FLORIDA: Hurricanes worsen plight of homeless
Living day to day
By John A. Torres
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TITUSVILLE - In a matter of months, Reginald Jackson, his wife and 4-year-old son went from living in a modest apartment to living in the family van.
They spent three months driving from one parking lot to another, showering at his mother's studio apartment in Titusville and using moving blankets for quilts.
Sometimes, police chased them away in the middle of the night. They found the Wal-Mart parking lot to be the safest bet.
Jackson was a self-employed wallpaper hanger and house cleaner before the hurricanes - before his clients stopped calling because they were more worried about roofs and mold than wallpaper. He quickly exhausted his savings and was kicked out of his apartment.
That's when Jackson joined the ranks of the "working homeless" in Brevard County - those with heavy debt living paycheck to paycheck and one emergency or hurricane from living on the streets.
Life made harder
Last year, more than 2,100 homeless lived here, on beaches, under bridges, at makeshift camps in wooded areas and in cars. A more current number will be available next month after a count is completed.
Still, those who serve the homeless say more working homeless are showing up at their centers asking for help. Jackson, for example, found emergency shelter at the North Brevard Sharing Center in November.
"The working homeless have been a phenomenon for a long time," said Robert Brown, president of the Central Florida Coalition for the Homeless. The hurricanes just made it worse.
Former Palm Bay resident Fred Bark set up a camp site with his fiancee and two dogs in Wickham Park's overflow area when he was without a place to live.
Things will be tougher on the homeless staying at the park. New rules mandate campers leave for a day after staying for 14 consecutive days. The maximum total number of days they can stay is 42.
'A vicious cycle'
Bark, who works as a roofer, said his mobile home was destroyed during the last storm and he spent his life savings, about $3,000, to live in a hotel. Recently, he sold his car to be able to have a place to stay.
"It's a vicious cycle," he said. "I can't believe how much I spent on hotels, but now I have no electricity or anything."
Brown thinks cases like Bark's are not unusual. He said many of the people complain rents are too high and they can't pull together deposits and rents for apartments.
Though the hurricanes certainly have had their impact, Brown and Michael Stoops, director of community organizing for the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless, said Florida's dependence on the tourism industry contributes to the working homeless population. Whenever tourism slips, those working at hotels, theme parks or resorts may have their hours cut or eliminated.
Brown said 40 percent of the jobs in the Orlando area are service-industry jobs with an average pay of $7 per hour.
"Federal statistics say a family needs to make $15.76 an hour to afford the entry-level 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment in the area," he said. "So we've always seen a lot of people who maybe suffer a layoff or a cut in hours or for a medical reason start to miss rent payments."
Reaching out
The Daily Bread in Melbourne is expanding operations in April to accommodate the working homeless. The soup kitchen is presently open only in the mornings and afternoon for lunch and showers. In a few months, they will start opening again in the evening.
"We need to offer services to those who are working," said Sue Holaday, the executive director. "They need to be clean when they go to work in the morning, so we can give them dinner and a shower."
Holaday said many of her clients have found temporary work doing roofing or hurricane cleanup. Numbers at the soup kitchen have been steady - between 200 and 250 per day - but there have been a number of new faces showing up to eat.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are no current statistics indicating how much the number of working homeless has grown during the past few years.
Joe Robinson, executive director of the North Brevard Sharing Center, said that nearly 7,000 people a year come through his office holding eviction notices and looking for help paying their rent. They all have to show how they plan on paying next month's rent - meaning they have to have jobs to get help. Another 5,000 people show up needing help with utility bills. They, too, must have shut-off notices in hand to qualify for help.
"Those people," Robinson said, "are one paycheck away from being homeless."
That's what happened to Jackson. He continued working and his son kept going to school while living in his van. He filled out paperwork with FEMA and the Small Business Administration, but never heard back.
"As long as we had each other we were happy," Jackson said. "I kept up a strong front but it hurt me so bad that I couldn't do better for my family. We don't drink, smoke or do drugs. We're good people."
In order to stay at the North Brevard Sharing Center emergency housing, Jackson and others need to work or prove they are looking for work. Even so, their stay is limited to a month or two. The center asks them for a $75 a week donation, but that money is returned so the person has a little cash to start their new lives. The money also acts as security against damages.
David Brubacker, assistant director of the Central Brevard Sharing Center in Cocoa said thousands are on the brink of homelessness.
Of the 18,545 Central Brevardians who received assistance with rent, utilities, or food at the center in 2003, only 206 of them classified themselves as homeless, meaning there are thousands who teeter on the edge of homelessness.
This year, Brubacker said, people looking for hurricane relief exhausted the agency's funds, plus additional emergency aid.
"Currently there are no funds for rent and utilities," he said, explaining the organization received $18,500 every six months from the United Way. "We went through our $37,000, plus we even exhausted the $50,000 we received from the Lend-A-Hand fund. It's mind-boggling."
Rosa Reich, spokeswoman for the Brevard Continuum of Care Coalition, worries with the number of people displaced by the hurricanes, the problem will only get worse.