St. Petersburg Harassing Again

End Homelessness reports St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker is once again criminalizing homelessness. The Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Institutional Legal Services and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty have filed a class action lawsuit against the City of St. Petersburg.

Since early 2007, St. Petersburg has passed six ordinances that target homeless individuals, including four different ones that make it unlawful to sleep, lie down or recline outside at various locations throughout the city and prohibiting the use of temporary shelters. The other ordinances outlaw panhandling throughout most of downtown and prohibit the storage of personal belongings on public property.

"The City of St. Petersburg has essentially turned the issue of homelessness over to the criminal justice system. Subjecting homeless individuals to an endless cycle of arrest, incarceration and homelessness under these city ordinances and practices wastes valuable city and county resources and is ineffective in addressing the root causes of homelessness," said Kirsten Clanton, a staff attorney at SLC.

The idea is to intimidate the homeless community into leaving St. Pete. That is easier said than done. People with no money or car are not likely to leave. The impovished residents of New Orleans weren't able to leave before hurricane Katrina hit. The homeless aren't going to leave a place they are familiar with for an unknown town or city with equally bleak prospects.

This isn't the first time St. Petersburg officials have used intimidation to try and drive the homeless community out. The city tore down the infamous tent city. Law enforcement, waste management and the fire department came to tear tent city down. A national controversy ensued.



Mayor Baker came out of hiding and claimed he had no knowledge that tent city was going to be torn down.

"I did not know that the operation had occurred until it occurred," Baker said Monday. "I was aware that the fire marshal had identified a very grave concern. I did not know the specifics to the solution."

Baker had no idea that a small army of city workers came to tent city to destroy homeless property with razor knives. Other cities have lost legal battles for destroying homeless property.

"I'm not going to talk about that," Baker said, adding he was concerned about potential legal threats made by homeless advocates.

A true profile in courage. Rick Baker is the Mayor of St. Petersburg. He is either lying about his involvement in the 2007 destruction of tent city or is too incompetent to know what goes on in his administration. Baker is in charge and that makes tent city his responsibility. He may not want "to talk about that." The questions remains is why is his administration so hostile towards the homeless?