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At the Pinellas County come-as-you-are facility, the feeding of the "shelterless" is undertaken by local religious organizations. Gainesville leaders are still wrestling with that issue. One reason come-as-you-are shelters are pop- ular is price. Per person, per day, they tally about one-quarter of the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail. Further, because medical and dental care is available in a shelter, visits to a hospital emergency room can be forestalled. The expense of indigent care is picked up by taxpayers, one way or the other. These Pottinger-inspired shelters offer min- imal but useful facilities, including a secure place to sleep outside, secure storage for pos- sessions, showers and food. While drugs or alcohol are not permitted in these facilities, admission of a person while he or she is drunk or stoned is permissible (the "as-you-are" part of the design). There is no maximum length of stay, and the facility is open 24/7/365. But to move beyond the basic Pottinger ser- vices of toilet, water fountain and sleeping pad, the "shelteree" must come inside the facility, meet a caseworker and start to figure out a plan to change his or her life. The ulti- mate objective is to "graduate" people back into the mainstream, with the help of existing public and nonprofit social service agencies. Lack of job skills, physical disability, mental problems, war-related issues for veterans, family abuse and other "life events" can and do reduce people to living on the street. For those willing to try to change, a come-as-you- are shelter can help. For those who refuse to change, there is still shelter (but no air condi- tioning). It is an equation each individual will figure out for himself. A homeless man sleeps in Five Points Park in June 2012. Photo by Norman Schimmel Sarasota News Leader May 23, 2014 Page 69