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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