Destin church’s offer of free medical care scares homeowners

“We want to change the health of Destin, nothing else,” Tim Roberts of Destin Church of Christ says. “We don’t want to disrupt our neighbors.”
Monday, Roberts asked Destin City Council to approve a change in the “institutional zoning” rules to allow the Beach Drive church to open a free clinic. Roberts proposed a list of regulations he said would keep the clinic from being a problem for the neighborhood.

The councilors voted to have city staff draft an ordinance changing the zoning — which would require public hearings before becoming law — but said they’ve already received calls from residents convinced the clinic will draw the homeless.

“I’ve been contacted by a lot of your neighbors concerned that what you’d provide is different from anything else in Okaloosa County,” Mayor Craig Barker said.

“The church has been doing this for hundreds of years,” Roberts said. “Sacred Heart Hospital, most hospitals were started by churches.”

The church’s written proposal says it would open Hope Medical Clinic to treat people who could show they were working, or newly unemployed; without health insurance; residents of Okaloosa or Walton Counties; with a working phone number; and making less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For a single person, that means making under $1,733 a month.

“We’re talking about the people who served you lunch, possibly dinner before you came to this meeting,” Roberts said. “The working-class uninsured of the Destin community.”

To minimize problems, Roberts said, there would be no narcotics or controlled substances at the clinic, waiting areas would be inside the church and services would be by appointment only. He said that would keep people from waiting on the street in hopes of seeing a doctor.

Roberts said the church wanted to see those rules written into the zoning amendment.

Barker said that wouldn’t satisfy neighbors worried that “residency” and “recently employed” would be defined so loosely that a vagrant who’d done a couple of days work in Crestview would qualify.

In the eyes of many Destin residents, Councilor Jim Bagby said, Hope Medical would draw even more homeless to town: “They’re going to get clothed in this town, they’re going to get fed in this town, they’re going to get medical care in this town.”

Bagby and Councilor Jim Wood said they wouldn’t support the zoning change without a 1,000-yard space between clinics and schools.

Bagby said most residents would agree. Councilor Sam Seevers said that with Destin Christian Academy so close to the Church of Christ, that might kill the clinic.

City Manager Greg Kisela said even if the city wrote the restrictions into the law, it didn’t have the staff to police the clinic and make sure it complied.

“How do you monitor the conditions you put on anything?” Roberts replied. “How do you deal with any rule you put out there if you don’t have the staff?”

The council voted 5-2 to have staff draft a zoning change, with Wood and Kelly Windes voting no. Kisela said it would take three to six months before the new rules came to council for a vote.

Bagby recommended that Roberts find people in his own congregation who would use Hope Medical and could come to future presentations, to show who the church was trying to help.

Roberts told The Log afterwards that the proposed restrictions would make Hope Medical more tightly regulated than activities the church already offers, such as counseling, health screenings and regular services that draw members of the public.

“They don’t tell us ‘Hey, we don’t want you to have any vagrants at your worship service,’” Roberts said. “They haven’t asked us to (put restrictions) on any other regular work or action a regular church does.”