Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/129431
Sarasota News Leader May 10, 2013 "This place Vallerie is talking about will offer training," said Amanda Bartholomew. "I lost my job as a mechanic; I lost my home and everything. I'm homeless, but I want to get back on my feet again." Page 23 they are concentrated in a one-square-mile area, and they are responsible for a number of crimes far out of proportion to their fraction in society. Assuming a population of 60,000, the 400 The commissioners and staff are now trying street people comprise a mere 0.6 percent of to find out more. "We have 400 people on the the people in the city, a figure not in Barwin's streets at any one time," City Manager Tom presentation. Barwin said later in the commission meeting. Barwin asked the Police Department to "I will look into the $2 million pledge to see if cross-index robberies, burglaries and aggrait's real." vated assaults in 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 with transient status. The department BARWIN'S SCARY BACKGROUND STORY staff told him that 13.3 percent of the robberies were cleared with the arrest of a transient. During the Saturday, May 4, Coalition of City For burglaries, the figure was 23 percent; for Neighborhood Associations (CCNA) meeting, aggravated assault/battery, the fraction was Barwin relayed what he had found out about 16.7 percent. Sarasota's homeless issue. Part of it spilled into Monday's meeting, including his "400 peo- For all arrests — felony and misdemeanor — ple on the streets" comment. transients accounted for 23.7 percent. In other words, "the 400" have been a source of trouble Barwin said that based on national averages far beyond their numbers. by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, given the city's population of Another figure not in Barwin's presentation, 60,000, Sarasota should have 132 street peo- but derived from his numbers: Transients in ple. "But on any given night, the Salvation Sarasota are nearly 40 times more likely to Army will host up to 250 people, and there be arrested for a crime than the rest of the will be 150 more on the streets," he told the population. neighborhood representatives. MERCHANTS GET MAD He called the 400 "street people," a term the "street people" rejected on Monday evening. While street people/homeless/vagrants/tranDeborah Hines said, "We're not all street peo- sients ruled the afternoon City Commission's open-to-the-public session, downtown merple. … We're just homeless." chants stole the show in the evening. Whatever you call them, they are here in a concentration more than twice the national "Since I was here last complaining about the average, Barwin told the CCNA. Exacerbat- criminal element, I have called the police ing the problem is their density. Barwin said multiple times, including today," said Johnna