San Antonio's homeless plan

ST. PETERSBURG - The city of St. Petersburg and other Pinellas communities are taking a hard look at how San Antonio, Texas addresses the needs of its homeless population.

The "Haven for Hope" has several buildings on a downtown campus that offer a wide range of services, including food, shelter, job and life skills training, medical, dental and vision clinics.

There is even a daycare center and a kennel for homeless pet owners.

Dr. Robert Marbut, one of the founders of Haven for Hope, says "street feeding" of the homeless and sleeping in public rights of way are not allowed. Instead, the homeless who want help getting off the street are placed in transitional housing.

The chronically homeless sleep in a courtyard, with three cold meals a day and access to bathrooms and showers.

"I guarantee you, wherever you put your food, wherever you put your safe housing, wherever you put your hot water, your showers and your bathrooms, I guarantee you people will come," Marbut said.

St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster flew Marbut in to speak to an audience that included service providers, judicial officials, and representatives of several Pinellas police agencies and city governments.

Afterwards Foster said the presentation made sense.

"We can actually pay for this if everybody got together, checked their egos at the door...and looked at the whole approach," Foster said.

Marbut spent several days in Pinellas, and thinks there are plenty of services for the homeless, but they are not strategically coordinated. The city may hire him as a consultant to develop a plan for addressing the local homeless population.