By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 13, 2012 

TAMPA --

The philosophy at Homes of Second Chances is to save one homeless person at a time, but the program might soon be able to do more than that.

Hillsborough County sheriff's Deputy Steven Donaldson heads the department's homeless initiative. The program follows a simple model: Get someone who owns a vacant home to turn it over for a year.

During that time, a couple of well-vetted homeless people are housed there; in return for their lodging, they help renovate the home with donated materials.

After a story about the project appeared in The Tampa Tribune on Dec. 7, Donaldson heard from a couple in Pasco County who owns three contiguous parcels in Seminole Heights. The property has three full-size houses and some smaller apartments. In all, the parcels can house a dozen people.

The property has been vacant for three years, Donaldson said.

"I was obviously encouraged, in fact enthusiastic, that these people are out there finding me," he said. The property has been in the family since 1927 and is owned free and clear, he said.

The property is in relatively good shape, he said.

"We toured only a portion of it," he said. "It needs some cosmetic renovations, but structurally, it looks very, very sound."

Donaldson's project has three houses already in use that have taken the homeless off the streets, he said. He knows there are vacant houses throughout the city and county that are falling into disrepair and could be of use.

Such homeowners are "a demographic out there that is untapped," he said.

Donaldson's two-year attack on homelessness is designed to save one person at a time from the streets. There's nothing big about the process and no bureaucracy. It's just Donaldson and some volunteers.

Not every homeless person is a good fit for the project. Donaldson screens candidates and puts them through a "boot camp" before they are chosen to participate.

Anyone interested in Homes of Second Chances can contact Donaldson at www.helpcopshelpus.org.

kmorelli@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7760

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-0330
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

Deputy helping homeless help themselves

By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 07, 2012 

 

Arms folded, Hillsborough County sheriff's Deputy Steven Donaldson watched as the mini-blinds went up in the house on East Linebaugh Avenue. The house had languished in disrepair for years in the Castle Heights neighborhood, but now it was not only occupied, it was being fixed up.

Homes of Second Chances was working, and gaining ground.

In the program spearheaded by Donaldson to help the homeless, the business model is simple. Get people who own run-down, vacant homes to "loan" the property to the project for one year. In return, the houses are renovated for free and become homes for previously homeless men, who work on the renovation for the first year.

After that year passes, the rehabbers begin paying rent, as much as they can afford.

Materials are donated, as is some labor on bigger renovation jobs, Donaldson said.

He has mounted his attack on homelessness by trying to help one person at a time. There's nothing big or grandiose about the process, and virtually no bureaucracy. It's just Donaldson and some volunteers.

Donaldson has been with the sheriff's office for 18 years and now heads up the sheriff's homeless initiative. It's a path that began a couple of years ago when, as a road patrol deputy, he was asked to handle the panhandling problem in Town 'N Country.

 There, he saw that homelessness was taxing government, charitable and law enforcement resources, and came up with the idea for Homes of Second Chances.

The Linebaugh Avenue home is the third donated to the initiative. The rundown house sat vacant for three years, Donaldson said, and was inhabited by "uninvited homeless" before it was turned over to the project.

Now, new floors have been put in and the walls scraped, sanded and painted. The porch got new railings and steps.

"Eighty percent of the work is done by the guys who live here," Donaldson said. "It's all about rehabilitation. It's a chance for these people to show what they're made of.

"I'm not a homeless advocate," he said. "I'm an advocate for solving problems."

Ricky Jones and Wilbern Leonard now live in the two-bedroom, one-bath house and were putting up mini-blinds on Thursday.

Leonard was homeless for about a year, destitute as he waited for disability checks to start coming in, when he heard about Donaldson's project.

"This means a lot," he said as he handed Jones a level to make sure the blinds were just right. "You're doing the work; you're putting the sweat into it. And you know it's going to be your house. That in itself is worth it."

Not everyone is a good fit, Donaldson said. He screens candidates and puts them through a "boot camp" before they are chosen to participate. So far, all have passed muster, and more than 100 people have benefited from the program in one way or another over the past couple of years, he said.

He said his experience as a law enforcement officer gives him the ability to know by talking with someone whether they will fit with the goals of the program.

They must be willing to work and not blame others for their homelessness.

"I monitor the projects," Donaldson said. "If at the end of six months there is no progress, they get a kick in the pants."

Anyone interested in Homes of Second Chances can contact Donaldson at www.helpcopshelpus.org.

The initiative is being watched by homeless advocates in the county.

"Deputy Donaldson is passionate about what he is doing," said Edi Erb, interim director of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.

