Board Fractures, Director Leaves—How Do You Get People to Do Stuff?

In Pinellas County, Florida, drama on the board of Pinellas County Homeless Leadership Board is playing out in full view, apparently over just what kind of leadership to utilize to shift to a "housing first" policy to underwrite its grantmaking.

Three members of the board believe that they will have to force their grantees to follow the "housing first" policy, and twelve others thought that point of view was just wrong. The three outliers, however, include the local sheriff, the county commissioner and the local public defender.

"If we don't have some type of clout, we're not going to...