A man from Lakeland who is using his property to help the homeless was slammed with thousands of dollars in fines for not being in compliance with Polk County.
Virgil Robinson, 71, first began this mission in August of 2023. He was initially fined $90,000, but fast forward a little more than a year later, those fines have more than doubled.
Robinson’s moral dilemma continues to face challenges, even before the holidays, as Polk County Code Enforcement was at Robinson’s property on Thursday to clean it up again.
While officials were doing their job, Robinson said he’s not sure of what’s going to happen to the 17 people living on his property that don’t have a home elsewhere.
“My idea was that if a person stayed here six months without rent, they could save up and an apartment,” Robinson said. “Now, I’m about $200,000 in violation. During the last cleanup, I received a fine of $6,000.”
The 71-year-old spends his $1,500 pension check to get back into compliance. Even though he believes what he’s doing is a helpful thing, he also understands why code enforcement keeps showing up at his property.
Code enforcement officials have asked Robinson multiple times when he will stop letting people live on his property. The 71-year-old stood firm on his stance and wanted to convince code enforcement that what he was doing was to help people who didn’t have many options.
“I might have bit off more than I can chew,” Robinson said. “But if the American people were to just look at things, I don’t know how all of this can work. You run people off of public or private land. Then what do you do? Arrest them?”
Polk County officials says that Robinson was in violation for open storage, excessive junk, trash and debris. The county doesn’t have an estimate of how much Thursday’s cleanup will fall onto Robinson in fines, but they did say they have no plans to remove the people or trailers off his property at the moment.
I think the man should be able to do what he wants! It’s his property and as long as the people are not being a problem, then leave them alone !! Why doesn’t CODE ENFORCEMENT DO SOMETHING SBOUT THE HOMELESS LIVING IN TENTS BEHIND THE PUBLIC SUPERMARKET ON HAVENDALE????? THATS WHERE CODE ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO GO, THEY ARE IN TENTS THE PROPERTY LOOKS LIKE THE CITY DUMP ,THEY ARE LIVING IN TENTS LIKE ANIMALS DEFACATING OUTSIDE THEIR TENTS ON THE GROUND ,THERES DEBRIS TRASH SHOPPING CARTS YOU NAME IT ,ITS ALL PILED UP BACK THERE ,STRUNG ALL OVER THAT PROPERTY N PEOPLE KEEP BRINGING MORE TRASH BACK THERE RATS OUR OVERTAKING THE HOUSES WE LIVE IN BECAUSE OF THE TRASH THESE “HOMELESS” PEOPLE BRING BACK THERE!! THREE PEOPLE HAVE OD’D BACK THERE SINCE SEPTEMBER OF THIS YEAR ITS JUST A DRUG INFESTED COMMUNE ,WHERE THESE PEOPLE LIVE N PARTY AS THEY PLEASE WITH NO REGARD FOR HUMANE LIFE NOT THEIR LiveS OR ANYONE ELSES ! It’s a health HAZZARD BACK THERE, ITS UNSANITARY UNSAFE N DANGEROUS!! HOW ABOUT CODE GO DO THEIR JOB THERE ?? RIGHT BEHIND HAVEN DALE PUBLIX N 42ND STREET???? AND ,LEAVE THAT MAN ALONE WHO IS TRYING TO HELP PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO SAVE UP MONEY TO RENT APTS ,ROOMS ECT!!!
Wait. So the fines are because he won’t keep the property clean or because he is helping homeless people get their finances together? If it’s about keeping the property clean, then they should be cleaning the property daily in exchange for free rent and free food. But that’s just based on my understanding of what I read.
What virgil is doing is what the rest of Polk county should be doing. No one is out there to help these people they’re kicking them out they’re making homelessness a crime what do you expect people to do there’s no jobs for people that have felons and have no place to live and have no clothes Polk county needs to step up and start taking care of her own people and stop fining Virgil
So if Code Enforcement and the group that seats and handles all these decisions on behalf of We the People, where is the solution for the homeless community crisis for christ sake, there’s plenty of money for illegal immigration’s but there isn’t enough money to give a hand to those homeless people, where has humanity gone, U take them out of the public and private places and when a person decides to gives a hand, you punch him in the face, cause you ( Government) don’t have a solution for this problem, shame on you all, you all brag too much about the so called Freedom and how patriotic you all are, some of these homeless are Veterans and What are you doing to help them get back on their feet, Stop the hypocrisy, Pharisees, You are like whitewashed tombs, repent yourself before it’s too late.
This is some BS because all this man is doing is what he was called to do and that is to help those in need. Now if those individuals were living on the streets they would be locked up for being homeless so since he is using his private property to house them it’s being treated as a crime also. I am proud of this man for standing his ground on what he believes in and still helping those in need. Now what the county needs to do is get rid of all those fines they gave him and help house those who are less fortunate as he is diong already. Keep up the good work because that is what GOD wanted you to do in this lifetime so may you continue to be blessed.
It’s a profiling case.
The people as a group (racism and predudice), are discriminated against and this is the only reason they are being harassed. YOU can drive down the road and find way worse just from an occasional glance. They just don’t like these people. Maybe they worry that the group is too large and that might intimidate them. Who knows? But, it will work out. That’s how God shows his glory.