"A critical part to ending homelessness is engaging people who have been living on the streets a long time, many frustrated with the system and how they have been treated," she said. "Deputy Donaldson is talking with people who are homeless, listening and connecting people with solutions. And in the process, he is engaging the community."

Pete McDonald lives nearby and pulled into the front yard Thursday afternoon.

The house "had been an eyesore," he said. When he first noticed work being done, "I thought it was a crime scene, with the patrol car parked there. I stopped, and Deputy Donaldson explained the program to me and what he was trying to do."

He said neighbors are behind the project.

"This takes a problem away and puts somebody who needs a home in a home," he said. "It's a good idea."

Help us tell the story of your Hometown Hero

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Send your nominee's name and a brief description of his or her selfless acts to Hometown Heroes, Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 191, Tampa, FL, 33601. Or go to TBO.com, search: Hometown 

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Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

North Tampa's revival is slow, but that's OK

By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 29, 2012
   

                   

Just a few hours after Mayor Bob Buckhorn's announcement Tuesday of a large-scale plan for the transformation of downtown Tampa, I was riding with City Councilwoman Lisa Montelione in a part of the city that could use a little love.

While Buckhorn touted a rebuilt urban core with new high-rises, a completed Riverwalk, festivals and upscale places to live, Montelione couldn't wait to show me the new drainage project not far from the University of South Florida. It will help ease chronic flooding problems in the area.

As we drove over streets badly in need of repaving, past several abandoned homes with weed-choked yards, she would occasionally point at daisies popping up through the blight.

"See there?" she said, pointing at a well-kept house. "That looks nice. And that one over there looks nice, too."

* * * * *

It has to start somewhere, and in areas like Terrace Park and the neighborhoods around Busch Gardens it might mean something as basic as flood control and streets that don't wreck your car's suspension."Having infrastructure in place for any community is the foundation of success," she said. "If the streets flood, the roads deteriorate. If the roads deteriorate, housing values fall. If housing values fall, people move out and abandon the area."

Besides the basic neighborhood necessities of better streets, parks, sidewalks, streetlights and flood control, there has to be a long-range plan to lift the area. Leaders have been talking about that for a while, including the creation of high-tech jobs around USF.

From 6 to 8 tonight, Montelione and Buckhorn will hold an open house at the Gwazi Pavilion at Busch Gardens to talk about those plans. The planning commission has been talking with neighborhood residents and business leaders about what they want. Tonight, they'll reveal the results of those surveys.

* * * * *

There is no quick fix, though. That much became clear as we continued our drive before stopping at 15th Street and Linebaugh Avenue when Montelione spotted sheriff's Deputy Steven Donaldson. He was outside a two-bedroom home where workers were busy hammering, nailing and generally fixing up the place.Donaldson's job with the sheriff's office involves reaching out to the homeless. That's how he found the men working on this house. One was in a cold-weather shelter, another was begging by a roadside. The house they were working on had been abandoned.

The deal is the men do the work, under supervision of another formerly homeless man who has construction skills. They use donated material and when the job is done, they can live there rent-free for a year as they transition back to the workforce. It helps the men and removes an eyesore from the neighborhood.

There isn't a magic wand that will make it better overnight, but revival is starting. 

It's a slow-go that will take years to complete, but it's starting. Think of it as a mosaic, being stitched together one street, one house and one life at a time. 

That's the way it works in North Tampa.

www.facebook.com/JoeHendersonTrib

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

North Tampa's revival is slow, but that's OK

$3 Billion dollars later homeless youth on the rise

I often heard his name and gathered reports of his parking lot appeals — humbly posturing for dollar bills in shopping center lots. But, several weeks would pass before I would first meet the homeless 21 year-old young man named Jesse.

It seems for almost five years Jesse’s homelessness went largely unnoticed until more recently when he became the fixture of accounts as stories of the unkempt young man repeatedly filled my voicemail and email box with near sightings. Even for the fleeting passerby the forsaken exploits of squandered youthfulness rarely goes unnoticed before someone picks up a phone.

 It would be a mid-afternoon in August before I first stumbled upon the likes of Jesse’s description in a disheveled persona walking down a Town N’ Country Street. He darted out of view and it was the police instinct that hunted him down feasting inside a Burger King dining room. Most in a state of homelessness are a little distant when confronted by the police without warning —"Are you Jesse?" it was obvious that he thought twice before responding to my question and when he did his answer came across as defensive.

I introduced myself, “I’m Deputy Donaldson,” and with this announcement there was a sign of relief with his response, “You’re Deputy Donaldson … I’ve been looking for you!” Little did he know that this chance encounter would be the first day that would begin his recovery from the streets.

