Lawmakers to consider tougher laws against panhandlers

She moved here from Las Vegas, thinking it would be easy to find a job.

A year later, Robin Swoveland said she still can't find work. She gets money by standing at a busy intersection on Dale Mabry Highway nine hours a day, holding a sign that details her plight.

"Help me please," the scrawl on the cardboard says. "I need some gas money. Find a job. No beer or no drugs. God bless you."

Swoveland, 53, said a good day is bringing at least $25 back to a motor home behind a nearby gas station, where she lives with her boyfriend.

"It's really bad," she said. "It's not easy."

Swoveland is just one of an untold number of panhandlers proliferating on the city's busiest streets. Some beggars have been pushed here because of a ban on street solicitation in St. Petersburg, while others are taking advantage of Tampa's more lenient laws, authorities said.

The influx of panhandlers has prompted Hillsborough County commissioners and Tampa city council members to consider tougher laws against street solicitors. Every day, beggars camp out at stoplights on Kennedy Boulevard, offer bottled water on Hillsborough Avenue and shuffle on medians on Dale Mabry Highway. "We've got to do something to get people off the streets," Hillsborough Commissioner Mark Sharpe said. "There's just been a dramatic increase in individuals standing on major intersections asking for money."

Sharpe has asked the county administrator to work with Hillsborough's three municipalities and homeless advocates to find a humane, constitutional way to clear intersections clogged by panhandlers. Tampa council members will discuss tougher median solicitation rules at a Thursday workshop.

Mayor Pam Iorio said the current law isn't working. She wants tougher rules, but said they must be countywide, not just the city.

"Right now we have a problem with people walking in the street between cars," Iorio said. "This is very unsafe and it is only a matter of time before someone gets hit by a car."

A model for the new laws may come from St. Petersburg, where it's illegal to solicit along the city's roads. The ban applies not only to panhandlers, but to newspaper hawkers and charities.

Sharpe said he and his fellow commissioners are considering all options, including an outright ban on street vending or allowing newspaper sellers a few hours on Sundays to hawk copies on medians.

City Attorney Chip Fletcher said St. Petersburg's ban on median solicitation has proven to be legally defensible. If the mayor and city council want to adopt similarly tough rules, he believes that it would stand up against possible legal challenges.

Tampa's laws allow solicitors to use the city's right-of-ways as long as they wear reflective safety vests and follow other basic safety rules. "There are two options here - we could continue with what we have, and add some additional restrictions, or we could go with a ban," Fletcher said.

Since the St. Petersburg ban was enacted June 13, areas once filled with beggars-specifically interstate exit ramps on the north side of town - are now devoid of them. But dozens of homeless people still congregate at the St. Vincent de Paul shelter near Fifth Avenue North and Interstate 375. Nearly all obey the new law and don't ask for money, said Kevin McCoy, who has been homeless for three years.

St. Petersburg police spokesman Michael Puetz said there have been a few repeat offenders who break the street vending law.

From June 13-Sept. 13, eight people have been arrested for violating the ordinance and 17 were given warnings, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.

"One guy has been arrested five times, but he's just being defiant," Puetz said. "But we've seen a dramatic decrease. At one time, you couldn't drive from Point A to Point B without seeing solicitors."

There were more than 5,000 homeless individuals and families in Pinellas County in 2007, according to a Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless survey. In Hillsborough, there are more than 9,500 homeless people, according to a 2009 survey by the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.

McCoy said the ban on panhandling "just makes it even harder" to get by on the streets of St. Petersburg. He said people are thinking about going to Tampa.

"They've talked about it," McCoy, 48, said. "I've yet to see them go."

Hillsborough sheriff's deputies and homeless advocates on both sides of the bay said panhandlers from St. Petersburg have found new opportunities in Tampa. Sheriff's Maj. Clyde Eisenberg said one person told deputies he drove from Pinellas County to Brandon to panhandle.

Cindy Davis, the program manager for the Trinity Café in Tampa, said the homeless who get free meals at her charity have told her that "they've seen many folks come over from the St. Pete area."

Swoveland said a few beggars from St. Petersburg tried to drive her off her chosen median on Dale Mabry. Swoveland said she held her ground.

"Just because I'm a little woman, they think they can push me around," she said.

Tulin Ozdeger, the director of civil rights for the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty, said laws like the one in St. Petersburg are common across the country.

"If cities look at the underlying causes of homelessness instead of taking punitive actions, maybe people won't be pushed to another community that now has to deal with the issue," Ozdeger said.

Rayme Nuckles, the chief operating officer of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, said Tampa's laws have contributed to the influx of panhandlers.

"It's more prevalent now because of the vests," Nuckles said, referring to the reflective orange and lime green clothing that all street solicitors must wear. The homeless said tough laws against panhandling are just one factor. The down economy, disabilities that prevent them from holding steady jobs and bad luck all play a part.

"I lost something somewhere," Steve Knipf, 48, said. Broke and homeless, Knipf said he would leave St. Petersburg and return to Venice, his hometown, if he had money. "Life throws me a curveball and I just can't hit it," he said.