How Budget Cuts Would Impact Sulzbacher Center

[sheclown]

SULZBACHER CENTER  - CITY BUDGET CUTS
IMPACT SUMMARY

Effective October 1, 2009

Individuals who are not residents of Sulzbacher will not be fed at the Center

Average of 500 men, women and children each day
will be hungry

Increased panhandling and begging in downtown and
surrounding neighborhoods

Lack of nutritious food can result in illness; inability to
work and a spiral into homelessness

      




Families will no longer be sheltered at the Sulzbacher Center


429 children called the Sulzbacher home last year;
they will be sleeping in cars or on the streets

Over 4000 requests from families could not be
met immediately in the last year because the Center
was full; women and children are the fastest growing
segment of the homeless population in our country

The only City shelter that allows all families to
remain together will not be available

Increase in school absences; failing grades and dropping out

Desperation levels for homeless families will increase
dramatically which often results in domestic violence
and/or other criminal activity

[sheclown]

The information stated in the above post comes from the Sulzbacher Center describing the impact budget cuts would have on their program.

[tufsu1]

and where would those 500 people go for food? would there be more panhandling?  would there be more homeless folks walking into downtown/Landing restaurants?

[Charles Hunter]

Why would Sulzbacher Center have to close the family shelter there?  Why not keep it open, since it is the only one, and let the other shelters around town, serve that clientele?

[tufsu1]

because the other sheleters also receive subsidies from the City...so they are likely to face cuts too.

[Charles Hunter]

But, if Sulzbacher is

The only City shelter that allows all families to
remain together

, and if they aren't closing the doors completely, why can't it continue to serve families?  Sounds like a scare tactic - OH NO! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

[fsu813]

1) probably somewhat of a scare tactic

2) real negative consequences will happen, i'm sure

3) part of me thinks massive cuts are needed for the city and organizations to re-think how they structure these homeless programs, though the suffering in the short term would be significant.

[samiam]

There may be an increase in crime for 3 to 6 months. It will take that long for people to start taking matters into there own hands and the easy targets will be gone.  The family that really need social services will still get the help they need but the parasites will move on to greener pastures

[whitey]

and where would those 500 people go for food? would there be more panhandling?  would there be more homeless folks walking into downtown/Landing restaurants?

To one of the other half a dozen or so shelters.  Or hang around the half a dozen or so places downtown that suburban churches give out food?

[samiam]

Suburbanites there so silly. If they truly cared they would take them home with them. Look what followed me home honey, can we keep him

[TheProfessor]

People need to learn to blame themselves.  The only homeless people I feel sorry for are the ederly, disabled, and children.  The rest of them need to be kicked in the butt and set straight.  Nothing in life is free!  I learned that the hard way and that has mad it taste more sweet.

[samiam]

I agree 100% professor. There is one group that deserve more from the tax payer, our veterans. Less than 1% of the U.S. population fights for the freedom that 100% of us enjoy.

[mtraininjax]

There may be an increase in crime for 3 to 6 months.

Forget maybe, its already here, look at the paper and local news, with the gunfire, rapes, and break-ins, with or without the tax increase, we already have lots of have-nots revolting against the haves.

From a local neighbor:

Everyone:  I wanted to let you all know to BE CAREFUL!  I was robbed at gunpoint this afternoon at 4:50 p.m. in my driveway by two young (late teens/early 20's) men.  They demanded everything I had (pocketbook), etc. and told me to get down on the ground.  They they asked for my car keys and stole my car.  I never saw them until they spoke and had the shotgun in my face.    There were no cars on my street, police think they followed me home from Publix and/or UPS store at Roosevelt. 

[Lunican]

An email sent to Metro Jacksonville regarding this thread:

I was reading some of the cheeky comments about those among us who find themselves living in our homeless shelter, as I did for precisely one year.  Let me tell you about a few of the people I met there who needed, according to the post I read on your site, "to be kicked in the butt".  There was the woman who lived there with her daughter.  They'd watched her beloved nephew disintegrate in a home fire. They were  too traumatized to function  any more.  There was the woman whose husband bled to death in her arms from cancer of the tongue.  She was unable to work afterward. There was the woman who had been raped and left for dead in front of the Landing, all of her teeth knocked out. She'd been coming home from her full=time job. She was unable to work for awhile.  There were many, many men and women there who were experiencing horriffic emotional difficulties that caused them to need, desperately, to be housed, albeit temporarily, while they recovered from catastrophies that you cannot imagine.  The girl who'd lost the baby that was a result of paternal incest.  A college student, by the way.  There were fine, upstanding citizens there.  Beautiful, kind people.  Helpful people.  Clever, talented people.  Their lives had been destroyed by something ungodly.  The Sulzbacher saved their lives.  They healed and moved on.  They didn't need the contempt of comfortable people.  They needed the compassion and nonjudgemental generosity of people who willingly made their own lives uncomfortable at times in order to return total strangers to the world of the living.  Thank God for the Sulzbacher.  There is no place like it in Florida or the entire country.