r/Tallahassee • u/bug-scratcher2026 • 2d ago
Does this city care about its homeless population? (Distressing)
I was coming into work yesterday and i saw a lady vomiting into a pothole in the parking lot. When i got out about 10 minutes later to head inside she stopped me and pointed at the puddle and said "did you see that vomit i did" and i said "I'm sorry ma'am i don't know how to help you" i had already clocked in on my phone before then. I thought that was the end of that transaction but she came in an hour before closing walking around and laughing at random objects. Asking random people to look at things on the shelf but couldn't really get out the words but was still laughing hysterically. Eventually she approached me at the register and asked if i believed in psychiatry and that people had been giving her untested drugs as well as schizophrenia meds. She had a swastika tattooed on her hand and she started using the n word hard-r (although she was black woman herself) claiming that men ranging from homeless people to doctors and police officers were sexually assaulting her "everyday" she began to repeat this louder to herself until eventually my boss had come out from the back (I'm the only one on the sales floor) i think he noticed how uncomfortable i was getting and he called me to the back while some of the other coworkers came out to finish the rest of the transactions. And eventually they had banned her from the store after she started accusing my one black coworker of something he didn't do. I felt very awful about the whole thing. I have no idea how to help someone going through something like that, i don't know where any of the homeless shelters are, i offered to get her water from the vending machine but she only wanted the soda I could only get from the register which I'm not allowed to buy from (there's AI security cameras in the store which clip certain behaviors and sends them to the regional manager so it's risky for my job) someone else in the store claimed they knew them from the mental hospital down the road. I'm worried this person won't do well on their own, it's nearly impossible for anyone to get a job right now yet alone trying to get a job as a homeless person. I feel like the institutions that should be capable of guaranteeing her human well-being have abandoned her. She's out in the sunbaked hilly sidewalk left to her own devices. Why in the wealthiest country on Earth do we allow people to be miserable?
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u/paulderev 2d ago edited 2d ago
https://tallahasseefoodnotbombs.wordpress.com/
Come join us every Sunday a little before noon downtown at e peck greene park behind the main library on east park avenue if you can, if you’d like to help us out
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u/TeaVinylGod 2d ago
Do the citizens care? Many do.
Do the City Commission care? No. The Federal homeless money they get from HUD every year is a slush fund that goes directly to the Kearney Center with zero bid / grant process. And despite getting around $8 million a year they charge the residents $150 a week to stay there overnight (kicked out all day.)
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u/buddiz84 2d ago
The Kearney Center was forced to pay the founder back millions. It's been in a financial crisis for years. High staff turnover. Now they limit the number of clients to 80 and charge fees. It makes me sad to see an organization run so poorly when there's a tremendous need here.
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u/Excellent_Condition 2d ago
When/why was the Kearney Center forced to pay the founder back? I couldn't find any news articles reporting that.
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u/buddiz84 2d ago
There were attempts to get the paper to report it, but the news didn't want to pick it up. I never went to check, but should show up in their public financials.
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u/bug-scratcher2026 2d ago
That's fucking disgusting.
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u/Paxoro 2d ago
It's also not really true. Local residents aren't charged anything for several months, and only those from outside Tallahassee that the center isn't really designated to assist are charged like that.
Could we do better? Sure. But especially right now with federal funding cuts, things are going to get worse instead of better in the next couple years. And the funding we need isn't going to be popular with a lot of people.
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u/nillawafer80 2d ago
The homeless issue in this city so visible now.. I saw 3 guys just camped out along capital circle NE (near the old hTEA0 building) like it was a park. Also lots of people asking for help at intersections now.
There is The Kearney Center but Im not sure about what resources they provide.
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u/epigenie_986 2d ago
I think you have to be sober there and honestly, that’s a nonstarter for a good fraction of this population.
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u/TeaVinylGod 2d ago
They charge $150 a week to stay there (Despite getting over $6 million a year of free Federal money literally earmarked for sheltering the homeless. It used to be free. Most can't afford to pay that so more are on the street.
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u/Paxoro 2d ago
Kearney Center only charges like that for those that are not from the Tallahassee area, and only after they've been there a bit. Otherwise, local residents can stay for 6 months or longer without being charged anything.
