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Ordinance Aimed At Homeless Enforced

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON and CHIP OSOWSKI, The Tampa Tribune News Channel 8

Published: February 2, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - It is a far cry from what happened 13 months ago, when police slashed the tents of homeless people on public rights of way, casting St. Petersburg into the national spotlight.

Friday, the city began enforcing another ordinance designed to force the homeless off sidewalks, but this time it used code enforcement officers and not police.

And the code enforcement officers were armed only with little signs.

The signs - posted outside city hall, where a group of homeless people had been congregating, and at one other location - essentially told the homeless people who had unloaded their belongings there that they had until noon Tuesday to remove them.

If they do not move their belongings voluntarily to a site set up by a charity, the city will put them in a storage facility, said Beth Herendeen, the city's spokeswoman.

About 20 homeless men and women slept on the steps of city hall Thursday night to protest the ordinance, passed last week. It essentially makes it illegal for the homeless to store their property outdoors.

They were also protesting another ordinance passed last week - one that makes it illegal for anyone to sleep or lie down on sidewalks or public property. The city has not begun enforcing this ordinance, Herendeen said.

Some of the homeless who now have to move their things cite the laws as yet another example of the city targeting its most vulnerable residents.

"They're going to run us out of downtown," said William Shumate, who is homeless. "They're going to treat us like criminals. Did I commit a crime?"

"It's like digging a hole and burying us until the neck and kicking our heads like it's a soccer ball," he said.

But a woman who takes her 2-year-old son to a nearby day care center said the behavior of the homeless people outside city hall has been less than exemplary.

Anna Stoup said because they have no bathroom, the homeless have been relieving themselves behind city hall, not far from the day care center's playground. The stench is so bad sometimes the children are not allowed outside to play.

"I have no sympathy when you're turning my son's playground into a latrine," Stoup said.

A young homeless man suggested the city install a portable toilet outside city hall, along with a garbage can.

Among the belongings outside city hall were a handful of bicycles, one of them with mismatched wheels, plus some blue tarps, a shopping cart with a heap of things including a snare drum, and at least one tent.

On the chance that people thought they could skirt the new ordinance simply by picking up their belongings and putting them on a different sidewalk, a code enforcement officer was photographing and cataloguing the items, Herendeen said.

One homeless man, Ray Hargis, packed up his things and left before the signs were posted.

"It's like we're getting railroaded, no matter what," the 45-year-old said, "but I'm going to continue to do what I've always done - whatever ... I want."

Herendeen said since the ordinances were passed, city employees have performed outreach to inform the homeless population what's coming. They also did a headcount and estimated 220 homeless people, she said.

The new ordinances are the latest measures the city has taken to balance the needs of the homeless against those of the rest of the residents. In March, ordinances were passed to prohibit people from sleeping on sidewalks next to residential properties and in city rights of way if shelter space is available.

And in December, in an effort spearheaded by Catholic Charities, a new tent city - or swath of land where the homeless could live in tents temporarily - was set up at the end of 126th Avenue North, just west of 49th Street North.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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