Key West targets homeless camps in wetlands - says action is pro-environmental, not anti-homeless

Key West Citizen and Bait Wrapper ^ | February 18, 2004 | TIMOTHY O'HARA

[Elle Bee]

Key West targets homeless camps in wetlands

City says action is pro-environmental, not anti-homeless; SHAL to count homeless today

BY TIMOTHY O'HARA

keysnews.com

Click for larger view.

ROB O'NEAL/The Citizen
A group of homeless citizens is drawn to the warmth of a compfire Tuesday at an encampment in Key West's salt ponds area. About 40 homeless camps have sprung up in the wetlands near the Bridle Path.

KEY WEST — A group of transients were hunkered around a small fire in the mangroves Tuesday, trying to keep warm during the cold snap that blew through the Florida Keys.

They were nestled in a camp abutting salt ponds and atop some of Key West's most sensitive wetlands. They do their best to keep the area clean, they say, such as picking up their trash and using portable toilets on the nearby Bridle Path. However, mangroves gave way to their encampment and their activity limits the growth of new trees.

"I respect my home. I keep it clean," said Becky C., who declined to give her last name. "I may be homeless, but I have a heart. I'm a human too."

City officials have hesitated to roust the homeless from their woodland camps because federal judges have required other cities to provide shelter before pushing the homeless from publicly owned lands. However, neighbors and city leaders say it is an environmental issue now, because the state has declared the salt ponds protected wetlands.

Many contend the homeless are harming the environment there, and a walk through the area Tuesday supported that claim.

One false move and the portable grill whose blazing logs provided warmth could have sent fire quickly racing through dead leaves lining acres of wetlands.

Old beer bottles, plastic containers and other trash littered the area. Mangroves had been hacked and other tree branches cut down to make room for tents and walkways.

Such environmental degradation must come to a stop, city officials say. The city plans to have police and city employees in the mangroves next week to shut down the camps, Assistant City Manager John Jones said.

City officials thought they had a handle on the camps back in December, with only eight camps there. However, city Park Ranger Russ Draper underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalized for several weeks. He was then on sick leave for two months.

During his absence, the number of camps grew to 40, Commissioner Ed Scales said.

The city will have a solid number on how many people are living in the wetlands after the Southernmost Homeless Assistance League does its annual homeless count today.

Mangrove residents say police told them they can sleep there. Some local residents and environmentalists say it is a ploy to get the homeless out of the historic district and away from tourists.

But, the salt ponds camps are far more environmentally damaging than having them in Mallory Square or along Duval Street, environmentalists charge. Mangroves and other trees wiped out by campers in a matter of days take years to regrow.

"I think it's outrageous that anyone at the city would say they can live there," said Linda Hunt, who lives at the neighboring LaBrisa condominiums. "There are serious health, safety and environmental concerns."

The city passed an ordinance last year that prohibited camping in local wetlands. The ordinance remained in question for months, as the city dealt with building a "safe zone" sleeping area for the homeless. The city also had to make sure that excluding homeless or anyone else from camping in the wetlands did not violate case law that stemmed from a Miami lawsuit, referred to as the Pottinger case. The case made it illegal for cities to remove homeless from public lands if they can't offer alternative shelter.

The decision to get transients out of the mangroves does not violate the tenets set down in Pottinger, Scales and Jones said.

The city also was awaiting approval by the state Department of Environmental Protection to declare the mangroves near the salt ponds as an environmentally sensitive area. The approval came last month.

"This is an environmental issue. They have other alternatives. They have other places to go," Jones said. "But this is going to put a burden on beaches and other places like Mallory Square."

tohara@keysnews.com

.

[Elle Bee]

Liberals: Not in my back yard

The Hilldabeast will be here on Saturday the 21st for a $250 a plate lunch for her wideness

.

[Leisler]

Liberals, zoning, building codes, taxes, planning the plan for the planning commissioners planning future plans to correct past planning errors. And lazy, drunk, living off the taxpayers teat...bums.

[Elle Bee]

welcome to liberal paradise

Photo by: ROB O'NEAL/The Citizen
A group of homeless citizens is drawn to the warmth of a compfire Tuesday at an encampment in Key West's salt ponds area. About 40 homeless camps have sprung up in the wetlands near the Bridle Path.

.

[livius]

using portable toilets on the nearby Bridle Path...

Well, I'm sure that's encouraged many riders to use that bridle path! I see no reason why drifters should be allowed to take over a recreational property paid for by our tax dollars and use it for their residential purposes. California state parks were almost destroyed by the large numbers of squatters (mostly drug using drifters) that took them over in the 1980s. Authorities finally cracked down when some normal campers were killed by a squatter who went on a rampage through a campground, although it's still a problem in some places.

BTW, here in Gainesville, the homeless advocates refer to these drifters nested in our parks as "urban campers." Fortunately, citizen complaints have risen to the point where our police department has started to enforce regulations against - uh, "urban camping."

[Elle Bee]

let's get serious

first there are NO horses in Key West ... none ..nada ..not a one

This is a swamp at the end of a runway and this is an excuse for the v ery liberal town govt to use an environmental loophole to ship the unsightly homeless back up to the mainland without getting sued

.

[angkor]

Looks like the fellows in that photo are capable of working.

[Elle Bee]

why work when you can live in the most expensive city in Florida and panhandle from tourists?

.

[razorback-bert]

I do so love to watch a good "whacko" vs "whacko" brawl.