And this is because $6 million sounds like a lot but it really isn't when you have all of the homeless in a large area being sent to Tallahassee, overwhelming our systems, because places like Two Egg or Bristol or similar don't have anywhere near the capability to handle folks that Tallahassee does.
$6 million divided by the few hundred they average each night is not a lot of money per individual each year.
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u/TeaVinylGod 2d ago
Not anymore. Locals are being charged after 3 months. New policy. And that 3 months comes fast.
I realize it is to light a fire under their rear to get back on their feet and not be chronically homeless, but honestly, their are many that are unemployable - and cannot come up with $150 a week. But $600 a month for just a nightly cot and a dinner, but not a place you can be during the day is a lot.
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u/Excellent_Condition 2d ago
I don't know if the website is up to date, but it says that people local to the 8-county area "who exhaust their 90 days of emergency shelter use will be required to pay 30% of their income to continue staying at the center. *This can be modified by the center, on a case-by-case basis."
Out of area clients get 3 days of emergency use, then are charged $154/week and need to check in as overflow clients for available beds.
I don't have any personal knowledge of the current circumstances of the shelter, but it's run by the county and clearly isn't a for-profit institution. It's also not somewhere people are likely to work at because they want to get rich or because they don't care about people in need.
If they are charging, I would assume it's because they have more people who need help than they have the money to help and because they don't want people to travel here just to seek services.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't imaging those policies are there to be malicious.
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u/Ordinary_Worth_383 2d ago
No, this isn't true. I volunteer at dinners there and before they implemented fees there were around 250 there every night eating dinner. After they implemented fees the number has dropped to just under 100. The Kearney Center is consistently under capacity because so many people cannot afford to sleep there.
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u/Paxoro 2d ago
The charging is because locations around the area that can't handle or simply don't have any systems send their homeless people here because the "big city" can handle it. Kearney Center was getting a huge influx of homeless from across the region and even beyond in some cases - people they weren't really expecting to have to assist.
It's awful that we can't have sufficient systems to help everyone, but that method of "assistance" just makes it worse.
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u/TeaVinylGod 2d ago
They get a Federal HUD ESG (Emergency Services Grant) for at least $6 million and that grant is for "low barrier" shelter. Charging is a big barrier.
Yes, you are right about the 30% for those with an income. I was talking to a resident of there about that this week. Others with zero income pay $150 a week, even if they are local. It is whichever is higher.
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u/hurdeehurr 1d ago
If they spent as much as they do per inmate you can bet your ass that would make a dent.
But they wont.
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u/Select-Store-1059 2d ago
Ok I want to state I mean no offense to you and I do believe we as a country can and must do better to take care of all of our people. I also state none of this as fact but my understanding of what I’ve seen and my own interpretation of my experiences With that said, there are many factors into her and many others situation.
Covid restrictions really kicked off the spiral. The Kearny center was closed for a bit due to distance restrictions and an unknown idea of what’s happening but then reopened for women only. Yes it’s a sober place and has rules for being there but they do provide mental and substance abuse services. It is also privately funded. People who were working through that program/resource lost their treatment abilities and some relapsed and thus out in the street.
There is a “migration” of unhoused people. Leave where it’s cold in the winter and then hot in the summer.
Some seek help, get better with medication but it’s a known issue that they feel better or “fixed” and stop the meds and thus have withdrawal symptoms on top of the nightmare they are already experiencing.
As saddening as it is there are people who even with treatment are not able to be a “normal” part of society, so the question begs what do we do with that part of the society.
Idk that answer. I do believe there is a much better way to handle it than is currently. But please don’t feel like you are forced to put yourself or others in a position to be hurt in order to protect them. The compassion you showed warmed my heart but as individuals we can’t bear the weigh of the world alone. We can only try our best to improve the future whatever that means for each of us.
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u/TeaVinylGod 2d ago
It was never a women only shelter. It is not privately funded. Majority of the funding comes from Federal HUD for ESG "Emergency Services Grant" then distant second are state and local grants.
