Officials say they usually show up in the afternoons, driven via Uber to Talbot House and dropped off on the sidewalk in front or behind the building on North Kentucky Avenue.
They are people who are physically or mentally ill and often traumatized by having been discharged or enticed to leave a hospital, rehabilitation center or mental health facility with no safety net or plan.
At a glance
- Video recordings confirm that medical facilities outside of Polk County are sending newly discharged patients who are homeless to Talbot House.
- The practice is adding to the number of homeless people in Lakeland.
- Some patients are being transported here against their will.
- Local shelters are overwhelmed and working with Lakeland Police to try to stop the influx.
They’ve often been driven for more than an hour to Lakeland — a town most have never visited and hours away from any family or friends. Some say they were told there was a program here to help them, while others say they had no idea where they were headed.
Lakeland Police released four videos to LkldNow, showing the confusion and frustration these patients feel after being “dumped” at a shelter that often has no bed for them and can’t handle their medical needs.
LkldNow also spoke with a woman who was transported to Talbot House from another county and is now staying at the shelter while she pulls her life back together after mental abuse from a longtime partner.
The majority of the people being dropped off are from out of county … We don’t have the facilities and this is not the setting to provide the level of care that many of them need.”
maria cruz, executive director of talbot house ministries
Both Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said they’re angry that vulnerable people are being misled or manipulated and left outside the shelter with no guidance about where to go or what to do. The pair said employees of the facilities sending them here and even Uber drivers could face criminal charges.
A ‘disheartening’ trend
Maria Cruz, executive director of Talbot House Ministries, said the organization has noticed a sharp uptick in the number of patients from other counties being dropped at the organization’s doorstep.
“To give you an idea, last year we had a total of 25 drop-offs the entire year. This year, in January and half of February, we have had 19 hospital drop-offs,” Cruz said. “I have to say that the majority of the people being dropped off are from out of county. We have been working with those providers to find proactive solutions, and then other options for these individuals. We don’t have the facilities and this is not the setting to provide the level of care that many of them need.”
Talbot House has served people who are homeless since 1979, operating on donations and some federal and state programs.
On average, they shelter 160 overnight guests daily. About 70 are part of its residency program — staying anywhere from six to 24 months. Those short-term residents work with case managers to try to mend their lives and are welcome to stay inside the center during the day. The other 90 people stay in shared quarters on a first-come, first-served basis and have to leave each morning.
In addition, the organization serves an average of 21,297 meals each month and sees 377 patients monthly in its clinic. It also helps people get certifications in things like food preparation and construction, or earn their general education diplomas.
Talbot House recently posted a statement on its LinkedIn page addressing the issue of patient dumping:
“As we continue to advocate for the rights and dignity of the homeless community, it’s disheartening to see the ongoing crisis of hospitals and other healthcare facilities dumping. No one should be discharged from any institution without a safe place to go, especially our most vulnerable populations. Homeless services providers are facing immense challenges in addressing this issue, and it’s crucial that we come together to find sustainable solutions.”
To document the growing problem, Talbot House has been calling Lakeland Police, whose officers turn on their body cameras.
Video evidence
Their stories are all different as to how they wound up without a place to call home. One man lost his apartment after an extended hospital stay. Another said the home he had been living in, which had been his grandmother’s, was taken via eminent domain in Pasco County. Two women were victims of abusive relationships and another had been Baker Acted.
A domestic violence victim’s story
On Jan. 10 at about 1 p.m., a domestic violence victim was transported by Springbrook Behavioral Hospital — a mental health facility in Brooksville — to Talbot House. LkldNow is not using her name, her hometown or sharing the video for her safety.
“Basically I have a situation and I really don’t know what to do about it,” the woman told Officer Edwin Sanchez as she stood on the sidewalk at the front of Talbot House.
She explained that in November, her boyfriend held her for a week against her will and beat her so severely that her collarbone was broken. He also smashed her cellphone and she was having problems reaching a family member.
“He will kill me if he gets out,” she told the officer.
She was in three different hospitals over two months prior her arrival at Talbot House.
“Yesterday, they discharged me from the hospital … Springbrook,” she told the officer. “I got in the car with medical transportation and transportation from the hospital. … He showed me an address of this address. And I said, ‘No sir. I’m going (home).’ He’s all, ‘Oh, no, you’re not. No, you’re not.’”
She said a family member was willing to take her in, but she had no way to get to their home, several hours away. She and the officer discussed trying to go to a domestic violence shelter, the Salvation Army, or even Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center — which would only send her back to Talbot House.
The officer told her to wait a few hours until the shelter opened, then ask a case worker to help her track down her son and provide her with a bus ticket to return home.
Bruce’s story
Bruce, 60, was dropped off by an Uber driver at about 4 p.m. that same day. The driver said he picked up Bruce from North Tampa Behavioral Health Hospital on State Road 56 in Wesley Chapel. When LPD Officer Macson McGuirk pulled up behind Talbot House, Bruce was sitting in a wheelchair, wearing blue hospital scrub pants, no-skid hospital socks, and a sweatshirt. Gathered near him, a crowd of people awaited daily entrance into the facility to get a meal and maybe a bed.
