Developer Wants to Take a Stab at the Problem
People seeing a 125-acre, 5,600-bed homeless community will look at it and say, "Wow, I wouldn't mind living here," urban developer Michael Arth wrote in a proposal advancing the idea.Arth gets points for enlightened self-interest. He came up with an imaginative solution to a growing problem of homelessness, which is an unwelcome addition to the image he has created for DeLand's Garden District of restored homes where crack houses once flourished.
. . . The only problem is a large body of evidence that suggests it won't work, and the absence of workable funding from either public or private sectors.
Arth downplays the $100 million-plus cost of the project as minimal in the light of what we spend today in public and private funds on law enforcement, treatment, rehabilitation, feeding, housing and even burying the homeless. He says the construction would be "a one-time cost of $17,500 per village resident," although there is no detailed discussion of what rising construction costs would do during the 10-year build-out period envisioned or how the operational costs would be covered.
County officials and leaders of the Homeless Coalition, which has made what most consider good progress in trying to provide shelter, treatment and coordination among health and welfare agencies, have greeted Arth's proposal with polite skepticism.
After all, compared with Daytona Beach police Chief Mike Chitwood's widely applauded suggestion to give the homeless a bus ticket and send them home, this looks pretty good, especially when you consider studies have shown about 60 percent of the homeless in Volusia identify it as home.
. . .A number of the more than 2,500 homeless on Volusia's streets at any given time aren't seeking the shelter, showers, care and camaraderie envisioned by a community just for them. . .