What saved Jesse from what may have been a life of homelessness is a term we now call street engagement and it is augmented by a modified expression of the long arm of the law. Jesse was homeless for almost five years simply because as a wayward homeless youth on the streets he was left to his own devices without interruption. As it stands right now, by default from a lack of better options, we fully expected Jesse and other homeless youths like him to solve his own problems knowing that his best work got him into this predicament in the first place.

 Many would argue that Jesse is the victim of life’s social ills and perhaps being the product of a wretched and disadvantaged upbringing. And, you may be right on all of these accounts but sympathy by itself won’t solve any of Jesse’s problems — and, sympathy by itself without disruption of his current pattern of behavior could and will make Jesse’s problems much worse. 

The most compelling argument should be the more obvious one considering how long Jesse remained on the streets unfettered and unrestrained: regardless of the homeless recovery mechanism of assistance deployed, regardless of how much money is spent on federal, state, and local programs to help people like Jesse off the streets — if we don’t unearth these homeless youth from their unconstrained slumber and anonymity — if we don’t find them, engage them, and redirect them, we will never be able to help them get off the streets.

We should all accept the fact that there will never be enough money, otherwise known in institutional and non-profit parlance as funding, to solve all of our problems. Since 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that almost $3 Billion dollars is spent annually on federal homeless programs and the fight to end homelessness is nowhere in sight. 

Homeless assistance agencies will never have the required funding to provide the girth of street outreach to make even a dent in the size and scope of our homeless population. So, it’s time to consider some legitimate options that have  more logistical appeal based on the resources that we already have at our disposal.

Could the long arm of the law become an expression for homeless recovery and assistance?

 One of Hillsborough County’s most “incorrigible” homeless men has been arrested a startling eighty times since 1996 which has obvious implications with the associated burden on local county services. Without having to do the math it should be clear that law enforcement agencies already have skin in the game with a seemingly accidental vested interest with the likes of this one man living on the streets. Law enforcement agencies across our nation exhausting assets on similar contributors of blight have a simple business decision to make: would you invest a nickel of your resources to help this same man off the streets to save a dollar in expenses that you would otherwise exhaust when we arrest him more than eighty times?

The appropriate answers should come to us without question when we are headed into a steeper decline of belt tightening and budget cuts. Helping a homeless youth like Jesse and other men and women experiencing similar plight is not only deference to duty as public servants but it is also a resounding and solvent business decision in these fiscally uncertain times.

Efficient and successful homeless recovery is more about establishing relationships through street engagement that thoughtfully disrupts and realigns a wayward soul redirecting them individually towards a path of self sufficiency.

Beyond my beat-cop salary it should prove interesting that this method costs us virtually nothing.

In contrast, conventional and standardized efforts mandate funding the many locks and levers of institutional programs that first require supportive infrastructure and layered management before the first candidate is offered help. I’m certain there is a productive outcome to this mesmerizing madness but if a homeless candidate should successfully navigate the labyrinth of social assistance the follow-up question should be, when compared to the expense: what was the margin of success? 

We have discovered the iconic imagery of the nostalgic beat cop has many problem solving virtues that we can exploit to better our communities and the people within them — but, only if we wield our perceived authority in the right direction and for the right purpose. The young man named Jesse passed through the conventional and standardized system to no avail and landed back on the streets where he fell back in my lap.

Jesse's ultimate success only proves to me that we will not likely be able to buy our way out of our current homeless epidemic so we better start becoming a lot more creative with the resources we already have and spend a lot less money on air-conditioned office space. 

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

Tony with Tampa's Clean City Division Jumps on Board Homes of Second Cha...

Tony is a supervisor with Tampa's Clean City Division. When I first met Tony he thanked the Help Cops Help Us Team for finally cleaning up the Linebaugh Ave home. "It's been an eyesore for more than three years," he said. "We would drive by it almost every day and have to pick up trash accumulated in the front yard."

Tony's remarks are testament that vacant and abandoned homes contribute to blight in the neighborhood. Homes of Second Chances not only restores the lives of the men that are enlisted to fix them up, but it also revitalizes the neighborhood and empowers the community all at the same time!


DEP D

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

Published on Nov 1, 2012 by HCCHawkTV

Hawk TV's Ryan French explores "Homes of Second Chances" and "Youth Aiding Youth." These initiatives help get the homeless off the streets and are led by Deputy Steven Donaldson his son Brent, who is an HCC student.

For more information: http://www.facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Wilbern Leonard never thought he'd have a house to call his own. For a year, he lived on the streets.

"I didn't think it'd happen. I thought I'd be one of those people that, the concrete jungle gets ahold of you and the next thing you know, you're in trouble."

But instead, Deputy Steve Donaldson got a hold of him. He's with the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office and known as the 'Homeless Deputy.'

