"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required."

This past Wednesday morning started out like most with the homeless initiative in full-swing -- it's 7:00 am, traveling north on Dale Mabry Highway in morning traffic headed to an early morning appointment where two of my recently housed candidates are waiting for a ride to Workforce Alliance to get help with employment assistance.

Then came the distraction on the side of the roadway. A sixty-year-old man, shirtless and pot-bellied, thumbing a ride as he hobbled with a limp in the concrete gutter.

It doesn't take an expert eye to identify the telltale signs of homelessness: disheveled, unkempt in appearance, surrounded and beset with troubles. I doubled back rerouting abruptly into the closest parking lot to intercept the staggered hitchhiking senior.

The open-ended introduction usually starts in a typical fashion on the street, "What's going on?" I said. Bypassing the formal exchange in the interest of the tight morning schedule.

The man's name is James, and as suspected -- he has been homeless for a year -- just released from the community hospital up the street. He still wears the hospital wrist band and the impressions of two heart monitoring leads freshly ripped from his chest. James tells me that he's thumbing a ride to the social security office but admits he doesn't know it's exact location. With no realistic plan in mind James is a wandering and haphazard mess, his outcome out of his grief is determined by and dependent only on chance and blind luck.

A quick assessment reveals the most urgent priorities for a man in his condition: food, clothing and at least interim shelter. Within minutes of our first meeting James is in my back seat -- we're on our way to a homeless recovery agency by the 7:30 am deadline for assistance. I scratch out a written referral detailing a summary of James' dilemma with a quick note that says: 

"... call me on my cell when he's done."

We now have a working relationship with these agencies; so now, they're in proper cadence with the strategy that comes along with this type of street engagement. It's this type of cooperating effort between traditionally disconnected government entities that has filled the gaps in what has always been a fragmented system.

Fast forward to 1:30 in the afternoon, my two earlier candidates are finished with their employment assistance and returned home. I get a call from Suzanne, the Homeless Recovery case manager helping James. Suzanne discusses her strategy for James over the telephone and asks for my input -- she explains,

 "I've given him an emergency food voucher, some fresh clothing, and interim housing until the end of the month."

 "Great", I said. He has his head above water and now we can work on solving his bigger problems.

I pick James up and hammer out a few details with Suzanne to get the ball rolling with his recovery -- first, a trip to to the Sweet Bay grocery where customers snap there heads in a double take watching a cop and a homeless man fill the basket with the benefit of a food voucher. Thanks to Leona, an office employee at District III, he also received a bag of mens toiletries which greatly saved him on his food bill. It's a quick $65 Dollar food run then back into the patrol car to his interim housing around the corner. James gets situated into his new bunk, and eventually showered and into some fresh clothing.

However ill-conceived, James came down to Florida a year ago to help his son, but like many, he fell into a trap himself. His solution should be easy, he says: a $110 Dollar bus fare back to New Jersey where he has roots and friends that he know will help. In Florida he has no such legacy of assistance. So the plan is in motion -- I'll reach out to someone for the meager investment in their community, I know someone will step up since, "For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required."

Deputy Steven Donaldson

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office

District III Homeless Initiative

Office: (813) 247-0330

Email:  sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us

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