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 tentcity. Law enforcement, waste management and the fire department came to tear tent city down. A national controversy ensued.
"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?
Thanks to Lindsay Campbell and Amanda Elend of MobLogic.tv for linking my St. Petersburg tent city post to their story on a homeless tent city in Ontario, California.
The Los Angeles Times has an article on Ortario's tent city. It is a rather bleak picture. The community is trying to directly deal with their homeless problem and have spent $3 million. That beats St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker tearing down tent city and then claiming he did not know who gave the order. This was after days of refusing to publicly comment.
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker wrote an op-ed for the St. Petersburg Times makes the argument that desegregation was a horrible social idea. Republicans always disguise their argument in the evils of busing.
Hopefully, the funds for the enhanced programs described above could come from reductions in bus transportation costs.
Baker proposes "smaller teacher-pupil ratios," which would mean the hiring of more school teachers. Community monitoring Baker admits his plan "will cost more money." He hopes that decreased transportation costs will cover increased expensives. This isn't a plan. It's unserious nonsense.
St Petersburg city council are discussing if they are going to shut down tent city. It is safe to assume how this debate will go down. Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis already has stated homeless people camped at 18th Street and First Avenue N will be arrested.
The question is where are these people going to move to. The Lakewood United Church of Christ may need a permit to let homeless camp on their property. The city shut down the tent city on St Vincent De Paul property. The homeless hit the streets which is why the current problem exists. What is likely to happen is the city chases the homeless off of Lakewood United Church property. These people will be out in the open again. At least on church property there is greater safety and supervision.
Mayor Rick Baker has been his usual silent self on the matter.
The St Petersburg Times has a video of Rev. Bruce Wright talking to homeless people of the current situation.
The situation is a Mayor who lacks the political courage to voice his views on homelessness. A city that does not have shelters and breaks up one tent city after another. None of this has made the homeless problem go away. If anything, it as caused the city much unneeded negative press.
Has anyone heard a St Petersburg government official actually propose a plan to deal with homelessness? I haven't. Someone might want to think about that. Instead of playing whack-the-mole with the different tent cities.