Two years ago, he started a homeless iInitiative. It's called Homes of Second Chances.
"The philosophy is successful," explained Deputy Donaldson. "When we take people off the street, when does rehabilitation begin. It begins the moment we put them under a roof."
The homes are not in foreclosure. Most are vacant homes.

"The moment it's vacant, people start vandalizing it, moving in, stealing air conditioning, which is what happened here," Donaldson continued. "They steal the water heater, which is what happened here."

He got the homeowner, Jane Keys, to lend them the house. It's been vacant for three years. Deputy Donaldson brought in companies to renovate. Team Home Depot brought all the supplies and some manpower. ARS donated the entire air conditioning system.

"It's a zero-cost project. There's not a dime that is affecting the tax-paying citizens," Donaldson said.
Wilbern can't wait until the house is finished.

"I think it's just the greatest thing that this house is going to be remodeled. And not only that, I'm going to be living in it."

It's the fourth house renovated and occupied by a former homeless person. They can live in the house for up to a year, rent-free. But at that point, Deputy Donaldson says they have to show some forward movement, they have to show progress, that they're working to get back on their own two feet.
Albert Swiger is the poster child for turning your life around. For most of his life, Albert was a drain on society.

"I have over 200 arrests, not something I'm proud of," he admitted.

He met Deputy Donaldson when he was holding a "Will Work for Food" sign along Hillsborough Avenue and the Veterans Expressway. The deputy decided to take a chance on Albert, and Albert is thrilled he did.

"It's a blessing. To go home and take a shower, stuff like that, go to the refrigerator, get a cold drink, cook something hot to eat, having a bed to sleep in."

Jane Keys says it's a win for her too. She get a renovated house and as soon as he can, her new tenant will start paying rent.

"I just couldn't get on top of it, it just kept getting worse and worse."

Wilbern can't wait to get in and start up his love for cooking.

"It's going to be a blessing to, instead of opening a can of beans or some ravioli and eat it cold, it's going to be nice to go back to cooking again."

For more information, check out Deputy Donaldson's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs

By: Laura Harris TAMPA -

Wilbern Leonard was homeless. He said he had no place to go. He lived on the streets of Tampa for an entire year until he was introduced to the "Homes of Second Chances" initiative put together through the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

"When you're told that you are going to be put into a home and you keep telling yourself its not real, its not real, until you step through that door," says Leonard. "I'm back in a home and I am back to being a human person.

" This particular division of the sheriff's department finds dilapidated homes in the area and instead of letting them stand as possible hot beds for danger, they make them possible homes for those in need. This, in fact, is the fourth home they have refurbished since the program's inception in December of 2011.

 "We partner with organizations, like Home Depot Foundation," says Steven Donaldson, HCSO Deputy. "They provide us with grant money to actually allow us to do the renovations on this home to make it liveable again."

And its the program that just keeps on giving. Since they rely on donations from organizations like the Home Depot Foundation and ARS Air Conditioning, the program is at no cost to the taxpayer.

Leonard says he can't thank the organization enough for their help and in fact, he says despite his disability, which makes it hard for him to get around, he still tries to help in any way he can.

"My disabilities don't allow me to do much but pick up some paper, sweep up, everytime I sweep or do a little something I have to take a break because I'm not as winded as I used to be," says Leonard. "I just thank God that all these people have come together to do something special.

 "My disabilities don't allow me to do much but pick up some paper, sweep up, everytime I sweep or do a little something I have to take a break because I'm not as winded as I used to be," says Leonard.  "I just thank God that all these people have come together to do something special.

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

Making a Difference: Deputies rebuild for the homeless

 Tampa, Florida -- About two years ago, the paths of two men crossed, changing the course of both of their lives. One was homeless, battling drug and mental issues. "I was holding a sign on the side of the road to survive," said Albert Swiger. 

The other, a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy, patrolled the streets noticing the growing problem of panhandlers in the community. It was on the side of the road where the two met, as Swiger held his sign begging for someone to help. As the community debated about what to do about the panhandling problem, Deputy Steven Donaldson decided to fix it. "The answer to homelessness is housing," he said. "If you want to solve a problem, the person closest to the problem has the best answer."

The answer was simple. Many of the homeless, like Swiger simply want a home. This is where the idea of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Homeless Initiative was born, the brainchild of Deputy Donaldson. He didn't want to just help the homeless find a shelter, he wanted to provide them with a place to live where they can focus on getting their lives back on track. So, he developed "Homes of Second Chances," a program that takes borrowed homes and transforms them into homes with the homeless using donated time and supplies. 

