Sarasota businesses speak out on homelessness

When a tenant at his Second Street property cited issues related to homelessness as a primary reason for moving out, Joe McElmeel decided to channel his frustration into a plea for help.

On Oct. 26, McElmeel sent an email to city commissioners. In it, he describes regular encounters with human waste and stories from employees scared to come into work. He volunteers to help address the issue, but he tells the city leaders that their action is desperately needed.

“I moved my residence and business to Sarasota in 2001, bought a home, hired 14 employees, bought an office building and remodeled it because I believed Sarasota was paradise after having vacationed here for years,” McElmeel wrote. “But it’s now becoming a hell.”

McElmeel isn’t alone. As the city and county continue to pursue their options for addressing homelessness in the region, there is a growing anxiety among downtown merchants and property owners about a lack of tangible progress. Although both governments claim to have taken major steps during the past three years, it’s hard for many to see the effects those steps have had.

“To see people leave downtown or not visit downtown because of the issues they find themselves facing, it’s really frustrating,” said Daniel Volz, a member of the Downtown Improvement District. “Finding a solution to that is going to be more than just pumping money into a program. It’s going to take a serious, hands-on approach by the powers that be.”

Many merchants use the same framing device to make their criticisms regarding homelessness. There are those who are homeless as a matter of circumstance, and those people are deserving of community support.

But there is another group labeled as “vagrants.” These people are seen as gaming the system, embracing homelessness as a lifestyle and aggressively panhandling with great success. These are the people who are largely responsible for the disruptive and intimidating behavior, they say.

From hiring private security to installing portable toilets to banning public feedings, there’s no shortage of possible solutions volunteered by downtown business owners. But they’re not the decision-makers responsible for addressing homelessness. From their perspective, city and county leaders have failed to do their job.

“This is something that’s been going on for 10 years,” McElmeel said. “We’re no further ahead today than we were 10 years ago.”

Taking Action

One recurring narrative is that the Sarasota Police Department, despite its best efforts, is unable to properly enforce laws when it comes to the homeless population. SPD Capt. Kevin Stiff calls that an “urban legend.”

“The police department is not having a problem doing enforcement,” Stiff said. “There is nothing we are not doing that we could do if there were a shelter.”

Among city officials concentrating on homelessness, there is a belief progress is being made. Stiff said the Salvation Army and Jewish Family & Children’s Service of the Suncoast housed more than 500 individuals last year. City Manager Tom Barwin praised the SPD’s homeless outreach teams, which include two dedicated caseworkers.

Stiff said he’s seen significant progress over the last three years, and cautioned against a desire to see the SPD arrest the homeless problem away. 

“I understand some people think they’re going to wake up and the homeless issue is going to be solved in Sarasota,” Stiff said. “That’s not going to happen.”

Barwin is happy with information the city has cultivated over the past three years, but he acknowledges some shortcomings. He said Sarasota could more effectively address the health needs of the region’s chronically homeless — a responsibility he said fell at the foot of state and county governments.

“What we’ve learned is we’re experiencing a localized version of a very significant national problem,” Barwin said. “That national problem is rooted in the shutting down of a majority of our mental health facilities in this country over the past 35 years.”

He uses the impact on emergency services to drive home his point. In 2015, 56 individuals had 10 or more visits to Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s emergency room. Combined, those 56 individuals had a total of 981 ER visits. That came with an average cost of $1,358 per visit, and $23,796 per individual.

Until the city asked for those figures, Barwin said, there wasn’t a good grasp on how big a problem the chronically homeless posed. 

“If we treat the cases that need to be treated — the truly ill individuals who are in a full blown state of crisis most of the time — I’m prepared to almost guarantee you the riff-raff will go away,” Barwin said. “They blend in and they hide.”

On Tuesday, the City Commission heard a presentation from officials with the Kearney Center, a Tallahassee facility that offers comprehensive emergency services for the homeless. Those officials said it took more than two years to actually construct their facility, which would give little comfort to downtown businesses seeking immediate relief from their problems.

Some merchants are pessimistic about the prospect of making significant progress on this issue. Others, like Volz, are eager to explore any opportunity to possibly chip away at problems affecting downtown.

Eventually, he hopes, a collective determination will lead to significant gains in addressing the issue.

“It’s easy to point to government, to the gridlock or the bureaucratic process we have, but it’s not really one person or group’s fault,” Volz said. “The biggest issue is getting everybody on board and educating people.”