Faces of homelessness: A personal look at Palm Beach County's crisis

Darrel Houghtaling has been living on the streets for three months now. Every night, he takes his wheelchair to the same spot in downtown West Palm Beach where at the very least, he’ll be under cover.
“There’s an assisted living facility that's got an awning and I sleep there. But I've been robbed. They just steal my backpack two weeks ago. All my ID, my billfold everything. It makes it rough,” Houghtaling told CBS12’s Katie Bente.
He isn’t the only one struggling. The latest point-in-time count shows more than 2,100 homeless individuals living in Palm Beach County.
"We have children living in cars, we have veterans sleeping under bridges, this is not the Palm Beach County way,” Palm Beach County Mayor Maria Sachs said.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court backed Florida’s tough stance on homelessness. Starting October 1st, it won’t just be frowned upon to sleep in public places-it could land you in jail, depending on where you are.
Now the clock is ticking for local government leaders across the state to create some kind of housing plan for the homeless as part of the governor’s new initiative.
One option on the table is setting up an encampment with bathrooms, round-the-clock security, and access to mental health and substance abuse resources.
Houghtaling is against the idea. He says it won’t be easy to enforce even if they choose to do that.
“People it's not going to work because they're not going to give up their drugs or alcohol. They're running around and they're not going to give up Clematis Street. Because they know that they can panhandle and get good money,” Houghtaling said.
Mayor Sachs has a different approach in mind that focuses on affordable housing.
“We need to house the people first, you see, people need a home,” Sachs said. “Once they get that little house, then we'll give them supportive services to take care of their addiction, take care of career counselors, and then they get a job.”
“I’d worked for give me a couple of sandwiches a day and a couple of cups of coffee and we're good to go,” Houghtaling said.
Cities and counties are racing against the clock to make a decision. Sachs said she will gather other local Palm Beach County mayors in September to iron out a plan.
Fro more information please visit cbs12.com/news/local/faces-of...
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[@generalporkchop1817]

Faces of drug addicts not homeless.