"It didn't start in a boardroom, it started in the street," said Deputy Donaldson. The "borrowed" homes are not in foreclosure. They have simply become a burden to the property owner who cannot sell or rent the property. Many of these properties fall into disrepair, collect code violations, and become a burden on the neighborhood. "We unearthed a hidden demographic in the real estate market. Basically, these are homes that homeowners have given up on," explained Donaldson. The property owners put the house on loan and 'Homes of Second Chances' fixes them up with the help of donations from Home Depot Foundation and local businesses who donate time and supplies.

Swiger moved into the first home completed last December. It wasn't an entitlement though, he had to work for it. He not only put his own blood, sweat, and tears into the rehabilitation, he is also required to stay drug free and keep his focus on getting his life back on track. "I'm paying rent, paying my own bills, I have my own jobs I go to, make my own money, that's the growth factor in the program," he said proudly. He is now helping to rehabilitate the program's third home on Tampa's East Linebaugh Avenue.

"He's still part of this thing we do, they never really go away. It's almost a brotherhood," said Deputy Donaldson. Swiger is hoping his story will inspire future tenants. "It shows people who are there, here's somebody that's grown that much, that they can grow that much themselves," said Swiger.

The goal of the program is to place the homeless individual in the home for up to one year rent-free, as long as they are vetted to be fit for the rehousing program and take part in the rehabilitation. Wilbern Leonard will be moving into one of two bedrooms in the East Linebaugh home. He says he has been homeless for one year. Like Swiger, he met Deputy Donaldson on the streets. "There's a lot of times I'll catch myself in the middle of the night waking up and I still don't find it to be true, but then you look around, see all these people in the house and it reminds you, it's very much true," said Leonard.

Deputy Donaldson is still interviewing for a tenant who will take the second bedroom. He says trust has a lot to do with it. He puts a lot of his own time into these homes and already has a fourth home waiting for renovations. He does it all without help from the taxpayer. "It solves the problem immediately with the homeowner, it solves the relevant homelessness problem and we solved the neighborhood's problem all without any tax payer dollars," said Donaldson. 

The program is only about two years old, but he hopes to continue to expand it to help more people. The Sheriff's Office does not make it happen on their own, though. The Home Depot Foundation is a big donor, as are local business like ARS Heating and Plumbing that donated a whole house A/C unit and installation, US Installations donated the supplies and labor for flooring and All Weather Tree and Landscaping are donating supplies and labor for landscaping.

Businesses or individuals who would like to help with their time or cash donation can learn more by visiting helpcopshelpus.org.

We asked Deputy Donaldson why he does what he does. The answer came easy, "I had a purpose as a police officer for 15-18 years, but now I have a more defined purpose and that defined purpose produces a product." The product is not just a home, but a life changed forever. "Humanity isn't dead. There are still some good people out there and Steven Donaldson is one of them," said Wilbern Leonar

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

Father and Son leave behind legacy of homelessness

Gerald Glassmyer and his son Paul living in a homeless camp

After twenty five years of living on the streets of Tampa Gerald Glassmyer could be considered a career homeless man.

More than a year ago I first met Glassmyer after slapping the cuffs on him. The arrest however came with a bit of advice: "Call me when you settle the matter and I'll help you get off the streets." Not unlike many others suffering from the advanced stages of homelessness Glassymer didn't take the friendly advice right away. If not for a chance meeting many months later it was likely that he would have never called for help. 

During most of this time Glassmyer lived behind an abandoned furniture store on a northern strip of a Dale Mabry Hwy thoroughfare. Taking shelter under a low slung tarp affixed to the side of the aluminum warehouse structure it was a breeding ground for Florida-sized mosquitos.

After working with the chronically homeless for more than two years on the streets I've learned that in these most extreme cases of homeless entrenchment life is a perishable skill set that we on the outside sometimes might take for granted.

In the many trips as a front seat passenger through the city Glassmyer was almost mesmerized by the development in the cities landscape. Living a life of self-imposed isolation for as many years Glassmyer's relatively short road-trips where the same to him as traveling to a far-off and exotic paradise. 

He was also confused about the connectivity of people he didn't know -- and why they would write encouraging comments on stories I wrote about him on a website he later learned to call Facebook. During one of his road trips he saw a Google screen on my laptop and admitted that he didn't know what it did or why people would even need to use it. For this lonesome demographic way at the end of a hockey stick curve this lacking mentality should explain why street engagement is so worthy and the void it fills in the gap of services with conventional homeless recovery efforts.

A few months into Glassmyer's homeless recovery his twenty-four-year-old son became homeless and they double bunked together at his homeless camp. It would be the first time I would find myself working with two generations of homelessness both at the same time. Paul Glassmyer, I soon found out, would be a much easier fix than working with his father suffering from a much deeper entrenchment.

