Homeless face removal from Fort Myers park; fate in city council’s hands

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Many of the homeless who currently live in Lions Park moved there after being removed from Centennial Park due to construction. (Credit: WINK News)

Where will the homeless go?

Earlier this month, Fort Myers rejected 4-3 a plan that would give homeless people a new space ahead of moving them out of Lions Park near Lee Memorial Hospital.

Now, Councilman Liston Bochette is bringing the Rapid Transition Collaboration back for discussion.

“I don’t feel that putting this off is a solution,” he said. “To drag our feet on this, it’s not appropriate. We’ll do our best and if our best isn’t good enough, they will come back and try it again.”

The proposal would partner the city with Lee County and The Salvation Army to help the homeless. The goal is to bring 30 to 35 willing homeless people living in the city’s parks to a fenced-in area on The Salvation Army’s property, where they would live in tents and be connected to services for 90 days. It’s the hope that at the end of those 90 days, they would have permanent housing.

“This is the first real effort to move the needle on homelessness. It not only helped us regain public spaces but it also brought the homeless closer to much-needed services,” said Mayor Kevin Anderson.

Four city councilmembers who voted against the proposal felt it was a Band-Aid fix, that the proposal was rushed and they would just be moving the homeless from one tent city to another. Now that the council has had a week to look at it, Anderson is hopeful at least one councilmember’s vote will change, and it could be Councilwoman Darla Bonk who will flip her vote.

She told The News-Press “had it [the proposal] been presented more clearly, I would have voted differently.”

WINK News got in touch with Bonk, but she declined an interview.

Terolyn Watson, Johnnie Streets and Teresa Watkins Brown were the other three councilmembers who voted against the proposal.

If the council does vote in favor this time, “Immediately we will reach out to Lee County and The Salvation Army to resurrect the plan and to get it in place as quickly as possible,” Anderson said.

Many of the homeless who currently live in Lions Park moved there after being removed from Centennial Park due to construction.

The City will begin to enforce its park rules at Lions Park a week from Friday. That means the homeless will again be forced to leave because no one will be allowed to sleep there overnight.

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