Florida tent city offers hope to homeless

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida tent city for hundreds of homeless people lies at the end of a dead-end street, but residents say they have not given up hope of a better life despite the U.S. economic downturn.

The Pinellas Hope camp, 250 single-person tents in neat rows on land owned by the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg in a wooded area north of the city, has room for about 270 and has been filled to capacity since it opened two years ago.

"I could open the gates and have over 500 people," said Sheila Lopez, the chief operating officer for Catholic Charities at the St. Petersburg diocese.

The camp has a food hall, bathrooms and showers, a laundry room and a few computers for residents to look for jobs and prepare resumes.

"This is a great place to be. It gives us a great opportunity," said Alex, a resident who declined to give his last name. "We have a safe place to live. It sure beats sleeping on the street."

The number of homeless people in the United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, is difficult to pin down, advocacy groups say, because most people are homeless for only a short period of time.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates about 675,000 people are homeless on any given night during a one-month period. Between 2.5 million and 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness for at least one night in a year.

The alliance said it expects more than 1 million people to become homeless as a result of the current recession.

THE END IS NOT NEAR

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http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55G01Z20090617

Tent cities need more legal protection. We should pass a law making it illegal to tear down tent cities.

if you're are homeless in this country, you are essentially a criminal in the eyes of law enforcement, and you can get hauled away for simply sitting in the wrong spot...or trying to get some sleep.

Tents are what you put up when you are camping far away from civilization. When there is no time to lay a foundation, put up walls, cover it with a roof, a tent will do, since it takes 15 or 20 minutes to erect. But these people without homes aren't miles away from the nearest power line or water main, often times they are within sight of a closed mall, vacant commercial property or a boarded up building. Buildings, that if eminent domain were correctly applied, could be taken from a clueless chucklehead and used to help the worse off in the community. It's a sad commentary that property has more rights than people. The right of a vacant storefront to be free of the unwashed is greater than the rights of the unwashed to be able to come in out of the rain.