After so much weathered time out on the streets your body, mind and even your soul becomes definitively conditioned to a certain way of life that all but rejects conformity and responsibility.  There was a lot of hand holding and mental realignment with Gerald Glassmyer's resistance to assimilate back into any measure of normalcy that would surely come with having a roof over his head.

For these and other reasons Paul Glassmyer would recover from the streets long before his father would and he was ultimately forced to make a decision to leave his father behind at least temporarily. It was a decision Paul had to make and it was a decision that would leave both men in despair. Gerald thought his hopes for getting off the streets had worsened once he was left behind by his son -- so, when the news came that I had a place for him to stay I was certain it would be a boost to his spirits only to find out that it wasn't.

Gerald Glassmyer found refuge from the street behind a vacant business     

Visiting what would be Gerald's new home he seemed even more distressed than being out on the streets alone than I could have ever imagined. Just when I had thought I learned all I could have about the homeless condition something new gets dumped on me and it came as a big surprise just the same. Gerald was suffering from anxiety with the abrupt change in a lifestyle that he had grown accustomed to after twenty five years. It wasn't an easy transition for him to make, living such a mainstream lifestyle -- even after accepting the rational desire to get off the streets --  his predisposition was telling him something different. 

Much like his son Paul, Gerald was forced with making a decision he simply wasn't prepared to make. At the moment of being faced with taking what would be a leap of faith he was stuck in a vice grip of indecisiveness and uncertainty. Leaving a former life behind that he had grown so accustomed to even with all of its admitted troubles was harder than he or I could have ever anticipated.

There are many others just like Gerald stuck between competing struggles of past regrets and future anxiety and it has little or anything to do with a languishing economy. Fortunately for Gerald and his son he made that fateful decision and today I can say both he and his son are off the streets.  

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org

The Homeless trade sweat equity for a place to live

EDITOR'S NOTE: A version of this story appeared in Tribune community sections this week.

 By GEORGE WILKENS | 
 The Tampa Tribune
Published: August 30, 2012
 
Russ Lester III, who lived on the streets of Town 'N Country for two and a half years, is back on his feet, employed, paying rent, "doing OK."

Solving the homeless problem is simple, Lester says only half-jokingly: Get the homeless into homes.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Donaldson, who found Lester a home, might not agree it's so simple. 

Donaldson heads the department's homeless initiative launched in Town 'N Country in June 2010. The inventive, multifaceted program combines the veteran deputy's street smarts and community contacts with help from enterprising landlords, corporate grants and faith-based groups. 

Albert Swiger, 45, the initiative's first client, is its poster child, said Donaldson. "When I met Albert two years ago he was flying a sign at the corner of Veterans Expressway and Hillsborough Avenue," asking for money.

A former commercial fisherman and construction worker, Swiger said he was homeless for five or more years, often living in a tent in the woods. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he got an apartment, with federal money paying his rent.

"At the end of the year he was back on the street and back in my lap because the grant ran out," Donaldson said. "There were no relearned skills; he basically received an entitlement with the 2009 stimulus package."

* * * * *   Last fall, after addressing the men's group at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, Donaldson was approached by Greg Gingeleski, who attended the meeting of the group that serves Saturday breakfast to homeless people, with a side order of scripture.

Gingeleski, 40, owns four Old Memorial Highway rental homes, small-frame structures left in dilapidated condition by evicted tenants. Before meeting Donaldson, "I was at the point of demolishing the homes," he said.

The pair devised a plan allowing handpicked homeless people to live in the houses rent-free while making repairs. More than 80 percent of the homeless have construction skills, Donaldson has learned.

"That's basically what the exchange is. They have to have skin in the game; they can't get something for nothing," he said. "Everybody's a winner, if you think about it."

The homeless person gets a place to live; the owner gains improvements to a now-livable structure occupied by a paying tenant. Blight is eliminated.

The rent-free period lasts for as much as a year and provides time for the occupant to become self-sufficient. "They are accountable to me, and I follow up," said Donaldson, a de facto landlord who oversees renovations. "It takes a helping hand, and it takes a heavy hand, sometimes."

* * * * *   The initiative has attracted assistance from others. 

Noble Ministries in Land O' Lakes stepped up to provide support services, including homeowner recruitment and grant application assistance. The ministry is headed by Ali Noble and her husband, Jay, a former deputy who once worked with Donaldson.

The Home Depot provided a $5,000 grant, with another $700 from a vendor, Glidden Paint. Team Depot, the Atlanta-based company's volunteer arm of employees, scheduled a workday, providing tools and labor for what became Swiger's residence.

