Today Hillsborough County Commissioners approved a proposal for the county's legal staff to bring back an ordinance to them next month that would call for incorporating state roads into their current ban on panhandling on county roads, though the ultimate goal of a recent task force to insure a uniform law throughout the county won't be possible, since the city of Tampa so far has not agreed on such a ban.
On Thursday the Tampa City Council will vote on a measure that would ban panhandling on major arterial roads in the city, making it similar to the law passed last year in St. Petersburg. But it will still allow for soliciting on other streets in the city, and thus the county.
However, County Commissioners also showed for the first time that they were intent on doing something about the bigger picture – homelessness, and named Commission Sandy Murman to be a point person to begin to working with businesses and social service groups on finding ways to help out those who need such help it the county, as well as looking at helping those homeless who aren't interested in such services, but just need cash, the ability to find day labor work.
The issue has become a dominant one in Hillsborough County over the past half year, ever since Commissioner Mark Sharpe proposed cracking down on panhandlers in the wake of a sudden increase of such open solicitors on Tampa and county roadways. And its segued with the campaign season in Tampa, keeping it in the news headlines.
At the Hillsborough County Commission meeting this morning, Sheriff Colonel Greg Brown stunned commissioners when he said that the county was second in the state in people killed on roadways with 154, and said 11 had already died in 2011, compared to 6 a year ago. Brown said his department has been "inundated" with complaints about panhandling in the past few months, and called it a "huge problem."
The recommendation from the task force set by and led by County Administrator Mike Merrill would be to include state roads into the county's ordinance, which the Sheriff Colonel supported.
But on the issue of doing something substantively instead of just mouthing platitudes, Commissioner Sharpe mentioned finding members of the community who would be willing to lend their support to providing social services to the homeless, and mentioned specifically Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and his wife, Penny, who announced on Tuesday at the offices of Metropolitan Ministries that they will donate $10 million over five years to local charities.
Earlier at the meeting, Rayme Knuckles, the CEO of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, said he wanted to knock down the theory that the influx in such panhandlers was mainly due to St. Petersburg's ordinance banning the practice last year. He said research done by his organization shows that 80% of those surveyed said they from Hillsborough County.
Still not addressed after today's discussion is how much money the county is willing to allocate to address the homeless situation. Commissioner Sharpe said "I want to see a lot more done. That does not mean we need to spend money, but we need to light a fire," over the issue. And Sharpe, a military veteran, called for working more on mental health issues as well, referring to men and women sent overseas to fight wars who come back psychologically impaired. He called the way that U.S. society sends such people overseas and then abandons them when they return home "a crime."
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.