Homeless expert talks successes, failures in Sarasota County

The chronically homeless are becoming more aggressive in north Sarasota, and their population will only grow without establishing a come-as-you-are shelter.

That outcome is according to Robert Marbut, a Sarasota County consultant who cited reports from downtown merchants and the Sarasota County Fire Department while updating residents on the community's progress in tackling local homelessness during two public meetings Thursday.

Marbut spent the first 30 minutes of the meeting in the County Commission chambers praising the community's progress in helping more than 700 children and members of homeless families, which he credited to family shelters run by Catholic Charities in North Port and Harvest House in the city of Sarasota. 

But, he spent the majority of the presentation lamenting the lack of progress on transitioning homeless adults off the streets.

"Well, candidly it's been a failure," Marbut said. "There's no way you can sugar coat what's happened on the adult side."

Sarasota County Homeless Services Director Wayne Applebee said despite the success in other aspects of Marbut's 12-point plan, which he presented to city and county commisioners about 18 months ago, the lack of a 24/7 homeless shelter has impeded overall progress

Negotiations between the city and county over a location for such a shelter broke down last year.

Marbut said that has led to an increase in chronically homeless. Those individuals use the most expensive public services and are the visible homeless presence most residents and visitors see.

"It has an impact on tourism and economic development opportunities," Applebee said.

Marbut said some Sarasota Police activity has created a whack-a-mole situation that pushes the homeless population throughout the city as certain areas are targeted, which has aggravated those individuals and led to an increase in violence. One incident involved a downtown merchant, while other more serious incidents have included murders.

"There will only be more deaths — more aggravation — if you don't start to do something," Marbut said.

Public input

But, as part of the public comment portion of the community workshop, Orange County teacher Tom Rebman disputed Marbut's assumptions, citing his experience living among and interviewing 7,000 homeless individuals over the last year. He challenged Marbut's claim that a shelter is the linchpin in a strategy to combat homelessness.

"I'm very concerned that we're making decisions on misinformation," Rebman said.

Local attorney Adam Tebrugge said the arrests of homeless individuals for minor crimes only excacerbated the problem, and left many further from transitioning into stable situations.

"Many of my homeless friends are carrying around their papers to show how much fines they owe," Tebrugge said.

Former Sarasota County Charter Review Board candidate Shawna Machado, who herself was homeless for two years, said help should come in the form of reliable transportation and on-the-job training programs.

Economic recovery creates housing pressure

Most of the recent data the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics have released have shown a glowing upward trend in economic activity in the local metropolitan area.

Those numbers may be good news for most residents, but they're bad news for the community's fight against homelessness, Marbut said.

As the real estate market recovers from the recession, rental rates continue to rise. That makes it more difficult to transition homeless individuals into housing.

Concurrently, the "secondary market" — vacant land and abandoned buildings where homeless camps have operated — is disappearing as developers buy up those properties for redevelopment.

Marbut said those factors could make a housing first model for tackling homelessness very expensive.

"Everything is pushing toward zero vacancy," Marbut said.