Root of the problem is spiritual warefare............

Laziness.
Yes drug abuse is a problem. But the root of the problem is laziness. [/quote]

Root of the problem is spiritual warfare............[/quote]

We do quite a bit of work with homeless at my church. jmudler is correct as usual, this is the root cause. IMHO. As that old TV show used to say, there are a thousand stories in the naked city, and I've hear a lot of them. Some will break your heart, others will piss you off. I do not abide laziness. The Bible addresses this issue. But I also think about Matthew 25:40 when I start to get overheated at some of these people. "And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’" What a lot of these people need is Jesus. And a little help.

It's this right here. I don't live or work in downtown but my brother's best friend does. He has found a couple used needles in his front yard. What he said was that they go to the library and get on the homeless facebook groups and let them know it's good here in town so come on. This is happening due to a few progressive do gooder women who run "The Room with an Inn" their private homeless shelter.

There is some good news on that front. Hearing city court is enforcing loitering laws etc. strictly to help deter. There was an article in the Timesdaily yesterday that talked about the Downtown Florence Unlimited org, being in favor of taking care of our own, local homeless, but not needing to create a invitation for non residents to come here. I'm all for helping the locals who have fallen on hard times but we can't afford to be a homeless mecca. Heck we are already sales taxed to death here.

Ya know, this makes a lot of sense now. Homeless move in where ever they want and renters are close to impossible to evict...but i can't be buried on my own property. I get it now.

Slug hunter nailed it. “Room at the Inn” is piling them in here. I work all over Florence and I grew up here. Never seen as many as the last year or so.

Who backs room in the inn?

It appears to be a national organization

I keep hearing ads for fund raising here locally

some may be surprised by the number of community organizers in the Shoals

Guntersville is same way with the same place “ room at the inn “ bringing them here

All of these churches need to do their mission work here in the US and take those poor souls in as opposed to going on those extravagant mission trips to Costa Rica and the likes.

Cause some people aint going to work no matter what.

If you kept up with this, the homeless are only a small portion of the "Room at the Table" meals. The homeless "room in the inn" takes the homeless away from downtown to many churches and private organizations that allow them to stay overnight on their property.

We do ministry in the west side of Florence, in the projects, and there are kids that only get 1 meal a day during their breaks from school. Families can go says without decent food. Many times it is grandparents raising their grand kids the best they can. These ladies are doing invaluable work and for anyone, private or government, to prevent that when they have private funding is ludicrous. The only people i have seen complaining are the people who live in the historic district of Florence who are worried about their property value.

We will all answer for our decisions one day and i can only hope that I have tried to treat people the way Jesus would have treated me if we had have met at my lowest point in life.

Have you ever seen that one dude that’s hangs out by the Shoals Theater that talks to the invisible person beside him?

Yep, he is all over downtown.

Is that Pete and RePete? He must have moved from ensley.

I know him. If he's on his meds you can somewhat carry on a conversation with him. If he's not, then watch out lol.

Y’all talking about Larry that hangs out at Rivertown Coffee? He’s nuttier than a squirrel turd but harmless from what I know.

Now there’s another fella that hangs around downtown that has his mugshot in each week’s arrest reports for criminal trespassing. Was coming back to work from lunch one day and he was on the sidewalk on the main intersection taking trash out of his backpack and throwing it in the nice shrubs by the Municipal Bldg. Lots of prudish looking women walking by looking at him horrified 😂.

He’s also a threat to wear a ladies outfit from the Salvation Army around downtown occasionally.

Yep it's Larry. He used to work a little at rivertown in the mornings cleaning up and emptying garbage.

Yeah I figured, he’s a fixture of downtown Florence

I worked at IKP in Downtown Florence a few years back, Larry made his rounds and always stopped by to say something. Never really understood what he was saying just went with it. There was a Mom and Daughter that pushed a shopping cart around too. They'd end up stealing something every few weeks or so. A few others were seen too.

What was bad we'd find poo in the alley way behind the business. I can only imagine now.
I'm not sure about Florence, but when I had my business in Sheffield and then Tuscumbia, I had to provide a bathroom to anyone off the streets. It's a part of being in business for the public, after spending 2 hrs cleaning up after peanut one time, my bathroom was always out of order. Damn it was bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was a guy that wore a gold hard hat and wore goggles sometimes, he'd travel back and forth to Russellville and then back to the Shoals.

Sheffield had a guy that walked around with his steering wheel, he'd make motor sounds some times as he drove around town.

There is bunch of new non locals and I believe that is what most are upset about.

I don't know anyone wanting to live next to the situation.

Ah yes, forgot about about Peanut. The other guy you mentioned is Delmar, he’s a good soul. I believe he is just mentally disabled like the movie Radio sorta.

Florence is a cesspool

Always has been. Poor leadership for 30 years


I live here and have seen it get worse and worse

Eddie Frost started it and everyone else has let it continue