Page 9 - Florida Sentinel 9-11-15 Edition

Local
Homeless Helping Homeless Head Alleges Organization Targeted
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
Since they first opened their doors six years ago, Homeless Helping Homeless has tried to provide an outlet for the homeless population of Tampa and Hillsborough County to have a place to call home.
Adolphus Parker, Presi- dent of the organization, said Homeless Helping Homeless provides services the other or- ganizations don’t, and it all comes without the restrictions and mandates.
“From the first day we opened our doors, we’ve had to deal with city officials picking at us,” said Parker.
Homeless Helping Home- less (HHH) filed a lawsuit against the city in May over its ordinance involving panhan- dling. Parker feels that action put them in the bulls-eye of more things happening to shut them down.
Parker’s lawsuit re- sulted in the City Council removing the ordinance for newspaper sales.
“Last Wednesday, police raided our offices, took all of
ADOLPHUS PARKER
our files, our computers, and anything else we needed to ef- fectively operate our shelters.
“The raid was ordered be- cause we were allegedly mis- handling funds, and they have a problem with other busi- nesses being operated to help fund the operations of the shelters.”
Parker said it’s evident the raid was an act of the city getting back at them because of the lawsuit.
“They aren’t interested in the problems in the area and what we’re doing to help solve them. They are looking at what the other two places are doing, and feel that’s enough.
“We’re being forced to move, and they have shut
Homeless Helping Homeless office on Floribraksa was raided by Tampa Police last Wednesday.
“Our source for grants is gone, and without the ability to generate funds, how can we pay for an audit?
“We lost our women’s shel- ter two months ago, and now we have to turn people away. It’s tough not being able to ac- commodate the people who need the help.”
Parker said he’s shocked they are shutting them down with the lack of homeless shel- ters in the area, and a growing homeless population.
“We want to be an asset to the City of Tampa, but we need help.
“We’ve never had a prob- lem with misappropriated or used funds, or drugs being in any of our shelters. We want to be a self-sustaining agency and none of us want to be back on the street. As far as we’re con- cerned, right now we are going to lose 50 beds in addition to the ones we had already lost before the raid last week.”
City Attorney Rebecca Kert said they aren’t able to comment on ongoing litiga- tion, and HHH has filed an amended complaint and they are awaiting a response from their office.
down everything. With all of our funding sources gone, I don’t know how we will sur- vive this. We can no longer work at Raymond James Sta- dium and all of our equipment and personnel have to be relo- cated.”
Parker said with the ex- ception of himself, all of the personnel working with him are homeless, and now he’s concerned about what will happen to them.
“We started out with six shelters, and now we have only
three. We have a trailer we use to store equipment and items we sell at our thrift store, and that has to be moved. Our café, lockers and showers are all gone.
“We really don’t care where we move. It’s just a matter of not having the funds to oper- ate. Right now, we’re hoping our landlord won’t start evic- tion proceedings on us.”
Parker said they never got the help they needed from the city, and they need almost $6,000 for an audit.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 9-A