The peaceful serenity of Calvary Catholic Cemetery in the Pinellas Park fire district would probably not be affected by the homeless plan.
PINELLAS COUNTY – The Catholic Charities, a St. Petersburg-based organization with a reputation for helping medically and otherwise challenged people, is looking at a plan to use part of a Pinellas Park cemetery to shelter homeless people.
Frank Murphy, president of Catholic Charities, said the plan was devised after it was learned that the homeless population in Pinellas County has increased dramatically.
Targeted for the facility is Calvary Catholic Cemetery on U.S. 19 at Bryan Dairy Road, which is located in unincorporated Pinellas County. The sprawling burial ground boasts a large amount of empty land that is earmarked for future gravesites. It is surrounded by wetlands and commercial properties.
Law enforcement and other officials have reported in the past that the wooded area along U.S. 19 already is home to individual street people and established homeless campsites.
The plan is all very much in its preliminary stage and is not sanctioned by the Catholic Dioceses of St. Petersburg or any other established organization.
“The homeless population in Pinellas County is much larger than we anticipated,” Murphy said. “We are always looking for ways to help people and this might be one of them.”
Catholic Charities, he said, has in the past assisted people afflicted with disease, such as AIDS. Murphy said Catholic Charities learned a lot about helping mass amounts of people during the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes.
Rumblings about a plan to use the cemetery for a homeless “tent city” bubbled up at a recent management meeting of Pinellas Park officials. Michael Gustafson, city manager, said Pinellas Park would not be involved in the program because the cemetery is not within city limits.
The fire department, however, would be since the cemetery is within the city’s fire district. Chief Doug Lewis was alerted to the plan by St. Petersburg fire officials.
“We are the responsible fire district,” Lewis said. “We were told of the possibility of using the cemetery for a homeless program, and beyond that we know nothing more.”
The Rev. Lionel Cabral, executive director of the Suncoast Haven of Rest Rescue Mission of Pinellas Park, has long been an advocate of churches offering their facilities to house street people.
“Any time empty space can be used to house the homeless means that space is not being wasted,” Cabral said.
Cabral pegged the county’s homeless population at about 7,000 men, women and children ... and growing.
“These people aren’t all coming from Buffalo, N.Y. and other colder climates,” he said. “They are Pinellas County residents who lose jobs and eventually their homes.”
Cabral’s shelter, besides handing out lunches to homeless people, provides more than 5,700 bags of food to poor people.
“We cannot support them, but we can and do supplement them with food and a desire to help,” Cabral said.
No one could predict the reaction of loved ones whose family members are interred at the cemetery. If a temporary tent city is established, it would be probably located a good distance away from the burial grounds and mausoleums that currently dot the peaceful grounds.
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