{"id":15300,"date":"2023-07-13T22:41:33","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T02:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&p=15300"},"modified":"2023-07-14T00:09:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T04:09:08","slug":"behind-the-blue-signs-at-leon-county-intersections-no-easy-solutions","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/behind-the-blue-signs-at-leon-county-intersections-no-easy-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the blue signs at Leon County intersections: No easy solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The blue signs at 11 Leon County intersections have sparked a lot of talk. They urge the public to donate to service providers like the nonprofit Big Bend Continuum of Care, rather than giving directly to people panhandling on the street. But the need for solutions is growing faster than the response.<\/p>\n

Taylor Biro serves on the board of directors of Big Bend Continuum of Care. Having been homeless herself in her teens, she went on to spend 10 years working street outreach in Tallahassee to connect people with housing. She recalls doing a survey with an older man to see if they could get him on their waiting list.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe was very embarrassed,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was an older gentleman and said he had built an entire construction company from the ground up, that he was successful, he was proud of it. He had no wife, he had no kids, he had never created a family. And he had gotten in a car accident, broke his back, and lost everything. Absolutely everything. And he said he was too old and too tired to start over. And so, he was just going to go in the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, more than half a million people experienced homelessness across the United States. Tallahassee\u2019s numbers more than doubled, says Johnna Coleman of Big Bend Continuum of Care. Here she\u2019s addressing the Leon County Commission\u2019s workshop on homelessness in May:<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the increases are really linked to the decrease in Covid dollars,\u201d she said. \u201cThose dollars ended in 2022, as well as the ending of the eviction moratorium. And then we have also seen increases in eviction rates due to raises in rental costs and then the lack of affordable housing units available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blue signs popping up now were part of a package commissioners adopted back in May. Commissioner Brian Welch, who posted a photo of one of the signs on social media, is pushing back against the criticism they\u2019ve generated.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can still give food and water and money to people in an intersection, but we want you to know that the experts who deal with this issue every day are telling us that is not the most productive way to solve this problem,\u201d Welch said. \u201cYou are in fact hurting those people in many cases more than you are helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida is the third highest state for numbers of unhoused people, according to Legal Services of North Florida, with just under 26,000 as of April. The majority of those people don\u2019t go to shelters. Here\u2019s Biro:<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the pandemic I met a man who didn\u2019t go in because he had an autoimmune issue and didn\u2019t feel safe going in with 300 people,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, there\u2019s a number of reasons why someone wouldn\u2019t go in. Women tend to not go in because it\u2019s unsafe. Youth don\u2019t go in because they\u2019re more likely to be trafficked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner David O\u2019Keefe says the commission was briefed that panhandlers on county roads mostly have homes or are transient, here for a few days. So, he reached out to Legal Services of North Florida, since some of their clients have such issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose folks who have a home who panhandle\u2026Panhandlers on average make $300 a month,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said. \u201cIf they no longer can do so, they likely would become homeless, exacerbating the problem. And so, these signs were only one item of ten recommendations we got –some of which are great, that include increased funding and increased day programs to help people get off the street\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Biro sees the wider community as being evenly divided about the blue signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with the service providers, because they get funding from the CoC and funding from the city and county, they\u2019re very quiet during this time, because they\u2026you know, they can\u2019t speak out if this is evidence-based or not, which we know it\u2019s not an evidence-based practice,\u201d Biro said. \u201cSo, the public being vocal was not a surprise to me. Nor was the fact that the service providers are pretty quiet right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Keefe predicts that following the blue signs, unhoused people will face higher hurdles in Leon County.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of the other objectionable items that came among some very good items at the workshop are going to come back in the future that are worse, that do possibly hurt homeless people and make it more difficult for them to get off the streets in a more significant way,” he said. “And that\u2019s soliciting in the medians, which will come back for a vote. And a program for the county to relocate people who are camping in public places to somewhere else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Legal Services of North Florida maintains that, quote, \u201cexpanding anti-panhandling laws will increase the rate of homelessness and will increase Criminal Justice System costs.\u201d <\/p>\n

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