Posts Tagged Homeless Services Network
Homeless: Orlando could be the most violent metro area in Florida, survey finds
OrlandoSentinel.com
By Willoughby Mariano
Sentinel Staff Writer
August 20, 2009
The nation’s third “meanest” city for the homeless may also be the state’s most violent toward them, say survey results being released today.
Forty-six percent of homeless people questioned in Orlando and Orange County in an ongoing local survey said they were physically attacked in the past four years by someone they thought was not homeless — well above Florida’s average of 27 percent, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.
The same organization last month ranked Orlando as the third “meanest” city in the country, behind Los Angeles and St. Petersburg. A coalition report released earlier this month said that in 2008, Florida led the nation in violence against the homeless for the fourth year in a row.
This year alone, at least two homeless men have been slain in Orange County.
“To me, the statistics are shocking. It shows the problem is much worse than we thought,” said Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Orange County’s results in this most recent survey are preliminary. There were 35 Orlando respondents and 1,350 statewide. However, in Orange Osceola and Seminole counties there are about 3,800 homeless people at any given time, according to the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida.
The network is in the midst of a more extensive local study that aims to survey 650 homeless people. It plans to release results this fall.
Here’s more about the coalition’s survey, and what it means.
Click anywhere to read the full article
Add comment August 24, 2009
Our friend, Jackie Dowd, of the Homeless Services Network has a blog …
Called the 13th juror. Description: A poverty lawyer (and, by the way, law professor) comments on social justice issues, news and court decisions … with a few other random thoughts thrown in here and there
www.jackiedowd.blogspot.com
that you should bookmark … important information to be aware of. Thanks Jackie.
1 comment July 2, 2009
