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St. Pete Clears The Streets Of Possessions Of Homeless

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By CARLOS MONCADA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 7, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - As workers for the city collected and boxed the tattered effects of the homeless outside City Hall, a disheveled man walked up and began speaking out to anyone who would listen.

"It's very rude and cruel of the way they're treating the homeless people," said the man, who identified himself as William Arthur Meyers. "The guy that owns that is an old man, and his name is Grandpa. They have no right doing this."

Nearly three days after putting the homeless on notice, the city Wednesday began following through on its warning that personal belongings not removed voluntarily from sidewalks and other rights of way would be seized.

Shortly after 10:30 a.m., amid a horde of television cameras, contractors for the city donned protective gloves and picked up sleeping bags, blankets, clothing and other personal items that they placed in cardboard boxes. They also hauled away bicycles and a shopping cart. The dozen or so boxes were labeled and taped shut before being put into a small trailer that took them to a storage yard nearby.

After leaving City Hall, crews headed to a second makeshift encampment on 15th Street, between Fourth and Fifth avenues north, to begin a similar cleanup operation.

The ordinance the city council passed Jan. 24, in response to complaints from downtown businesses and residents, prohibits people from keeping personal belongings outdoors on public and private property. It is aimed at eliminating encampments on sidewalks such as the one outside City Hall, which had become the most visible.

Wednesday's uneventful enforcement action was not carried out by police, who received widespread criticism 13 months ago for their use of box cutters to slash homeless people's tents on public rights of way. Rather, the cleanup was handled by Tampa-based contractor Bio-Spec Inc. under supervision of the sanitation and code enforcement departments.

The items were taken to a fenced storage yard the city owns at 1675 Fifth Ave. N., between 16th Street and Interstate 275, said Beth Herendeen, St. Petersburg marketing director.

The city has been handing out notices to homeless people telling them how and where they can retrieve items removed from public rights of way, Herendeen said. If the items go unclaimed after 30 days, they will be disposed of, she said.

Herendeen said city attorneys expect the ordinance and another that bans sleeping on sidewalks and in rights of ways during the day to withstand any potential legal challenges, as advocates for the homeless have said they are considering.

"It's a question of constitutionality," said the Rev. Bruce Wright, who runs Refuge Ministries in St. Petersburg.

Meyers said he did not know the whereabouts of Grandpa, the homeless man who owned many of the items collected Wednesday morning.

"I know he had a heart attack so he might have went to the hospital," said Meyers, who alternately said he was and wasn't homeless.

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at cmoncada@tampatrib or (727) 451-2333.

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