Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward said last Friday in his ‘Upwords’ that he will support changes to his homeless ordinances the city council passed last year. He said that his change of heart came after a meeting with Rev. Nathan Monk and John Johnson.
“Next week, the Council will consider amending that ordinance to remove the prohibition on the use of cover while sleeping outdoors,” said Hayward. “Over the past year, my staff and I have continued to monitor this issue. We’ve met with advocates like Nathan Monk and John Johnson. After reflecting and praying on this issue, I support the change that is currently before the Council.”
The back story on the decision is Rev. Monk had started two weeks ago an online petition for the city of Pensacola to allow the homeless to cover themselves with blankets. The petition received national attention and garnered over 2,900 signatures.
Councilwoman Sherri Myers, a longtime advocate for the homeless, had proposed ordinances to change the city’s ordinances that were recommended by the mayor’s office and passed by the council last May over her objections.
I contacted Rev. Monk and asked for details on his meeting with the mayor and for any insight on what he said that changed Hayward’s position on the homeless. Monk said that he didn’t meet with Hayward or even City Administrator Colleen Castille. His meeting instead was with Communications Director Tamara Fountain, Webmaster Derek Cosson and “another male staff member who’s name eludes me at the time.”
His recollection of the meeting was that staff wasn’t really that sympathetic to his cause.
Here is the email Rev. Monk sent me:
I have not met with the mayor. I met with members of the city staff on Thursday morning to discuss my petition and what my definition of an end game looked like.
My impression from the meeting is that some felt the petition reflected mostly out of state folks, and that only people in “your camp” would be showing up on Thursday. My response was simple, we are a tourist community and so the opinions of those outside of Pensacola, and their perception of us, matters.
I also explained that (as of the time meeting) more than 50 percent of the signatures were from locals. Also, that the idea that these were all people who were part of my group was ridiculous, I am very unpopular amongst large portions of Pensacola, but that didn’t stop many folks who don’t like me from signing the petition.
They also seemed to think that the data they have on the homeless didn’t match up to my anecdotal evidence. I disagreed but I also explained that I really didn’t know what the meeting was about and was under prepared to respond to specific data, and that most surveys of the homeless that I am aware of haven’t asked the questions that they wanted answers to.
They argued that there was enough shelter for every adult male in the city. I asked them at which shelter within the city limits they could go to (since there is none). I told them that I didn’t feel that we should expect the county or charities within the county to be responsible for homelessness within the city, and that can’t be the cities response to homeless.
I told them that we were promised some sort of board would be put together to discuss issues of homelessness in the city, and that I felt like that board should happen and be tasked with coming up with a legitimate solution to homelessness based upon what has worked in other cities, and tailored to fit our community.
All that said, when I left that meeting I had no idea that the mayor would be making a statement, and I was actually under the impression that he would not make a statement at all.
The meeting lasted about an hour with Derek Cosson, Tamara Fountain, and another male staff member who’s name eludes me at the time.