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New Pinellas shelter fills up quickly

A month after Pinellas Safe Harbor opened its doors to homeless residents, city and county officials consider the program a great success.

Perhaps a little too much of a success.

The shelter facility near the county jail, designed to house homeless offenders whose crimes are minor and non-violent, quickly filled to near-capacity. With about 300 spots in what will eventually be a 500-bed shelter, Safe Harbor peaked around 290 last week.

And those are all volunteers. Ultimately, the shelter intends to open to homeless Florida Department of Corrections and county jail inmates who are accused of minor crimes such as public urination or shoplifting and are re-entering society.

At the end of this week, the shelter will take a handful of test cases before it expands to begin the jail diversion program

Read the St. Petersburg Times report here. And see previous post here.

Full post as published by the 13th juror on February 07, 2011 (boomark / email).