After clearing the house of vermin and mounds of trash, Swiger moved in. Two months later he was paying rent, earnings from the handyman business he started and income from his full-time job with Gingeleski's Great Danes Landscaping.

Lester learned of the program through Swiger and is now his neighbor. He, too, works for the property owner's company, maintaining and repairing landscaping equipment and also doing side jobs.

Swiger and Lester both cite drugs as a major contributor to their downfalls. 

"I'm doing OK," Lester, a former ironworker, said as he sat on his screened front porch with his recently acquired 6-month-old mixed-breed dog, Althea. The 57-year-old earns enough to pay for his $550 rent, plus electricity, telephone and cable TV. He is making payments on his 1992 Chevy pickup.

* * * * *   Gingeleski is pleased with the program that provides tenants who, as workers, also are assets to his company.

"I'm trying to develop these gentlemen into leaders of the community, eventually," he said. "I'm not going to give anybody a handout that doesn't help themselves. These gentlemen want to help themselves, and that's the biggest thing. You help yourself, I'll help you."

Swiger turned to burglary and other property crimes to fuel his drug habit, resulting in felony arrests that rendered him virtually unemployable. A January 2009 drug conviction led to him kicking his pain-pill addiction, he said. He looks forward to when he can answer "no" to an important job application question: "Have you had a felony conviction in the last five years?" 

"People still judge me according to my past, but it's not who I am today," Swiger said. "Today I'm a different person."

Later this month, Tampa will host the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney will accept his party's nomination and fifteen thousand credentialed media will swarm the city.

In this week's issue of Huffington, Saki Knafo spotlights a Tampa most of the media will not see during their stay. Hillsborough County, which surrounds Tampa, has 60 homeless people for every 10,000 residents -- more homeless per capita than any other American city or county. As a result, Tampa has become a kind of civic laboratory, with citizens, police, and government grappling with all the problems that accompany homelessness.

Saki Knafo introduces us to several of Tampa's homeless, as well as those who seek innovative solutions to their predicament. Among the latter is Steve Donaldson, a Hillsborough County Sherriff's Department deputy with a lifelong passion for problem solving (it began with a childhood fascination with Donald Trump and evolved into a respect for unconventional thinkers like Malcolm Gladwell). In his first decade with the department, Donaldson was repulsed by what he encountered out on the beat: the drug addicts and derelicts who seemed beyond help. But then, something changed in the way he saw Tampa's homeless, and in the way he went about his daily work. Since then, as Knafo puts it, Donaldson has been "on a mission to convince police and ordinary civilians alike that the answer to the homeless problem lies not in arrests and jail but in something far more subtle, the relationship between a single homeless person and a cop."

Since 2010, Donaldson has helped get more than 100 people off the streets -- including Albert Swiger, who with Donaldson's help traded a life of crime, and more than 200 arrests, for home ownership, a job and a girlfriend. Donaldson has done this by looking to both the public and private sectors. Many homeless people are unaware that they qualify for benefits, and part of Donaldson's relationship with his "clients," as he calls them, is making sure they understand what they're entitled to. He's also tapped his contacts in real estate, convincing property owners to let his clients work on abandoned homes in exchange for staying in them.

As the Republican convention approaches and all eyes turn to Tampa, Saki Knafo puts flesh and blood on the homelessness crisis, and gets an answer from Donaldson about what changed his perception of the homeless: it was the realization that he had "more in common with them than I would like to think."

Full story at the Huffington Post:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/tampas-maverick-cop_n_1765365.html

Full Color Magazine Story on Google Docs:
 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7WHQhwO0vc_SzR4Y2Q2THoyYTg/edit

(Highlight Link Then Right Click Open In New Tab)

Noble Ministries partners with Help Cops Help Us team to fulfill collaborative mission

Tampa - Story by Brent Donaldson

 

More than ten years ago retired Deputy Jay Noble joined the ranks of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. It was during his tenure where he began his career like most, as a beat cop on the streets of Tampa responding often to the same complaints about the same people with the same problems. 

"It's a never ending cycle of distress that rarely seeks a resolution," says Noble.

More recently, Noble made a decisive move in the direction of personal fulfillment to answer his life's calling as he describes it. He retired from his decade of law enforcement to launch Noble Ministries with his ministry partner and wife "Ali" Noble.

Like Jay Noble his wife Ali comes from a regimented corporate-styled infrastructure where she gave up the trappings of a secure salary along with the allure of benefits. It was their shared passion and a mutual desire to fulfill a common mission that made her move from the corporate world easy. "Helping those in our community solve their problems so they may become self-reliant," Ali said, was a primary focus of their mission.  

