Daytona Beach pics 12/23/2010

I took these pictures once again with my cell phone.  Granted the photos would come out better with a standard digital camera but out of respect I use the cell phone.  Granted, it seems disrespectful to take their picture inthe first place but I think you hit the point better with an image.  This is how people are living.

There were actually more displaced people in the area when I took this shot but when you are trying to be discreet you cannot actually take a group photo.

On this day the temperature finally warmed up to near 70 degrees.  quite a few people conjugated by the library, both outside and inside.

As mentioned these displaced people are not bothered as long as they do not sleep.  Interestingly though as I approached the library some people were sitting by a tree not too far from the door.  The security guard for the library came out and instructed the folks to move further down the side of the library.  I specifically heard the guard tell them that as long as people could not see them it was ok.

Daytona Beach 1 (12/22/2010)

     I always knew about the homeless situation in Daytona Beach, Florida.  My mother moved to Daytona from New York back in January 1996 and I visited around Easter.  Walking around the city I went looking for bookstores and somehow ended up finding Daytona Beach's  red light district (innocently I assure you) along Ridgewood Avenue.
     Ridgewood runs North-South and I quickly realized that  lot of the pople there simply had no place to go.  Most of the traffic on Ridgewood was around the Popeye's and Burger King, which is also around the corner from the Greyhound station.  All three places are within a half mile of the Volusia Public Library (where I am typing this).

Today I took this photograph (cell phone once again) of these transients who were outside of the library while I was coming in and eventually made it inside and sat close to me.  The gentleman on the right (call him Mark) was complaining about how he and the rest of his friends were harrassed by the police for stretching out and even sleeping.

As I eveesdropped I learned that they come into the library often and it is apparently known the guys are in fact homeless.  They can use the library whenever they want as long as they do not sleep or stretch out.  during the conversation it seemed like they found the police of Daytona abusive and the Volusia Coalition for the Homeless useless.

There is a rumor in Daytona Beach as well as New York City that New York gathers up a lot of their homeless during the winter and ships them to various parts of the south. An older native of Daytona Beach shared that with me a year or two ago.

They complained about the lack of sleep they get and how they actually get sick from the lack of rest. The conversation ultimately went nowhere, but it did leave me wondering exactly where we thought the homeless were going to go.