Sheriff Hosts Meeting on Pinellas Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter

Sheriff Jim Coats will host a public meeting today, Dec. 20, on the Pinellas Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter Facility that will open in January.

Concerns  that the shelter would reroute the county's homeless popualtion to Largo and Clearwater were brought up at a city commission meeting earlier this month.

These issues and questions on the services the facility will provide will be addressed in the meeting which takes place at the Pinellas Safe Harbor Homeless Facility, 14840 49^th St. N, in Clearwater, at 5:30p.m.

The public is encouraged to attend.

The shelter was formerly the Pinellas County Jail Annex II.

The former jail is now being used as a homeless shelter designed to prevent the homeless from reentering the criminal justice system.

The shelter's goal is to rehabilitate inmates, released from the Florida Department of Corrections and the Pinellas County Jail, who would otherwise end up homeless.

Assistance will be provided for this group to transition back into society and the workforce.  

The 500-bed shelter will open in January.

The full occupancy of the shelter, 500 beds, will be phased in over time to serve the total homeless population, according to the Sheriff's Office.