[nicollo]

Makes one think fondly of the floating shanty town, houseboat row... a far more interesting place than the Walmart strip going the other way around the island, albeit not much of a tax base. Tolerant, fun loving Key West. Just don't mess with tourist money.

Gotta love the hypocrisy of it all.

Nicollo unmasked: Bromleyisms here

[nicollo]

Socialists and bums ever share an uneasy bed. Back in 1910, socialist writer Upton Sinclair headed towards divorce after his wife ran off with Harry Kemp, "the Hobo Poet." More of the same today:

From a homeless advocacy group on Key West, Illegal to be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States:

Key West, FL
There is no city run shelter in Key West and city officials made a proposal that would have paid transportation costs for homeless individuals to travel the 150 miles to Miami-Dade. They also offered money to shelters and homeless outreach centers in the Miami-Dade area to take these individuals in. Officials in Miami-Dade said they were insulted by the offer and could never handle a large influx of people into their shelter system. The protests from Miami-Dade stopped the proposal from occurring.

A City Commissioner requested a video to be taken of homeless people both during the day and the early morning hours. City workers will film groups of homeless people during the day and then again around 4 a.m. to document the problem of homelessness. The video project is specifically targeted at the individuals that the city considers "chronic public nuisances."

An ordinance that bans all forms of panhandling from three major tourist spots passed the City Council. Aggressive panhandling is already illegal, but this new law covers all forms of panhandling, even people who simply hold up a sign. Technically this law will cover Salvation Army volunteers around Christmas and Girl Scouts, but homeless advocates doubt if the law will be enforced for anyone but the homeless. The penalty is a fine up to $500 and jail time. The City Council is looking to expand this ordinance to other areas of the city.

A small stretch of public beach was closed to prevent homeless people from camping there. Public restrooms and showers near the beach were also closed.

The city closed homeless camps in the wetlands, stating that they pose an environmental and health risk. If people remain in the mangrove fields they could be charged with a third degree felony. The penalty is a $500 fine and 60 days in jail. The city promised advocates and homeless men and women that enforcement of this law would be delayed until a shelter with a minimum of 25 beds could be built. City officials called a meeting of residents to discuss the location of the new homeless shelter. Approximately 200 people came to the meeting, mainly to protest any shelter being built in their neighborhood. The Mayor, Jimmy Weekly, proposed building a shelter under the jail. While the city struggles to find a location for the shelter, the police began enforcing the anti-sleeping ordinance in late July.

The mayor and the assistant city manager had stated that there would be a moratorium on homeless harassment until a permanent shelter had been built or and temporary safe camping ground with showers and toilets had been created. Despite this statement the city cleared an empty private lot where several homeless men were sleeping. The men did not have an opportunity to clear out their belongings before the city cleared the land with a bulldozer. The men lost family pictures, a wedding ring, and identification cards. The city gave two of the men bus tickets to Springfield Massachusetts and Napa California and $500 in cash.

The county and state officials forced that last residents of "Houseboat Row" to move to city owned marinas. They were forced to move because the boats did not have sewer hookups. Houseboat row began in the 1950’s as summer homes for high society, but in the 1970’s it "deteriorated." The city voted to keep the houseboats but the city owns the water under the sea wall and therefore had the authority to move the boats.

------

Amazing so much noise can be made walking over pebbles.

[Elle Bee]

they just appointed a new police cheif who was fired from the County Sheriff's dept because he was caught having sex with an underage boy in a patrol car .... but they can't tolerate the unwashed masses

sounds like the DNC

That must be why the Hilldabeast is coming here on Saturday

.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[ContemptofCourt]

As I'm sure you know, this "swamp" is not only at the end of a runway, but across the street from the biggest beach in Key West. And you don't have to walk very far to get into this "swamp".

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[radioman]

Authorities finally cracked down when some normal campers were killed by a squatter who went on a rampage through a campground

He wasn't a squatter. He owned the home across the highway from the campground and went on a rampage after a camper hit and killed his son when turning into the campground.

I agree that these people should not be in the campgrounds, but our laws chased them out of the old hobo camps down by the railroad tracks and forced them into the "controlled" areas.

Why do we always get these stories when we have a Republican president? The homeless problem skyrocketed during the Clinton years, but never made the news.

[Elle Bee]

but it is the police who have dumped them there and now they have come up with the strawman environmental argument to get them out of town

Key West Homeless Jihad continues ... Just in time for the Hilldabeast's arrival on Saturday ....liberals Five palm weavers fined
Key West Citizen
KEY WEST — Coconut palm trees may not be native to the Keys, but they have become a fixture along local beaches and a favorite backdrop for tourists taking photographs. During the past several years, city officials have become concerned about street vendors stealing healthy palm fronds from...

http://keysnews.com/280555443889182.bsp.htm

Volunteers count Keys' homeless population

Key West Citizen

For many in Key West, "going home to bed" means settling into a wind-blocked storefront on Fleming Street to sleep on a cardboard box with a wadded up shirt for a pillow. But how many people do that? How many sleep in mangrove encampments, shower at the Salvation Army trailer and shuffle from the...

http://keysnews.com/281258633993040.bsp.htm

.

[Rebelbase]

Move them up to the everglades, there's plenty of room to spread out there.

[tractorman]

Homeless?

What ever happened to bums, tramps and hobo's?

[Guillermo]

Do you want them there?