its Facebook page that it was concerned that benches had been removed from Gaslight Square Park in downtown Tampa. The post also tells about how the belongings of some people without homes had gone missing.
Joining us on WMNF Wednesday were Scott Rock, who is experiencing homelessness and Dezeray Lyn, who is with Tampa Food Not Bombs and other groups.
Lyn said,
“We have been told that the benches are being refurbished, and if that’s the case, we’re asking the question of, is that something that’s a priority in our City. We’re asking was it necessary to remove all of the benches from the internal area of Gaslight Park, where it’s a heavily targeted area where people experiencing homelessness take refuge in the day. They sit, they rest, they sit their belongings there. Is it necessary to remove them all at once?
“Could they have done it in phases if this was something that was critically needed in our City, which I think the everyone can answer that question as ‘No there are much more pressing needs.’ But is this something that could have been done in a better way? But, also, I question what are they doing and why?
“Because this is an area where people are regularly trespassed. They’re regularly harassed. They have their belongings taken and thrown out, even in front of them, which is something that recently happened with a woman yelling, “‘Please don’t throw away my medicine,” and they threw it away anyways. So, going on with what the City has given us, and on what the police have given us and the trend of their actions, we’re left to question again, why are you doing things that are exacerbating situations for people in the city that need you the most.”
WMNF invited Tampa Police to call in to the show. Here is the email response from a Tampa Police spokesperson.
“The is an area near the Brorein Street Bridge by the River Walk that is a construction site. Fencing has been erected to keep out the public for their own safety. I’m not aware of anyone (TPD or otherwise) removing anyone’s belongings. I hope no one trespassed in the construction zone because it is unsafe and it is against the law.”
The police spokesperson sent a photo of the construction sign as well.
Another guest on the show, Scott Rock, detailed his experiences facing homelessness on the streets of Tampa. He also talked about his medical emergency in Water Works Park that led to him being trespassed from the park by Tampa Police.
“Well I’ve been trying to get my disabilities since 2010 and they keep denying me. I was staying at Salvation Army. I’ve been there over 100 days, and they said that the insurance wouldn’t pay for me to stay there anymore. And what they did is, they threw me out in the street being a diabetic, on insulin, no place to refrigerate it. They wouldn’t refer me to another shelter, and I couldn’t get into one.
“And my insulin went bad and my sugars went to 950 or 1000 and it affected my mind. I already suffer a little from mental illness, and it just made me, kind of like, not be myself at all. And I ended up taking 60 Abilify and 60 Klonipin, and they found me dead the next morning.
“There was no heartbeat, no breath. And while the paramedics were working on me, the TPD wrote me a trespass warning. So I can’t go back into that park, the Waterworks until June 29th of this year.”
Listen to the full show here.
Watch the show on Facebook live – it starts at the 3:05 mark:
The post People affected by homelessness still face troubles in Tampa appeared first on WMNF.