“I was discharged for a program — to get into a program — while they forced me to come out here. I didn’t want to come out here. And they forced me,” Bruce told the officer. “I didn’t know it was going to be like this.”
“I didn’t want to come out here. And they forced me … I didn’t know it was going to be like this.”
Bruce, dropped off at talbot house
Bruce is from Cocoa, at least a two and a half hour drive away from Lakeland, depending on traffic. Bruce told the officer he was in a great deal of pain and asked to be taken to the hospital.
The Uber driver said a nurse at the Wesley Chapel facility “helped (Bruce) out of the wheelchair, I had to put the wheelchair in the back, (she) helped me get him in the car because he can’t walk … she was like, ‘Have a good day.’”
The officer had a word of warning for the driver.
“So I’m not sure if you’re aware that this seems to be a common tactic for the hospitals,” he said. “I would be very careful when you’re picking up people from the hospital in the future and make sure that the individual you’re transporting wants to go wherever you’re taking them.”.
“He doesn’t know where he’s going, so potentially it could be construed as kidnapping,” the officer said. “If he’s not willing to go someplace and he’s of sound mind, they’re shipping him somewhere and you’re transporting him.”
David’s story
David, 64, was sitting in the Talbot House lobby on Jan 29 at about 1:30 p.m., his prosthetic leg resting on a walker in front of him. He was wearing hospital scrub pants with his few possessions in a clear, drawstring “patient belongings” hospital bag.
He told Officer McGuirk that he had been sent over from a hospital in Dade City, which was not identified in the video.
“They set it all up to get it away from them,” David said. “They didn’t do me right. They did the same thing last June when I had to have that toe amputated.”
David explained that he spent 40 years working in the phosphate industry for International Mine Corporation and Mosaic. His house, which had been his grandmother’s, was taken via eminent domain for the building of an industrial park in Pasco County.
He said he had been fixing up the house, which was more than 100 years old. But the developers demolished it. He received $2,000 compensation, which barely covered two months’ rent.
“I’ve got ways and means, I still get a paycheck,” he said. But he told the officer that his sister’s friend stole his car with all his medication in it. “That started the whole damn domino effect.”
He said he has been on disability for seven years, and his 85-year-old aunt and uncle are not able to take care of him. Talbot House sent him to Lakeland Regional because he needed medical care.
Elianah’s story
Elianah was dropped off at Talbot House on Feb. 8 at about 4:30 p.m. by Springbrook Behavioral Hospital, where she had been Baker Acted for two weeks. She arrived in what looks like pajamas, without any identification or belongings. Prior to her Baker Act, she had been homeless.
“I was discharged. I’d been waiting for a program, to get into a program. Well, they forced me to come out here,” she said. “I didn’t want to come out here. And they forced me. They said that either that or I was gonna get trespassed and get put in jail. So I had no choice.”
She said the ride took an hour and a half, but she didn’t feel like she could tell the driver to go back or stop. She also said she didn’t have any health insurance. And then she apologized to a Talbot House employee and the officer.
“It’s not your fault,” Officer Teddy Cuello assured her. “For whatever reason, these hospitals feel entitled to send them from all throughout the state and then bring them here. As if we have space for people … it’s pretty much just picking up somebody else — not saying it’s a problem, somebody else’s problem — and then bringing it somewhere else. If we had a bed, I’m sure it’d be a different story, but we don’t. Everything is full.”
Anna’s story
“Anna,” 38, who asked that we not use her real name, arrived in early January. She explained that her fiancé had kicked her out of their home, where she had lived for several years, located several hours away, and she had had a mental breakdown. She hadn’t had a job since moving to Florida.
She said Springbrook Behavioral Hospital told her they had arranged everything with Talbot House so she called to make sure everything was good. She was told that since she wasn’t from Polk County, she would only be accepted if they had a bed.
“I told the case manager and they said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re gonna verify that for you so that when you get there, it’s all said and done, taken care of,” said “Anna.” “I quite literally was dropped off. They shut the door and … it wasn’t even just to drive off — he gunned it and you didn’t have a choice. It was quite traumatizing … You look around and you go, which one’s even the main door, you know? And, you know, you just hope that somebody will talk to you and understand that you, like, just did a 180-degree turn” in your life.
She explained that she’s not from here, doesn’t know anyone here and had never even been to Lakeland before that night.
“I was just in a hospital, which is hard enough as it is,” she said. “I was wearing the same clothes for almost two weeks. It was really hard and humbling at the same time. Like just critically, you’re frozen.”
What Talbot House is doing
Talbot House’s Cruz said she has been speaking with the administrators and directors of the facilities that have been sending their patients, unannounced, to her shelter.
