USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia-S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icia l Ci rcu it Section A, Page 1
Vol. 21, No. 6
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
February 10, 2021
1 Section, 8 Pages
PE NSACOL A’ S E ND LE S S B AT TLE WITH H OM E LESSN ES S by Gina Castro
The country has been in crisis mode for more than a year. Although many have lost loved ones and jobs, others are experiencing a crisis within a crisis. The homeless community both nationally and locally was in crisis mode pre pandemic. The shutdowns, virus and Gulf Coast hurricanes only further increased the local homeless community’s needs. Many organizations that benefit the homeless community are struggling, too—which only makes serving the homeless more challenging. Manna Food Bank, Waterfront Mission Rescue and Alfred Washburn Center experienced a shortage in volunteers, increased need and damage from hurricane Sally. These issues directly affected the organizations’ ability to assist the homeless population. Manna had to close its food pantries in both Santa Rosa and Escambia counties and focus its efforts on reinforcing existing partnerships and programs as well as add a dozen more community partnerships. Several of the partnerships directly benefit the homeless population such as Waterfront, New Hope Church and St. Vincent De Paul. The pandemic caused Manna to have an 87 percent decrease in volunteers at a time it needed support the most. Compared to 2019, Manna had an 81 percent increase in the number of people they served in 2020. From March to September, Manna served 26,684 people—a 123 percent increase as compared to that timeframe in 2019. Waterfront flooded during hurricane Sally, and it wasn’t able to shelter overnight guests until it reopened on Nov. 1. The shelter sustained $700,000 in damages. However, Waterfront Senior Vice President of Public Relations and Development Angie Ishee stated Waterfront’s insurance did cover most of the cost. As part of an effort to reduce the spread of the virus among their guests and better serve the community, Waterfront decided to stop providing its day services and focus on its shelter and drug recovery program. “As we rebuilt and reopened, we put a focus on those services that were not offered in the com-
munity,” Ishee said. “That is why we put a focus on overnight shelter and the recovery program because several others are providing those day services.” When COVID hit the area, Waterfront suspended its drug recovery program to focus on its shelter or rescue program. Starting April 1, Waterfront will be launching its new and improved drug recovery program: Life Builder Recovery Program. This program approaches drug recovery holistically by considering the mental, physical and spiritual well being of the men. Equipped with a dedicated staff and space at the Herman Street campus, the 90 day Life Builder program puts an emphasis on education, accountability and rebuilding a life. Ishee explained that drug addiction is a life dominating issue that often leads to homelessness. For this reason, Ishee said that Life Builder is both a preventive to homelessness and helps reduce the homeless population. “Back in 1949, when Waterfront started on the waterfront in Pensacola, they began serving the fishermen who would come in from a day of fishing. As that journey progressed, they realized there were underlying issues that had to be addressed,” Ishee explained. “They began helping them with addiction issues, drugs, alcohol and other life dominating issues. We realized that we were just slapping a bandaid on. We weren’t addressing the true issue. By offering a hand up, we were just giving a handout. So that became the dual purpose of Waterfront 71 years ago.” Since Waterfront and the Washburn Center, a day center, are on the same floodplains, Washburn Center also flooded due to Sally. The center spent more than $55,000 on repairs, which are still being completed. Washburn Center Director Michael
Downtown Improvement Board distributed these posters to downtown businesses but later removed them due to backlash.
