Retort To Article On The Homeless in Tampa

Retort To Article On The Homeless in Tampa

Last week, The Minaret ran an article about homelessness, written by John Jacobs, presenting many inaccurate opinions of homelessness as fact in an attempt at humor.
The fact is homelessness is a very real issue affecting the city of Tampa and the state of Florida.

Because this issue is so visibly present in the Tampa Bay area, I hope to illustrate a truthful painting of the homelessness that often feels omnipresent.

As the current AmeriCorps VISTA serving at The University of Tampa, one of my primary responsibilities is to bring “additional awareness to the homeless situation in the Tampa Bay area.” Hillsborough County currently has the sixth largest homeless population in the country.

The lead agency working with homelessness in the community is the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough.Quickly browsing their website (http://www.homelessofhc.org) one gets a very different view of homelessness in the Tampa Bay area that presented in the article.

The most recent statistics come from the single day homeless count in Hillsborough County in 2009. On that day, 9,566 individuals were homeless.
In Jacobs’article homeless individuals in the community are depicted as choosing to spend their “last $5 to buy one-tenth of a crack rock” or investing towards being a “full-time homeless person.”

The reality of those 9,566 individuals is different from this image of a haphazard looking group of individuals jockeying for premier street corner space. One of the most common misconceptions of homelessness is the accompaniment of a substance abuse problem or mental illness; in Tampa 81 percent of homeless individuals do not have a substance abuse problem and 63 percent have no mental illness.

Homelessness is not a career, while some homeless individuals are perpetually homeless, 41 percent were experiencing homelessness for the first time and 42 percent had been homeless for less than a year.
Shockingly 23 percent of homeless in! dividuals are children. 1,700 homeless students attended school in Hillsborough County on February 26, 2009.

These numbers speak for themselves as to the far-reaching truths homelessness has taken in our community.

On January 27, 2011, the bi-annual single day homeless count was performed. The results of this count will be used by the Homeless Coalition and other member agencies to apply for grants and funding over the next two years. The homeless population is currently underserved and budget cuts are threatening worsen the problem.

Governor Rick Scott’s budget proposal calls for the elimination of all homeless fundingfrom the state budget ($6 million in total).
This threatens to intensify the problem. Homelessness can be seen across the city, state and nation and is not a social dilemma to be taken lightly.

Jacobs’ says if it weren’t for the drawbacks of homelessness, he would think about experiencing it at least once. He depicts homelessness as a choice.

I believe that many of the homeless individuals in Tampa would provide a different narrative.

If you are interested in making a difference, please stop by the PEACE Volunteer Center (Vaughn 206) or email me at khemer@ut.edu to learn more on how.