As far as I know, in the beginning in St. Petersburg all the program had to do was come up with a "Surety Bond" which was nothing more than money set aside in a court appointed account. No doubt the money came from the very grant that was given to "operate" the program. As the group grew in size, no doubt the bond requirements grew as well. As long as they had enough money set aside to please the courts regarding liability, Straight could do any damn thing it pleased. Also, in the beginning, the building space was donated by benefactors who used it as a tax write off. All the officers of Straight had to do to cover their asses was to simply pay RENTERS INSURANCE, which is cheap as hell and covers a hell of a lot. For example, in the here and now, MY renters insurance is $105 a year and I am covered for 250 thousand dollars liability for whatever outlandishly freak occurance that could befall any gold digging dumbass within the confines of my simple one bedroom apartment.
There are a lot of businesses that operate this way. Rather than pay premiums that you will never ever see again, a business that is profitable enough simply has to make a binding statement to the courts that they have sufficient funds set aside to cover any losses or liabilities. Of course they could lose their ass, but the bigger the company, the smaller the risk and the greater the savings.
For instance, a guy I knew when I drove for the St. Petersburg Times had a garbage truck pull out in front of him at 55mph. Times had a surety bond, the shit took 23 months before a court date. He lost his house, had to learn how to walk all over again, and will never be the same because he had to live on Workman's Comp instead of reaching a quick settlement that INSURANCE would have provided. All the while, St. Pete Times had the mangled truck tucked away behind a building and covered with tarps for 2 years awaiting litigation. We were threatened with termination after I showed the wreck to a buddy who took a picture with his cell phone. A supervisor called us to the office, made him hand over his phone, and then proceeded to erase his entire SD card. Welcome to America, now get in line for your 3 gulps of water at the fountain!
