Posted on 12/20/2010 9:19:58 AM PST by FromLori
A red-tinged skull hangs on one side, and crossbones on the other, at the entrance to one of Sarasota County's hidden neighborhoods.
"DO NOT ENTER!!! Danger!! Stop Now! or else. Thank you" reads a sign aimed at visitors who venture down a wooded path, through pines and palmetto, to a clearing behind a drugstore and a busy intersection.
The path leads to Pirates Cove, where, in a circle of tents and tarps, a few members of Southwest Florida's growing homeless population try to survive the downturn in an outdoor existence reminiscent of pioneer life.
Swelled by individuals and families displaced by job losses, foreclosure and other problems, the camp is a testament to the severity and duration of the protracted economic malaise.
Over time, homeless camps -- there are perhaps several hundred in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties, by some estimates -- have morphed from temporary refuges to separate communities, such as Pirates Cove, where residents establish their own rules and organization.
"We have it better out here than people struggling to make ends meet," says Joe Medlin, 53, the "mayor" of this tent community, who has been homeless since losing his job in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldtribune.com ...
Welcome to Obamaville
There’s a large plot of pine forest across from my house that belongs to the paper company. Last spring the paper company cleared out the underbrush and found several squatter’s camps there. The crime rate went down right after they left.
Amen!! This sounds like the early Christian “church”.
Before mega monoliths were built, early Christians pooled their resources and survived by helping each other.
This is what we all need to do.
Will CBS will be doing a 60 Minutes program on this Florida Obamaville? (crickets)
Joe Medlin, 53, known as the mayor of Pirates Cove, tries on a silk tie he got for free back in April from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Venice. The church opens an outreach center on Tuesdays and Thursdays, offering residents of the homeless camp like Joe access to certain foods, some clothing, bus passes and pet food, among other useful items. Such camps have become more common since the economy tanked.
As Americas borders remain wide open during war time, as the fedgov continues to send billions overseas in the form of foreign aid...
Huh? We all need to go live in the woods?
This is depression era stuff. Thanks, Obama.
Oh, please.
These bums turn up every winter in Florida and establish their “camps” on every patch of unattended land. A lot of them are sex offenders and most of the others are substance abusers. And many of them are mentally ill. Regardless of who was president, I don’t think they’d be working and living next door to most of us.
In other words, this is the basic drifter population come south for the winter. But every year some reporter goes out to the woods and finds the hobo encampment and writes a long whining article about it (completely neglecting the fact that all the agencies and charities in Florida spend the rest of the year trying to get these people to accept counseling, medical treatment, permanent but drug-free housing, etc.).
I was living in Florida for much of 2009,
went out of my way to travel as much as I could as I knew I wasn’t going to be there for long.
There are squatter camps alongside abandoned foreclosed housing developments all along the I-4 corridor.
Downtown Orlando has 2 squatter camps within 100 yards of a private golf club community with average home price of over 700k.
Over near Cape Canaveral and up and down A1A towards Indian River and Deltona its hard to tell who is and isn’t homeless or a daytripper in the state and county and hunting reserve lands, local deputies seemed ambivalent about the situation as they most have known the situation and had no resources to help and any enforcement would only hinder their dept.’s budget and the homeless guys. Deputies were still ticketing the tourists for speeding though.
Yes, lets pretend there are not 25 *million* Americans out of work, tens of millions of which have lost their homes, businesses, investments, savings, etc....
It's all BS right?
There are families facing this kind of life but this particular story is not about them.
drink, drugs, gambling or just the inability to cope
That’s why these people are homeless.
Yah... it’s too bad we can’t go back to how it was a hundred years ago when there weren’t any bums.
Yeah, but they’re not out living in the palmetto scrub. These bums turn up every year and it’s nothing new.
Charlotte County is stuffed with retirees, many very well off, who give time and money for every charity imaginable. The local paper has an entire page every single day devoted to the charity events going on here. I realize what you are saying about the dire situation our county faces, but I think livius is right, this one is a sob story.
Doesn’t this paper know that when a Democrat occupies the White House that the homeless don’t exist?
NO!!!!!!!!
We need the gu’ment out of our lives, and help each other..... AND get back to the basics.
According to the ash tray on the table, Joe must be able to afford cigrettes at $4.50 a pack.
That’s not what this article is about. The gov’t is very much in these people’s lives, they just don’t know it. They haven’t got a paradise they’re living in the woods in hovels.
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