While Jay Noble worked on the streets of north west Hillsborough County he was moved by the works of a fellow co-worker. It was the street engagement of Help Cops Help Us founder Steven Donaldson interacting with the homeless in their camps and on their own turf he thought was not only compelling but complimentary to his own mission. 

And soon enough while forming his own ministries' street engagement model, he reached out to Donaldson with an offer of mutual collaboration and assistance. "It's almost a natural order of events," Donaldson says. "Those that share a common goal tend to gravitate and work together for a greater benefit and result."

With combining the works of both secular and faith-based brands street engagement law enforcement specialists will be augmented by Noble Ministries' behind-the-scenes supportive services. The ministry has a particular interest with the Help Cops Help Us rehousing model where deed-holders donate the use of their vacant and sometimes ramshackled single-family cottage-sized homes. In exchange for living in the home selected homeless candidates work on renovations with the aid of private-sector donations.

"It's about building relationships with those we are trying to help," says Ali Noble. "We want to work one-on-one with them to help them solve their own problems."

"We're teaching people how to fish," Donaldson added. "Personally, I don't give anything away without getting something in return and that usually amounts to helping people retool their problem-solving skills to become more self-sufficient -- that's what works."  

Noble Ministries as an independent partner has an established 501(c)(3) non-profit designation and like many Help Cops Help Us partners they fulfill their mission through outreach with personal donations by the many that share their vision.

"Something as simple as a bus pass or work boots goes a long way," says Ali Noble. We work hand-in-glove with employment assistance and sometimes that means transportation to a job interview. She added, "Once we have past this hurdle often they need something like work accessories too and these donations are dedicated to our personal investments in people not corporate infrastructure."

It was explained as a profound example of mutually complimenting cooperatives between, public, private, and  faith-based partners to solve a communities' most lingering problems associated with personal distress and homelessness.

This was what Jay Noble had in mind on a certain faithful day when he turned in his formal resignation from law enforcement duty to his commanding officer. Jay explained, "I didn't expect everyone to understand my motivation leaving a job like the Sheriff's Office, but sometimes you have to accept the yearning that comes from free will and take the final leap of faith."

"I'm glad I did it," Jay said gleefully!

  

Like a good neighbor State Farm agent Pam Williams was there

Pam Williams (center) State Farm Insurance

Tampa - By Steven L Donaldson

Homeless recovery is about solving someone's problems. And, problem solving, in a time of limited resources and cut backs, is about being resourceful.

For those on the streets recovery is sometimes a dicey game of mental fitness and critical thinking skills. But, the most redeeming personal quality for those experiencing the hardship of individual consequence is simply asking for help.

That's what Michael DeMary did after an ill-conceived plan with relocating to Tampa landed him homeless and depending on the Salvation Army for his shelter.

Following a word-of-mouth referral we soon met up to talk about his situation and devise a plan to remedy his problem. It was during the initial assessment interview where DeMary sat in my front passenger seat and I started with the probing questions.

I never finished the interview.

For someone like DeMary his problem-solving answer didn't need the deep tissue rub it often takes to get to his kernel of truth -- the essence of every first encounter. After being homeless in Tampa for just over a month, DeMary's most direct route off the streets would be returning home to Rochester, New York where he has family and a support structure.

It's a simple answer with a more complicated follow-through although -- since homeless resources don't cover tickets home for any mode of transportation, we have to be more creative.

DeMary gives a thumbs-up at Tampa International

Pamela Williams has been my State Farm insurance agent for more than fifteen years and my next likely sponsor sharing with her the opportunity to help a neighbor in need. I met up with Williams at her Town N' Country office and delivered my best homeless recovery pitch which met with a head nod and an affirming grin.

"I'd be more than happy to help out," Williams said.

Soon enough her husband and fellow business partner, John Williams, jumps on a travel search engine and DeMary is one TSA pat-down away from returning home to family on a US Airways flight leaving  6:00 am the following morning.

There is little time to waste and I hunt DeMary down at a homeless shelter check-in they call "The Shop" and greet him with the good news. Michael's response after hearing his flight would be leaving in less than twelve hours:

"Take me to the airport now, I'll sleep there overnight -- I'm not going to miss that plane!"

And with another homeless soul off the streets of Hillsborough County a big Thanks goes out to Pam Williams -- my Town N' Country State Farm insurance agent.

Thanks Pam and John for being good neighbors and for being there for those in need.

Deputy Steven Donaldson
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Homeless Initiative
District III Office: (813) 247-033
Email: sdonalds@hcso.tamp.fl.us
Facebook.com/HelpCopsHelpUs 

HelpCopsHelpUs.org