Where should the twice-weekly feeding be held?

Twice each week, as the sun is about to set, the parking lot behind the Marion County Judicial Center gets new clientele.

A couple of hours after courthouse clerks, lawyers and judges roll out, the poor, the homeless and local volunteers who set up a temporary soup kitchen roll in.

The space is converted to a small, free market where volunteers pile clothes onto tables for anyone to take, feed the hungry, and give out information about services available to those living on the streets or about to be kicked out of their home.

At least 100 men and women show up. Some come by foot. Between 15 and 20 come by cars they park in the empty spaces. The city wants to stop the outreach at that site and is offering another location. Some of the volunteers and homeless are suspect of the offer.

“Most of our homeless and other needy families just refer to it as the 'lot,' " said local homeless advocate Dana Farber, who helps organize the two weekly events. “For several years they’ve known they can receive food, hygiene products, clothing and information about other services from the volunteers who gather there.”

The lot is bordered by Northwest First Avenue, Northwest Second Street, Magnolia Avenue and Northwest Third Street. It has become a political lightning rod, straining relations among the county and Ocala governments and advocates for the homeless.

Ocala this year is working on its plan to revitalize the city's midtown, a large area that runs several blocks north of Silver Springs Boulevard and west of Northwest 10th Avenue. The area includes the Marion County Judicial Center and the lot.

“Here’s the issue,” Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn told City Council members during an April 4 regularly scheduled meeting about the twice weekly outreaches at the lot. “We’ve got a lot of criminal activity down there.”

Guinn said local businesses complain that “it is a mess down there when they leave."

"There’s no question that someone has to do something about it or otherwise nothing is ever going to change,” he said.

Two organizations oversee the outreaches: First Love Church and Streetlight Ministries, a loose affiliation of a dozen local churches. Although the feeding efforts fall under the churches, much of the work is overseen by regular volunteers unaffiliated with the churches.

The lot is owned by Marion County government. Although the city surrounds the judicial center, the county has say over its use and, at least for now, continues to allow volunteers to meet at the parking lot. The volunteers like the lot because it is near nonprofit organizations that cater to the homeless. It also is well lighted, open, and large enough to allow for all the parking the volunteers and visitors need.

Ocala City Manager John Zobler is looking to move the volunteers and the people they help two blocks west, along Northwest Second Street, onto property owned by Interfaith Emergency Services. Interfaith has offices at the complex and leases some of its property to Brother’s Keeper, which operates a soup kitchen.

Interfaith would allow the city to use a vacant lot already set up with picnic tables and used by many homeless people who gather there during the day.

To coax the volunteers away from the parking lot, Zobler said the city would build a 20-foot by 40-foot covered shelter with a concrete foundation at the Interfaith site. The city also would build a wash station where volunteers and visitors could wash up after eating and erect portable restrooms and lighting for evening feedings. The cost to the city would be about $120,000.

Zobler said the new facility would be safer than the current location.

“As we try to revitalize the midtown area, the accumulation of persons in the evening hours, it’s a safety perception for the people who work in that area,” Zobler said.

Zobler said the parking lot issue and trying to get it moved is only part of a larger homeless issue the city and county are trying to address. He said he will meet with county officials to begin laying the groundwork for a joint City Council/County Commission workshop and to create a comprehensive plan to address homelessness and better organize services.

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Guinn told council members during the April 4 meeting that he and some city officials had worked with the county to take over policing of the judicial center parking lot. He said he had asked city attorneys to draft an ordinance that would allow the city to regulate feeding the poor at open sites such as the parking lot. It would have banned feeding stations in Community Redevelopment Areas. The parking lot is in a CRA.

After learning about the proposed ordinance, council members said they would not support it. In response, the mayor asked city attorneys to stop work on the ordinance.

Councilmen Jay Musleh and Jim Hilty said they want to work quietly with the feeding organizations to move the site rather than by way of an ordinance that banned the services.

Councilman Matthew Wardell agreed.