As far as "migration", the biggest ones I experienced was from New Orleans after Katrina and from Panama City during Covid since their hospitality industry shut down. Being right off I-10 is a huge factor.
The other issue is every surrounding county has a prison and when an inmate is released into homelessness, they literally get dumped off in Tallahassee.
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u/Select-Store-1059 2d ago
As I stated I was not stating fact, I was clearly misinformed by folks I had interacted with. My mistake. And by public funded I meant it is not city funded or owned. Yes of course they get federal and state funds grant based. Thanks for correcting that information is appreciate having the facts. I believe they strive hard to be an impactful resource and hope they can continue the work
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u/pinealglandexpansion 2d ago
Can someone give an example of a country that has handled homelessness in the best way?
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u/paulderev 2d ago
local governments tend to handle it better than national or state ones
to me copenhagen has one of the more humane ways of handling it: just cede a section of the city to them and use that passive social engineering to allow people to build their own homes and structures from leftover materials and offer social services.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania
there’s more that needs to be done and it’s an ongoing experiment of course. denmark needs to decriminalize all drugs, especially cannabis, and treat addiction and ripple effects of their war on drugs as a public health issue
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u/jbryantmanning 2d ago
Was she blonde? Did she have rolling luggage with her?May be Jessica. She needs help more than most of us can give.
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u/RowdyRoosterTLH 5h ago
You handled a genuinely hard situation about as well as anyone could in the moment — you stayed kind, you offered what you could, and you didn't escalate. That matters more than you think. For the practical side, Tallahassee does have resources, they're just not always visible: Kearney Center (2650 Municipal Way) is the main homeless shelter and intake hub for the whole Big Bend region — emergency shelter, meals, showers, case management, and an on-site medical clinic. Phone: (850) 792-9000. They take new overnight clients 4–8 PM daily. 211 Big Bend — call or text 211 (or 850-617-6333), 24/7 and free. They're the clearinghouse for crisis, shelter, and mental health referrals in this area. 988 — call or text for the suicide & crisis line; from an 850 number it routes to 211 Big Bend locally. Apalachee Center (2634 Capital Circle NE, 850-523-3303) is the region's behavioral health provider — 24-hour evaluation and admissions. One thing worth knowing for next time: if someone's clearly in a mental health crisis and you call 911 or the non-emergency dispatch line (850-606-5800), you can specifically ask for a CIT-trained officer (Crisis Intervention Team). They're trained for exactly this, and it takes the weight off you. You're not the institution that failed her. But caring enough to ask the question is the opposite of the abandonment you're worried about.
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u/hurdeehurr 1d ago
NIMBY's everywhere and as someone who lives nearby to the hospital in some ways I can understand.
They wander into my yard and i've even found them sleeping just outside my yard. Someone wandered into my neighbors house too which could have been an extremely bad outcome. My neighbor is a MD and recognized right away what was happening.
It's a problem smarter people than I haven't figured out all over the country so sometimes it's best to know that you just don't know.
It seems like the new "solution" is to make life uncomfortable enough so they leave. It's an extremely sad situation all around.
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u/Ordinary_Worth_383 2d ago
The U.S. is not the wealthiest country in the world. We have to stop telling ourselves that. Just because the GDP is the highest doesn't mean everyone gets lifted up too. That GDP isn't helping poor people. We could be living like Europeans, we could have universal healthcare and earlier retirement or free universities or guaranteed paid time off for all workers. But we don't.
We don't have the will as a society to pay higher taxes that would ultimately help us all.
OP, I'm sorry you had such a distressing experience. Honestly, your entire post is a dystopian nightmare, with AI spying on you to the point you can't even help someone without worrying about losing your job. Our society is a nightmare.
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u/paulderev 2d ago
The majority does have the will, but there’s a top 1% to 10% of wealth hoarders in our society who have a disproportionate influence over government policy unfortunately
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u/betawanted 2d ago
Sounds like she was experiencing psychosis. If you experience something similar again - Tallahassee has community mental health responders. I don't know how effective they are, but you can call 911 and say you think someone's having a mental health crisis and they will come and try and descalate and evaluate.