REMEMBERING THE HOMELESS...WITH A BACKSIDE

The Lakeland Ledger has run a couple of interesting stories during the past few days touching on the local homeless situation and serving this group which, though small when you consider the nearly half million population of Polk County, seems to be growing.

Last Saturday, the Ledger ran a story of All Saints' Episcopal Church in downtown Lakeland and it's efforts to minister to the homeless and transients through a feeding Tuesday mornings behind the city's Greyhound bus station and a Sidewalk Sunday School early Sunday mornings across from the church which includes coffee and doughnuts. It seems as though someone has complained, and now city code enforcement officers have said the church has to move both to a nearby homeless shelter.

A little background, from the Rick Rousos piece:

In 1994, All Saints, located in the shadow of City Hall, began the "Tuesday Walkabout" around downtown and in Munn Park with food and prayers for the hungry.

Church members said that several years ago, probably in 1997 or 1998, they were asked to move the feedings north of the railroad track. They wound up at the bus station, just north of the police station.

Beginning in 2000, the parishioners invited people down on their luck to the church's Sunday morning sidewalk ministry, where a crowd of 40 or 50 isn't unusual.

However, three or four weeks ago a supervisor from the city's Code Enforcement Office visited the Greyhound feeding and told parishioners that the sandwich giveaway was over, but could be moved to the courtyard at the Talbot House.

In order to provide food, City Attorney Tim McCausland said, the bus station land would need to be zoned for a "transient lodge or social service facility" offering "counseling, meals or temporary shelter." It isn't.

The bus station's owner was quoted as saying she did not mind the Tuesday sandwich, cookie, and drink giveaways. Some parishoners are saying the city has another reason.

Parishioners consider it no coincidence that the eviction comes at a time when the city is searching for a developer for the land behind the bus station, which is slated for high-end housing.

"They just want to develop that area, and they don't want any street people there," said Charlie Ware, 82. "They're trying to attract a developer to build condominiums, and they don't want a potential developer to see the wrong image."

Monday, Eric Pens focused on the federal government's effort to collect data and get a more accurate count of the number of homeless people nationwide, and how it's being handled here.

Most notably, the Lakeland Salvation Army has begin issuing photo ID cards to those any of their services, wheather it be the free lunch or transitional housing or even food baskets at holiday time. As for now, noone is turned away for not having the card, but effective October 1 it will be required for anyone seeking it's services.

The agency's ID card carries a number for tracking a person's whereabouts in the county and the information is kept on an Internet database shared by Salvation Army and the 16 other members of the Homeless Coalition of Polk County.

Much of the information will be shared with the federal government. That rankles some advocates for the homeless because many homeless individuals receive mental health and other medically sensitive services.

Advocates also fear that many within the homeless community, natrually suspicious of government, will forgo the meal or roof over their head instead of having to answer personal questions. Some organizations --- none locally identified in the Ledger story --- have decided to reject government funding instead of participating.

This from the city that prides itself on compassion for the less fortunate.