What To Do, What To Do About Key West’s Homeless Population (Former Homeless Man Shares His Views)
After the Roosevelt Boulevard townhall meeting last Tuesday came a regular city commission meeting. Dr. Robert Marbut led off with a lengthy presentation of his view of Key West’s homeless situation, which was followed by questions and comments from the mayor and city commissioners. Citizens were not allowed to comment or ask questions at that time.
Marbut said he conservatively placed the city’s homeless population at 1,422 and growing, more than twice the number of homeless previously reported in local surveys, as reported a few days prior in the Key West Citizen. Marbut said he did not include in that number 1,000 people who had stayed only one night at KOTS, which statistic any other city would have included in its homeless count. After Marbut spoke, I congratulated Gwen Filsoa for making those numbers public.
Marbut said the fair weather is the main reason homeless come to Key West to live. Nothing can be done about that. Marbut said the next reason homeless come to Key West is because Key West offers homeless so many amenities: plenty of food, medical services, booze, etc. He said all that needs to stop around Key West. Offer those services only at the new homeless shelter, which will force homeless to go there. That’s been his working model in other cities, which he said gets most homeless off the street. He said there are three kinds of homeless in Key West. New arrivals, who need to be told up front the difficulty of living in Key West with its high cost of living, the free ride in Key West is over, and they need to turn around and go back where they came from. The fairly new homeless, who can be turned around with the proper help and returned to mainstream. And the unreachable homeless, about twenty-five percent of the total homeless population; the homeless Mayor Cates and the city commissioners most want off the street.
Commissioner Billy Wardlow seemed to be the only one against the new homeless shelter being on Stock Island at the Easter Seals and Mosquito Control buildings. Wardlow said a homeless shelter belongs on Rockland Key, about 7.5 miles north on U.S. 1. Key West should reserve its property on College Road, near the hospital, for a possible assisted living complex, Wardlow said. Assisted living is a more important place than the homeless shelter, seniors are more important than the homeless, Wardlow said.
After Wardlow spoke, Marbut said the cost of putting the new homeless shelter on Rockland Key would be huge, the facility would have to be built from scratch, compared to moving into the Easter Seals and Mosquito Control Board buildings owned by the city. And, putting it on Rockland Key would delay getting the facility up and running. Marbut had said, and would keep saying, if the city doesn’t do something now, in two years the city’s homeless situation will be a lot worse because the city is taking in over three hundred new homeless people a year and that needs to be stopped now.
I signed up to speak during citizen comments at the very end of last night’s meeting. I told some of my own experiences living on the street in Key West. I said I had spoken with Marbut after his presentation and he only wanted a new shelter about twice as big as KOTS, which sleeps 130 homeless. I asked what is the city going to do with the rest of the 1,420 homeless people? Put them in jail because they sleep outside at night and can’t get into the new shelter?
I said the city of Miami used its police to do the same thing to its homeless people. Miami ended up in federal court and now cannot wipe its nose about its homeless without getting a federal judge’s approval. I said Miami lost all say so in its homeless issues. I said if Key West keeps arresting homeless people for sleeping, it just might find itself facing the ACLU (which brought the Miami case) or me in federal court.
I said sleep deprivation is torture. It is cruel and unusual punishment. It is a violation of civil rights. it can be prosecuted criminally or civilly under the US Civil Rights Act. I said I thought Marbut could help the city, but … My time ran out. I said I would like a little more time to finish, because other speakers had been given extra time. Mayor Cates told me I could not have more time. I said, you (the city) need to be real careful. Cates told me to stop talking. I was out of line. I said, “What happened to you, Craig?” He said, “I don’t know.” Cates told me I had to be quiet. I was out of line. I said, “I am the fellow you told got you elected without an run-off.”
Yaniz went after me. I now was walking across in front of them, toward the exit at the elevator. Yaniz said I needed to leave. I said I was leaving. Yaniz said I needed to respect this commission. I turned and looked at him, said, “I do not have to respect this commission.” I left. Respect is earned, not of right. Once earned, respect can be lost. I have no respect for people who use their police to torture homeless people.
I have no problem with the city trying to use Marbut’s model. That’s not torture, even if homeless people don’t like it. Not letting homeless people sleep, however, is a crime against humanity.
During his earlier presentation, Marbut said the first thing he does when he takes in a new homeless person is he lets him sleep as much as he wants to, and he gets him to hydrate as much as possible. Marbut said insufficient sleep makes homeless people’s mental disturbances worse and causes them to act out more. Marbut said homeless people tend to be afraid to pee outside, might get them arrested, so they reduce their liquid intake, which also messes up their brain chemistry.
I told Marbut when we spoke privately after his presentation, that I had not thought of the dehydration problem.
After the city commission meeting, I wrote this email to Father Steve Braddock, CEO of Florida Keys Outreach Coalition (FKOC):
Subject: RE: Marbut and addicts question
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2013 22:53:16 -0400
I talked with Marbut after his presentation to the City Commission tonight. He said he lets anyone into his shelters and he segregates users (booze, etc.) from non- users once they are in. He does detox in his shelters, unless the client has additional medical complications, such as risk of heart attack, stroke, etc. He said he only intends a a new shelter that sleeps about twice as many homeless as KOTS. During his presentation he said graduates from his shelter could come into FKOC and Samuel’s House and have a better jump on recovery, but eventually they would have to leave Key West due to high cost of housing and low wages and no available subsidized housing. He made it very plain that homeless graduates leaving Key West was the only solution. I learned a lot about how he goes about it, I think he’s sincere and is getting people off the street; however I am not convinced he is returning them to independent living. Someone from the golf course community told me as we left the meeting together, that he had googled Marbut’s shelter in San Antonio and what was happening was, his homeless clients were coming into his shelter, getting really educated how to get the most our of the various subsidized programs, and then moving into subsidized situations creating a much bigger subsidized population. I thought that could be called enabling just as could buying a homeless man a meal, something Marbut tells Key West needs to stop. My problem is, how do I know that homeless man I bought a meal is not Jesus?
I had asked Mayor Cates and the city commissioners the same question during my citizen comments at the end of the city commission meeting.
After reading of that the next day at goodmorningkeywest.com, Peggy Butler, formerly of Key West, sent this email:
Hi Sloan,
It’s been over three years since I covered the Key West City Commission meetings, but I sure wish I’d been there last night. Your remarks, especially on the homeless situation, were spot on. I don’t understand why the city commission, namely Mayor Cates and Commissioner Yaniz, did not want you to continue speaking when they’d granted extra time to others. Perhaps because you spoke the truth from having been there? I have no idea where the homeless in Key West are going to end up, but every day they lolly gag around with this problem, more homeless will end up on the streets of Key West. Something has to be done and it has to be done right. Years ago, when I was still in the nursing work force, I contracted a few times to work intake at CARP, a county program that took the homeless and other intoxicated individuals in overnight, in lieu of taking them to the jail. During that time, they were detox’d under the watchful eye of registered nurses. Intoxication can kill a person and Palm Beach County took that vital step to assure that did not happen. Key West could use a portion of that Easter Seals building for the sole purpose of detoxing the inebriated homeless person. Until they do that, all the services in the world are not going to get that homeless person to listen to what the social workers are trying to tell him. Until they do that, the homeless problem on that island I love is never going to be resolved in any way. Keep talking, Sloan. Others are listening.
Enjoy your day,
Peggy
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