Kimberl explained that the damage to Waterfront as well as the closure of its day center caused the center’s number of clients to increase dramatically. The center had almost 300 individuals in need daily. It’s difficult to determine if the number of homeless individuals in Pensacola has increased as a result of COVID-19. DeDe Flounlacker, Executive Director of Manna Food Bank, explained that many nonprofits, including Manna, are so overwhelmed with the need from the community that the organizations haven’t been able to track demographic information such as an individual’s housing status. Ishee explained that Waterfront has seen a decrease in the nightly average of homeless guests at the shelter. In 2019, the nightly average was 66. In 2020, the average declined to 44, and now it’s 46. “Many of them [homeless guests] are telling us ‘We know it’s a lot safer outside.’ So on the last freezing night, we had 69 people in the building,” Ishee continued. “That number certainly jumps, but on a regular night, when the weather is tolerable, these guys know they’re safer from the virus if they’re outside. So they are simply not coming to stay overnight with us like they did pre pandemic.” Even though Waterfront is practicing social distancing at its shelter, Ishee stated that individuals in the homeless community have told Waterfront that they are choosing to stay outdoors to avoid catching the virus. Mayor Grover Robinson explained that he wasn’t sure if the number of homeless people increased in the city, but he believed that there has been an increase in visibility. “I don’t know if we’ve seen a census increase [of homeless people], but we’ve seen an increase of people out and about more,” the mayor explained. “That’s one thing for sure. Part of that is because many places either quit conducting services or at least significantly curtailed them.” The Downtown Improvement Board (DIB) made an attempt to reduce the number of homeless people and panhandlers downtown. Although addressing the homeless population downtown isn’t directly stated in DIB’s mission statement, DIB Executive Director Walker Wilson explained that the DIB was established to enhance the district’s quality of life and economic success. Since the homeless community is an issue for downtown business owners—the DIB wanted to help solve the issue. “We get pushback from store owners or property owners when we have our homeless residents downtown sleeping in their doorway, or in the unfortunate chance that maybe they use the restroom in the doorway of their business or in the back alley of their business,”
Wilson said. In December, the DIB distributed posters to downtown businesses that encouraged customers and visitors to donate to organizations that benefit the homeless community rather than giving to panhandlers downtown. Business owners were given the choice to hang the posters on their shop windows. Wilson explained that the DIB thought to create these posters after having a meeting with City staff and about 40 to 50 downtown business owners on the issue of homelessness downtown. Meeting attendees shared ideas such as adding public restrooms and water fountains. The posters were inspired by the previous fundraising campaign “Better way to give.” The 2012 project redesigned old parking meters to encourage downtown visitors to donate change to the meters rather than give to panhandlers. “It all stemmed from that meeting that we had with City staff where we had everybody in the room, and we thought, ‘Well, here’s some maybe low hanging fruit that the DIB could try and jump on.’ Something that wouldn’t cost us a ton of money, but we could get the message out.” Many residents expressed outrage over the posters on social media. Kimberl, who expressed his opinions as an individual and not as a representative of the homeless organizations he works for, shared photos of the DIB posters on Facebook, and the post quickly went viral. The issues Kimberl had with the posters was that the information presented on the anti-panhandler posters were not accurate. The poster stated that a $30 donation to Manna could provide 18 hot meals to people in need. However, Flounlacker of Manna confirmed that Manna has never given hot meals. Manna only gives groceries. The poster also stated that a $30 donation to Waterfront could provide a homeless person three nights at the shelter. However, individuals will be charged $10 a night to stay at the shelter no matter if people donate to Waterfront or not. “We have people on the streets that have immediate needs that are not being addressed. Why would we give money to these organizations that are overwhelmed, overworked and not addressing the immediate needs of the community? Not that they’re bad organizations,” Kimberl explained. “It’s just that they’re not addressing those needs. Our community does not provide the adequate amount of help, versus the amount of people we are seeing needing help. If we criminalize or shame people for asking
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for help—which is essentially what panhandling is—while we are not helping them, I think that makes us criminals.” Later, Wilson spoke with Kimberl as well as the organizations featured on the posters and decided to have the posters removed. The DIB hopes to recreate a different poster with a similar message sometime in the future. “I messed up. I did not give those organizations a final look at the poster before it was posted. We had told them that we were creating something, but they did not see the final thing,” Wilson said. “They were getting calls from some of their donors and getting pushed back. Once I heard that, I said, ‘I’m going to take them down. We’re going to regroup, and we’re going to try and come up with something else that’s a little better.’” Owner of downtown business A&J Mugs Dan Lindemann chose to not hang up the DIB posters, but he said he didn’t find the posters offensive. “When I found out that Walker Wilson hadn’t talked to anybody at all, that they were telling people to contribute money to these organizations, instead of giving money to the panhandlers, I thought that was kind of—it blew my mind,” Lindemann said. “They don’t coordinate. They don’t talk to each other, and that was a little bit disturbing to think that we’d go to that extent. But I didn’t take any offense to them at all. I didn’t think they were bad, but I never hung them up because I sensed there would be backlash. I didn’t find them offensive at all. I thought it was kind of a nice little eye opener.” Lindemann has been sharing his concerns about the homeless downtown to the City since Ashton Hayward was mayor. He attended the DIB’s meeting with business owners in November. Back in August 2020, Lindemann expressed his frustration to Mayor Robinson when the DIB opened its Puppy Pit Stop downtown. Lindemann believed public restrooms were needed more. The DIB spent $50,000 on the dog park. “On that morning, when they announced the dedication to the puppy pad, I had someone come by and relieve themselves on my front door with me in my building,” Lindemann said. “I sent a text immediately to the mayor. I was just a little bit put out when I saw that the DIB made this big, huge deal about making a puppy pee pad as if it would be such a great asset to downtown. It just didn’t make any sense. It set me off. Why would we
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