Published: October 12, 2009

Residents in thirteen communities of the East Lake Orient Park (Eastern Hillsborough/Tampa, Florida) are praying that Catholic Charities stop trying to destroy and ravage their family neighborhood with a PUP Tent City for 250 homeless people. Over 150,000 lawful residents could eventually be negatively impacted.

Tomorrow, October 13, the County Commissioners will decide on these neighborhoods’ future. The residents have been protesting and fighting the Catholic Charities for months.

If the County Commissioners approve the zoning change, this whole area of 12 square miles, could get the label of Pup Tent City. It could leave a negative and permanent anti family, anti law abiding, anti economic development and anti good future stigma. Such a negative label designation as Pup Tent City, could have similiar branding as that of “Suit Case city”. It would be a disaster for these good family communities in the area.

It would be doom and gloom for the area.

What will the future be like for these communities? Will it be a future with hundreds of people with felony arrest roaming through their back yards? Will it be a future of horrific declines in property values? Will it be a future of people with sex crimes in their past stalking some of the 5,000 school children in the area? Or will businesses simply giving up on the area near and around the pup tent city?

This Pup Tent City, in my opinion,  is simply a money maker for the Catholic Charities on the backs of the homeless. They stand to make up to $3,000,000 per year in government grants, donations and individual contributions. The residents will lose the peace and tranquility of their home life, neighborhood stability, and the safety of their children.

If the Catholic Charities care so much about the homeless and really want to help them here is what they can do. First the members of the charity could adopt a homeless person or family. They would live in the homes of with the various Catholic families. Hillsborough County would pay them $ 600 per individual or $ 1100 per month per family for four months. Or secondly the Catholic Charity could just buy an apartment with a housing capacity of 300, and set it up for homeless services.

Either way, it would be better that herding around the homeless like animals

Here is what the resident say about their plight.

, 

(L-R) Mr. Gloster, Mr. Hart

Stanley Gloster, concerned citizen says, ” Homless is a problem and few people have came with good ideas on how to tackle the issue.But for what I know tents is not and will not be the answer. We need to address and get it right the first time on fix the problem.Why I said not tents is because there isn’t any running water or indoor plumbing. Plus tents are not design to help homless families.Tents can not and will not protect them for long hot summers or rainy nights.And lastly why i said no tents, it is inhumane. Listen the homless are people too.They do deserve help but not to be treat like a third class citizen because of their situation.They need indoor plumbing and running water,and they need progams that will help them mentally and physically. We need to be able to conquer this problem and help these people with love and understanding. They do not deserve a quick fix, they deserve a place they can restart they lives.You don’t place a blanket over a manhole so people do not see the manhole. You put concrete and water to fill the manhole so people will see you have identified and corrected the problem.

Hal Hart, resident of the area, and Principal protest organizer, says, “For an organization, posing as a charity, to force the poorest of the poor into tents is to deny human beings their right to the most basic of needs - housing.  Catholic Charities is the worst kind of offender as they have charged the taxpayers of Pinellas County over $2.1 million in tax dollars to put 250 homeless adults into their Pinellas Tent City!  Have they no compassion? Is there no accountability?  Why have they been allowed to rip off the citizens of Pinellas County only to treat human beings worse than I treat my own dog?!?

What is most disturbing about Pinellas Tent City is that only 16% of the residents still have housing 6 months after discharge.  This is a miserable failure according to our local homeless coalition members, as more than 40% of their discharges still have housing after this same time period.

Catholic Charities is a wolf in sheep’s clothing:  they talk like a charity when their hand is out for our tax dollars, but the reality is they don’t care about the homeless and they certainly don’t care about our community.  Their proposal to put 250 tents for 250 homeless adults in our community will not benefit our homeless population and will certainly blight our community.  Of the 113 names of Pinellas Hope residents we were able to obtain, 75 of those residents have amassed more than 775 criminal charges, including murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, robbery and burglary!

The only explanation there could be for replicating this type of operation in Hillsborough County is money.  It’s all about the money.  What else could it be??”
_______

The residents have spoken loud and clear. Now its time for the County Commissioners to feel the pain, the fear, and the apprehension of the community.
May the wisdom of our elective county commissioners prevail and they deny this zoning change. I also hope they don’t use a back door tactic and change the housing codes so non profits are exempt.

We all would like to help the homeless people in our county. We know that anyone of us is only 6 missed paychecks away from being homeless.

This zoning change must be denied.

Send me your comments, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)