Want to help the homeless in Manatee County? Start by not giving money to panhandlers | Opinion

Life can be hard and it’s normal to have negative thoughts invade our head-space from time to time, but there are people living on the streets who can only dream of having “our problems.”

I recently had the privilege of touring the homeless camps with Deputy Joy Jewitt — a full-time job for her — checking on those she knows by name. She is one consistent feature in their lives and there to offer help when they are ready to accept it. The camps we toured were off of main roadways and had been created with a machete to carve a path through the thick vegetation. Inside each of the camps were tents, tarps, chairs, coolers, clothing, piles of trash that looked like a small landfill, a rudimentary bathroom and occasionally strange items like a washing machine, TV, coffee maker and even a boat trailer. Just the thought of hauling a washing machine deep into the woods had me wondering why the decision was made for that massive effort. I guess someone thought the washer may be helpful — someday.

The camps felt like a world struck by the apocalypse, and not even close to the reality we take for granted. Sad and scary sights. Deputy Jewitt told me there are social hierarchies in this world too that result in violence if a newbie invades the space of someone who has rank. The used syringes and orange needle caps, hopelessness and desperation were common themes.

We came across a guy who had a chronic blood disease; and met his dealer, who sold him “pain relief.” We talked with a young woman who had lost her three children in New York and was now a prostitute to support her drug habit. She cried the whole time we were there, but she would not accept the offer to leave for help. Then there was the clean-cut 30-year-old man who told us he wanted to work, but the felonies on his record prevented him from landing a job. We ran into him as his mother (who lived in her car) dropped him off on the side of US 301, where he walked into his “home” in the woods. Then there was the camp of sex offenders, who literally have no place to go.

The property owners are suffering, too. We hiked into the woods with developers who were planning a townhome development on the land and faced an unexpected $60,000 clean-up due to the homeless. We spoke to a business owner who is trying to improve the strip center he bought but faces the homeless sleeping and urinating on his property. The sheriff’soffice can trespass the vagrants from the land but only to take them to jail because Manatee County is severely short on homeless shelters. Once they get to jail, the taxpayers are on the hook for $88 a day, and there are an average of 200 homeless people a day in our county jail. Once released, the cycle continues.

If the humanity of the problem doesn’t strike a chord, it is easy to understand why economically we need to promote change to protect our taxpayers and businesses.

So, what do we do? Let me start with a suggestion of what not to do. Please don’t give money to panhandlers. If you want to help the homeless, donate to any of a number of charities who support them. By the way, not all panhandlers are homeless and not all of the homeless are panhandlers.

We need more shelter space to get them off the streets and more people than just Deputy Jewitt working to help. A good start would be two Homeless Outreach Teams (HOT), each with a deputy and a social worker, like our surrounding counties. These teams can help those who want a different life with daily step-by-step assistance to achieve long-term solutions.

And perhaps the most important step is to focus on homelessness prevention, a multi-faceted problem. Manatee County is behind other jurisdictions in addressing this problem. We are a county of 412,000 and will reach half a million in the next decade, and as the population grows, so too will the homeless problem.

Misty Servia is a Manatee County commissioner who represents south county. You can reach her at misty.servia@mymanatee.org.