NEWS

Tent city won't be allowed for homeless in Daytona Beach

Eileen Zaffiro-Kean
eileen.zaffiro-kean@news-jrnl.com
Homeless advocate Mike Pastore stands with two other men at a "safe zone" lot the city of Daytona Beach has created for homeless people who need a place to sleep. The lot near the edge of the city's airport has a water spigot and portable toilets. News-Journal/LOLA GOMEZ

DAYTONA BEACH — A few weeks ago, it looked like an open field near the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus was going to become a nighttime tent city for the homeless. 

Homeless advocate Mike Pastore got the nod of approval from Community Relations Manager L. Ronald Durham to put tents on the vacant lot at the southwest corner of Clyde Morris Boulevard and Bellevue Avenue. With that approval, Pastore opened a GoFundMe account with a goal of raising $10,000 for barracks-style tents, a warming hut, camping equipment, a used van and a trailer.

"Please donate today, watch this dream grow and be a part of helping the homeless enjoy a little dignity with a safe and legal place to sleep," Pastore wrote on his GoFundMe page.

He was even lining up volunteers from churches who he said would "provide manpower and oversight to ensure success."

But after Durham spoke with city legal staff concerned about liability and policies that prohibit camping in city parks, Pastore was told tents will not be allowed on the grassy lot lined with woods on two sides.

"I'm really disgusted with the city officials' attitude," Pastore said. "They claim compassion, but their actions belie their words."

Now the city-owned property is back to the basic purpose assigned to it in early August: The alternative to jail for people who police find sleeping, urinating or doing other life-sustaining things in places they shouldn't.

With fewer than 10 people taking refuge at the safe zone most nights, and the rest of the homeless scattered in other places under the stars, the city is almost back where it started a few winters ago. Cooler weather is settling in for a few months, and there is still no large shelter or substantial new housing options for the homeless.

For about four years, local leaders have been trying to come up with a dramatically different way to help thousands of adults in Volusia County who have no permanent place to call home. Some have become convinced getting the homeless into rental properties as rapidly as possible is the answer, but the money and logistical coordination that takes hasn't been lined up.

Others still want a new emergency shelter with a full menu of services, but that idea has been paralyzed by not-in-my-backyard outcries and an impasse between Volusia County, Daytona Beach, and other local governments that haven't been able to form a partnership.

The continued failure to find a solution exploded last winter when about 100 homeless people hunkered down outside a county government administration building on Beach Street in downtown Daytona Beach and refused to move for months. They only disappeared when police forced them to, and the city has since come up with a few temporary solutions, including establishing the open field on Clyde Morris Boulevard as a homeless safe zone from sunset to sunrise.

Those who sleep there have to clear out each morning when the sun comes up, but even if they could stay longer there's not much to entice them. The lot has nothing on it other than a few trash cans, a water spigot and two portable toilets. 

Pastore — who has said he's lived homeless and like others in that situation has struggled with addiction and arrests — charged that the site is "woefully inadequate" and the city's refusal to allow tents shows "the inability of city officials to provide a temporary solution to shelter citizens from the elements and the basic human decency of a safe and legal place to sleep."

Cold weather shelters don't typically open unless the temperature plunges below 40 degrees, so that leaves the homeless left to fend for themselves on those teeth-chattering nights that are only slightly warmer. Durham initially thought he could offer help.

"After meeting with the city manager briefly this morning, I can confirm that at this time the city will allow tents to be erected on a temporary basis at the safe zone until further notice," Durham told Pastore in an email the morning of Nov. 21.

But Durham had to reverse himself after talking to other top city officials.

City Manager Jim Chisholm said camping isn't allowed in parks, and it's not going to be allowed on the safe zone lot. City Attorney Bob Jagger said the city has to protect against liability issues that could arise on the property.

"We need control over how it's operated," Jagger said. 

"We do not want to encourage a tent city," Durham said.

Mayor Derrick Henry agreed, saying "it's not the direction I'd like to head in as a city."

Jagger stressed that the lot is not a park, and it's not OK for anyone to just show up there. But the lot is an option to jail that police can use for the homeless who need a legal place to be at night.  

With or without tents, the Clyde Morris Boulevard safe zone was never intended to be permanent and the ultimate solution for the homeless, Chisholm said. He said there's going to be a new safe zone location at some point, probably on city-owned land off International Speedway Boulevard west of Interstate 95.

While a solution has eluded local leaders, an 8-year-old New Smyrna Beach girl has sparked an effort that will help dozens of homeless people. When asked what she wanted for Christmas, Kendall Smith said her list includes blankets and pillows for the homeless.

Jennifer Tate, who's affiliated with the new Tanger Outlets Nike store in Daytona Beach, caught wind of the child's wish, and she's coordinating an effort that has Nike employees and others locally donating blankets and pillows.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Phil Egitto, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Daytona Beach, said he and his fellow FAITH group members haven't given up on a new shelter. In January, they'll renew their efforts to convince city and county government officials to create and pay for a new comprehensive emergency shelter on county government land west of Interstate 95 next to the Stewart-Marchman-Act addiction and mental health treatment facility.

"I am very hopeful the county will spearhead the effort for a shelter," Egitto said.

It's an idea that's been pursued over and over, but so far it hasn't worked.

"I just don't know what the answer is," said City Commissioner Ruth Trager. "We should have come up with something by now."