April 5, 2011. The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
DAYTONA BEACH — A little more than five years ago, Erwin Pistor was getting arrested on a regular basis for doing little more than trying to sleep.
The homeless man tried sacking out in hidden spots on the beach and in parks, but police always found him and wound up giving him a place to snooze in the Volusia County jail.
No longer homeless now, Pistor shared the tales of his years without a roof over his head Monday night with a crowd of about 2,000 people packed into the Bethune-Cookman Performing Arts Center for a meeting to discuss new efforts that will help homeless and unemployed people.
One new program spearheaded by a religious-based, grass-roots organization will try to stop the cycle of homeless people repeatedly getting picked up for misdemeanors, racking up fines they can’t pay and winding up in jail.
Instead of spending time behind bars or trying to piece together fine money, they’ll have the option of doing community service or participating in programs that help them with addictions, job skills and enrolling in college. They’ll still have to report to judges when they’ve completed their service or program hours.
The program will be countywide, but court appearances will be held only in Daytona Beach once a week beginning Aug. 1, and in DeLand one day a month beginning Nov. 1.
The new program was created by the leaders of FAITH, Fighting Against Injustice Towards Harmony, and is slated to kick off this summer. They’ve dubbed the program SAVE, Sentencing Alternatives for Volusia Enforcement.
SAVE will apply to homeless people who are charged with misdemeanors such as trespassing, disorderly conduct, panhandling, sleeping in public and camping. Crimes excluded from the program include felonies, juvenile offenses, crimes with a victim such as theft or battery and traffic infractions.
“Tonight we took a giant step to prevent criminalization of the homeless,” said the Rev. Jeffrey Robinson of Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church.
SAVE also is intended to save taxpayers money. Figures provided by FAITH say one night in jail costs taxpayers $71, court fees are $273 and the fine for ordinance violations is $160.
The program is projected to save $375,000 annually in jail time alone.
Two Volusia County judges, a Daytona Beach police officer and the executive director of the Volusia Flagler Coalition for the Homeless all said at Monday’s meeting they’ll do their best to make SAVE work.
“The Volusia County Jail should not be treated like a hotel or shelter,” said County Judge Belle Schumann.
“We need to give these people the opportunity to correct their mistakes,” Daytona Beach Deputy Chief Steve Beres told the crowd. “We at the Daytona Beach Police Department are committed to making this program 100 percent effective.”
