Hana Frenette

hfrenette@pnj.com

UPDATE: The public is welcome to attend the hearing before the Escambia County special magistrate today at 1:30 p.m. at the Central Office Complex, 3363 W. Park Place, Room 104, Pensacola, Fl, 32505.

Original story:

Inside a large clearing surrounded by tall, shady trees, swampland and a narrow dirt road, a woman named Rhonda is tidying up a single-person-tent that has served as her home since January. A small stack of books and single vase of fake flowers sit on the floor of her immaculately clean tent next to her twin mattress and floral comforter.

Rhonda, and 14 other people are camping on the 9 acres of land known as Satoshi Forest -- a refuge for the homeless started in 2013 -- located just off Massachusetts Avenue near West Pensacola's Mayfair neighborhood.

"I've never been homeless in my life," she said. "I haven't worked in 15 years, haven't had to work really."

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Rhonda's husband died three days before Christmas and, shortly after his death, she was evicted from their apartment. She went to the Beacon Shelter, which was open only as a cold-weather shelter at the time, before a shelter employee told her about the forest and Sean's Outpost.

Sean's Outpost, a local homeless outreach organization, acquired the 9 acres of property in July 2013, now known as Satoshi Forest, and has allowed homeless people to camp on the site since October 2013.

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Across the clearing from Rhonda, a married couple, Cindy and Ricky, sit in lawn chairs watching the cardinals swoop into the birdhouses hanging from a nearby tree.

"We were staying in a house on Gonzalez and T streets and it really wasn't safe -- there was a lot of drug usage and I was not OK with it," Cindy said.

Cindy and Ricky have been staying inside a large tent in the camp for a month and are grateful to be somewhere they feel safe and respected.

Sean's Outpost and Satoshi Forest co-founder Michael Kimberl said the organization and camp property was founded out of a need to help Pensacola's growing homeless population.

Kimberl noted the last point-in-time (PIT) count conducted by the Coalition of the Homeless in partnership with the department of Housing and Urban Development revealed more than 800 people sleeping outside at any given time.

"We have roughly 300 shelter beds in the county, so that means at any given time there are roughly 500 people sleeping illegally in parks, on public property, behind bushes and grocery stores," Kimberl said. "We wanted to provide a safe place to help some of those people out."

The property is privately owned, and is zoned for camping, but is not a permitted campground. Kimberl and camp co-founders Jason King and his wife have experienced difficulties since working with Escambia County to decide what permits, if any, are needed in order for Satoshi Forest to continue functioning.

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The county recently served Kimberl with a cease-and-desist notice on March 10, and will have a special magistrate hearing on at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the code they believe is being violated. The petition for the hearing before the Office of Environmental Enforcement Special Magistrate states County Code 4-7.13, which regulates temporary uses and structures, is being violated.

"They've said we can't have anyone staying in a structure on the property for more than 14 days a year," Kimberl said. "Currently, they are saying we can either allow people out here for 14 consecutive days and then take down the tents, or pick 14 separate days throughout the year that we will allow tents."

Kimberl has no intention of complying with the current 14-day request.

The people camping at Satoshi Forest are more than grateful to Kimbrel for letting them camp on the property and for fighting for their right to stay there. However, the surrounding neighborhood residents are unhappy with the camp’s location.

Richard Grimes has lived on Fennel Road for 10 years and his backyard faces one of the camp entrances. He's started several petitions to have the camp shut down and has acquired over 200 signatures from Mayfair neighborhood residents in the last two years.

"I think that a lot of those people really do need help and there is a need out there," Grimes said. "It just does not need to be in a neighborhood."

Grimes' daughter and grandson live across the street from him and he noted he was particularly concerned for the children in the area and what they might encounter, living so closely to the camp.

Grimes recently purchased a section of land behind his home that travels along a privacy fence bordering one side of the camp, in order to put more distance between his property and the forest property. He is also expressed his concern relating to the controlled burns and open fires that take place inside the camp and said several other resident are concerned with breathing the smoke that occasionally rises from the forest.

"You just have no idea who might be living back there," he said.

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