“I understand where your heart’s at, but I’m not at all interested in going down that road and I don’t want to spend legal money doing it,” Wardell said, adding later, “I wouldn’t want anyone in the community to think we want to arrest people that are feeding the poor.”

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Farber said the city’s offer of a covered feeding area had less to do with the city’s concern over safety and helping homelessness and more to do with the eyesore that are the homeless.

“It’s about sticking you (at the Interfaith location), out of sight and out of mind,” Farber said. “We’ll give you whatever you want, if you leave.”

Many of the people coming for a meal or free clothes arrive by car, and the new proposed site doesn’t have enough parking, Farber added.

The parking lot is close to where many of the needy already are living, she said, and is within walking distance. The more the city wants to move it away from the parking lot and downtown square area, the more difficult it gets for the needy to get there.

Farber also is concerned that the Interfaith site might not be safe late at night when volunteers close down the feeding project for the day.

“If your wife or daughter were volunteering, would you be OK sending them there at night? If the answer is no, then you need to find another site,” Farber said.

And closing the popular parking lot to feeding the poor will not stop the homeless from congregating in the area, she warned.

“There are homeless people walking the streets all night, all day,” she said. “You need to help the issue (of homelessness) and not just focus on the feeding at this lot. If you had more housing for the homeless and more services, we wouldn’t have as many needy. And I see how difficult it is to navigate the system.”

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Karla Grimsley, Interfaith's executive director, said the city’s proposed site is a good one.

Interfaith has installed several picnic tables there, and the Church in the Garden is using the site for its weekly services, she said.

As many as 40 homeless people already meet there during the day and sit at the tables, but don’t have a way to wash their hands or use the bathroom, she said.

“It’s inconsiderate to have (the feeding in a parking lot) where there is no bathroom and they can’t wash their hands,” she said.

“And if it alleviates any problems with businesses in (the parking lot area) that’s another plus,” she said of the proposed new location.

Grimsley thinks there is enough parking at the proposed site. There also is room on nearby vacant lots as well as along the side of the road.

She said the area is safe at night. She said she and her staff often work late and there have not been any problems. The area also houses a women’s shelter.

“I wouldn’t have them there if it wasn’t safe,” she said.

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County government spokeswoman Stacie Causey said the county was not looking to shut down the feeding program and was in the early stages of trying to meet with the volunteers who help the poor.

“We’re not looking to kick them out or leave,” she said.

The issue is one of safety, she said

For the short term, Causey said, the county wants to work with the volunteers to help set up some basic guidelines and procedures to make sure there are no safety issues at the parking lot. For the long term, the county wants to “explore sites closer to other emergency services like Interfaith and Brother’s Keeper," Causey said.

Currently, organizations using county property require a special use permit. Causey said the organizations that feed people on the lot do not have one.

“But we don’t want to stand in the way of someone benefiting (the needy),” she said. “We want to help them.”

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Danialle Riggins owns the Riggins Law Firm, across the street from the parking lot. She said closing the lot to feedings won’t solve the homeless problem in the area.

When she opened her law firm there she knew there was already a homeless population roaming the area.

“We have the traffic seven days a week,” she said.

Riggins said the volunteers and people getting fed at the parking lot pick up any trash after each event.

“I don’t see the city moving it would change anything,” she said.

But she said she also understood the city’s efforts to provide services in a central location and its efforts to beautify the midtown area.

But once the homeless are fed, she suspects they will still remain in the area, including the area around her law firm and the judicial center.

Kenny Mulcare, 47, has been homeless for years. He said he does not care if the feeding is at the parking lot or at Interfaith.

“At least if it rains there would be a cover and there would be a place to sit,” he said, sitting on the curb of the road near the parking lot.

He said the food is good and the volunteers are friendly.

“If I had a place to go or live, I wouldn’t wander around,” he said.

But until then, regardless of where the feeding is held, afterwards “it’s back out on the street,” he said.

— Contact Fred Hiers at fred.hiers@starbanner.com and 352-397-5914.