“I am encouraging all these leaders from these other counties to communicate with us and just to learn that we are here to serve Polk County homeless residents or people around in the community. We are not here to take their constituents,” Cruz said. “They will need to figure out what they can do in their counties.”
Cruz said Talbot House has been collaborating with Lakeland Police to try to thwart the dramatic influx of recently discharged hospital, mental health and rehab patients.
“It’s been amazing since we are working together with them,” she said. “We have noticed a reduction of these institutions sending people our way. We are calling them right now, we are documenting all the interactions that we are having with these drivers. We have noticed a reduction in the last (month) of the drop-offs coming here.”
She said recent media attention has helped, too, with stories on local television stations and in The Ledger.
LkldNow reached out to James O’Shea, who is listed as the chief operating officer of Oglethorpe Corporation, the parent company of Springbrook. Calls for comment in early March and on Monday went unanswered.
Cruz said that Uber drivers have become leery after seeing the stories and knowing they could be prosecuted. One case manager from one of the facilities drove a patient to Talbot House and Cruz’s employees invited them inside to see that this was not the appropriate place for the people they have been dumping here.
“Hopefully, that helped them and the case managers to understand that this is a congregate living with non-medical beds,” Cruz said. “We don’t have the medical staff to just care for these individuals 24/7.”
Police: ‘It could be construed as kidnapping’
Lakeland Police officers have been telling those dumped at Talbot House that staff at the medical facilities that sent them there could be prosecuted for kidnapping.
Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor said the department had always heard rumors that this was happening, but now they have the proof.
“Now that we have the body cameras, we actually have it on body cam, you know, because if I was to go speak to a community group or tell commissioners or people in the community that, hey, this is going on. It sounds like a fantastical story, to be honest. You know, why would people do that? But now that it’s on a video, when we can actually say, ‘Well, no, here’s the body cam video to prove it.’”
Taylor, who has been in law enforcement for nearly four decades, said he feels sorry for the people who are being brought by Ubers with no idea where they are.
“My heart goes out to them because they didn’t have to be where they are. They didn’t have to be transported to a city, a town where they don’t know anyone,” Taylor said. “As far as we can tell, they are just kind of doing what they’re told and they’re being called and they’re being put into Ubers and being sent to a city, a town that they don’t have any relatives and have no reason to be.”
It also makes him angry at the facilities doing this.
“I mentioned the fact that they’re overburdening our already stretched-out resources,” Taylor said “We’ve got plenty of our own folks that we’re trying to help. We don’t need other cities’ people, as well.”
“We’ve got plenty of our own folks that we’re trying to help. We don’t need other cities’ people, as well.”
Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor
Taylor said the solution is for cities and towns to take responsibility for their own people.
“If you know, for whatever reason, these homeless ended up in your city, then you need to deal with that and give them whatever services that you have available at the time and not strain other cities’ resources, because you don’t want to have to deal with it,” Taylor said. “We’re certainly never going to arrest ourselves out of the problem. That’s not the way we’re going to fix this … that’s not one that I would advocate for.”
Taylor said he has no qualms about publicizing the issue if it stops facility administrators and counselors from continuing to do this.
“If it shames these cities into stopping it, then I’ll count that as a win,” Taylor said.
Sheriff Judd took it a step further and said he would like to arrest the people doing this.
“I think first and foremost that it is horrific, to move someone to another locale just to get rid of them,” Judd said. “If they want to go to another community, certainly, they have the right to do that. But if they are being taken there against their will, arguably, we could bring criminal charges against them and certainly, that would be worthy of further investigation by wherever the dumping occurs.”
He said those charges could include abduction, kidnapping, and false imprisonment. He added that Uber drivers could be charged, too, or become “great witnesses” in the cases against the facilities.
A tangible need
Cruz said there is a tremendous need in the community for a facility that can take in discharged patients who are completely disabled or people who need more medical attention than Talbot House, Lighthouse Ministries or the Salvation Army can provide.
“We don’t have any problem taking individuals with disabilities, but they need to be able to provide their activities of daily living,” Cruz said. “So as long as they are able to be self-sufficient … we don’t have any issues with that. But lately we have received individuals who are paralyzed — you know, we recently had a drop off of a young lady that was totally paralyzed — individuals with oxygen tanks, and severe mobility issues that they cannot be in a shelter. We don’t have nursing care. We don’t have what they need.”
Cruz is proposing a facility that could bridge indigent people being discharged from hospitals or mental health facilities who still need some care that would normally be given by family members at home.
“All the shelters in the area are full, so there is a huge need to establish something. It could be called a nursing home, rehab center, indigent rehab center or stabilization/transitional housing,” she said. “We can call it whatever we want. But it’s a need that it’s tangible. And it could be a solution.”
Cruz said there are so many issues now that are leading to the homeless crisis, including lack of affordable housing, low wages, and the disparity in income between the affluent and those just scraping by.
“We are here to mitigate and do the best we can as providers to offer the dignity and the services they deserve, the citizens of this community,” she said.
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