Video of Julia Tuttle

Officers cut up the tents of those who lived under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

Local High School Pairs with Grace Way Village

Grace Way Village, the new non-profit organization in Fort Pierce, has already begun a few of it's outreaches, and with it is local high school John Carroll. The school started clothing drives as recently as April 12th, and looks to collect the clothing for Hope's Closet - the clothing store offering clothing for children from birth to age 17. The clients are given a voucher for 3 full outfits, useable every four months. While the shop is set up nicely for now, clothes for this age group are scarce in St. Lucie County so donations are necessary.

Another ministry launched this last weekend was Matthew's Café, also a part of the non-profit Grace Way. Matthew's Café looks to feed the underprivileged in the community every Sunday evening, and started this past weekend. This ministry is in need of volunteers, so if you live in the area and would like to help, a volunteer form can be found on the website.

Homeless Families have to Pay for Shelters?

While listening to NPR the other day, I heard a piece about homeless families in New York shelters who would be forced to pay up to $900 a month on a sliding scale to live in a shelter there. The commentator's opinion, which would echo mine, was why? Why indeed charge them for a place to live that in other instances is free of charge? Why take the money that many of these families are saving for downpayments on cars, houses, apartments, etc, when it will not even begin to touch the enormous cost of housing all of these families. The subsidies on rent for homeless families have even increased. The opinion of others in the blogging world is that when the government takes money, they are effectively keeping in the ones who are actually trying to get out. While the Coalition for the Homeless takes the side of those in need, who else will?

Miami's Camillus House Looks to Solve Chronic Homelessness

The Camillus House has provided aid to Miami's homeless for over 40 years, and doesn't look like it's stopping. After a legal battle, and the worsening of the economy, the Camillus House finally is making progress on getting their new home.

Like downtown Fort Lauderdale, the Camillus House has been plagued with the comments of many downtown visitors and residents who feel the shelter/kitchen offers little more than to attract the city's homeless thereby detracting from the overall appearance and commerce occurring in the Downtown Miami area. They are now ready to move their operation to a bigger and better home, a project costing $81 million.

The project seeks to put an end to chronic homelessness and will provide 340 new beds for the homeless as well as counseling services, a soup kitchen, and even a kennel for the homeless with pets according to the Sun-Sentinel. The project will provide over 100 permanent jobs for Miami residents, as well as construction jobs in the initial phases. The Camillus House hopes to get and keep the homeless off the streets.

Homeless Sex Offenders Get Housed... for Now

The colony of sex offenders living under Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway are being moved after local, state and national attention has been brought repeatedly to their plight for the last 3 years. The "Jessica" laws in the state of Florida prohibit sex offenders from living anywhere within 1000 feet of a place that "children might congregate." In Miami, this demographic has faced an even larger problem because local laws enforce the measure within 2,500 feet of any school, park or bus stop. As a result, even law enforcement officers have been forced to drop sex offenders under the bridge. Though they had created a makeshift group of houses, boxes, tents and other structures, the public still was outraged on a variety of levels. While some wanted to see them in permanent housing, others were simply irritated they were permitted to live anywhere at all.

For now, their "homes" have been torn down, the the Miami Herald reports that the causeway residents will be moved to trailers and apartment complexes with up to six months rent being paid. Homeless from other areas, even those who aren't sex offenders, have flocked to the area hoping to get some free housing. Over 100 people lived under the bridge, and a few are even still arriving.

Yet skepticism still exists among such noble action, and rightly so. This is only another temporary solution to a very permanent problem. Not only are these people poor and homeless, their sexual offender status presents them with a whole other set of challenges that other homeless people do not face. Not only is housing tough to find in an area 1,000 feet away from a place that children might congregate, but so is employment. And without employment, in six months where will the Julia Tuttle community be? With high unemployment rates, a group of offenders, and the lack of affordable housing that suits their requirements, the group will be out on the street in no time

Events Help Homeless get IDs

With the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles recently passing laws requiring more documents to receive identification, the homeless have found themselves at an extreme disadvantage. The problems facing them are as simple as lacking the money for an id, to a lack of personal records or permanent address. Identification is necessary for most of the homeless, however, as many organizations require some form of official identification before providing aid like food, clothing and shelter.

An organization called IDignity is helping the homeless in Florida get their identities back. The group specializes in retrieving records like social security cards or birth certificates, as well as providing aid in applying for and receiving Florida identification cards and driver's licenses. They held their first event in DeLand and helped about 70 people gather a number of documents from all over the country.

Child Killer Still in Public

The homeless sex offender, Gary Kerpan, was arrested on charges that occurred when he failed to correctly report his address on his registration as a sex offender. He was arrested also in 2007 for failing to report himself as a sex offender. While he began the process of reporting again in Fort Lauderdale, he did not complete the process and report himself as a transient. Since Kerpan is a former Marine, the judge elected to have him transferred to a VA hospital in Miami.

While his official results were not released, a prior case against him revealed he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. Kerpan was then released from the VA, and after notifying the judge of his release, he was returned to the streets of Fort Lauderdale. He now wears an ankle bracelet to keep track of his whereabouts. The Police gave him a free ride back to the city of Fort Lauderdale and enrolled him in an institution so he could get help. Kerpan has an April 13th trial for failing to register as a sex offender.

And while much of the Fort Lauderdale community is up in arms about this man living among them, keep in mind, where will he go? This man with no money, no local family, a severe criminal record and debilitating mental health problems is someone obviously ignored and unwanted by all. Hopefully the town can offer a solution.

Florida Boy Walks for Homeless Children

Zach Bonner, a budding philanthropist from just outside of Tampa, has elected to spend the next half a year on a journey across America. He'll walk nearly 2,500 miles from Florida to Los Angeles in order to raise awareness for the estimated 1.5 million homeless children in America. The Orlando Sentinel quoted Bonner as saying "If it only helps one child, it will be completely worth it". His Mother will be following him around the nation in a donated RV, and he hopes to cover around 15 miles per day.

If you'd like to learn more about Zach, or see where he's going, you can follow him on his twitter, or ZachTracker.com. You can also visit the website for his charity, The Little Red Wagon Foundation.

New Law to make Homeless Beatings a Hate Crime

Officials in Tallahassee have passed a new law that will include the homeless as a group that will be included under pre-existing hate-crime laws. According to the Miami New Times Blog laws already in place "cover race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, advanced age and mental and physical disabilities. The new legislation means that attacks on the homeless will bear more severe consequences.

The legislation centers around a 2006 attack on the homeless by three men with baseball bats, resulting in the death of one individual. The attacks were caught on tape and happened in Fort Lauderdale, outside the FAU campus. Most are in support of the bill, titled HB11, yet there was some dissent. For most, however, this is another step in protecting the homeless.

Child Killer Lives in Stranahan Park

I previously mentioned Brittany Wallman and her Broward Politics Blog for the Sun-Sentinel. As she has been interviewing and investigating the homeless in Stranahan Park, she came across what turned out to be a particularly controversial issue. Gary Kerpan, a 60 year old who frequents stranahan Park confessed to having killed a 12-year-old girl in Illinois in the 70's.



The publication of the interview launched a massive police search for Kerpan, and issued him an order to appear in court. He had failed to report himself as a sex offender living in Broward County.