Tampa tells group to stop feeding homeless downtown

The hungry begin arriving before dawn, with bowed heads and downtrodden expressions, dirty bundles of clothes and other belongings tucked under their arms.

They stake out a spot in a city-owned parking lot at the end of Royal Street in downtown, between the Interstate 275 off-ramp and the Army Navy Surplus store, and wait to be served.

By 7 a.m., hot coffee, orange juice, cereal, bagels and fruit are being handed out.

For the past six years, Dennis and Nancy Holt and a loosely organized group of church volunteers have been feeding homeless people on Saturday mornings from the city lot. In recent years, the numbers of mouths to feed has grown, to more than 150 men and women, but they've never had issues and the city has always looked the other way.

Until now.

Last weekend, Tampa police shut down the Holts' feeding operation, politely telling them that the activity was illegal and they needed a permit to serve food on public property.

"We've never had any problems," said Nancy Holt. "I don't know why they did this."

Members of the group say they suspect the move is part of a broader effort by the city to "clean up" downtown ahead of next year's Republican National Convention. At least one member said she heard the shutdown orders came from Mayor Bob Buckhorn's office.

"They're trying to sweep these people under the rug," said Doris Lutkus, who has been volunteering with her husband, John, for the past four years. "It's unconscionable."

Lutkus said she began calling city departments this week, trying to figure out what the regulations are and how they can get a permit. She said she got the "proverbial runaround."

"They passed me around like an old shoe, from one office to the next," she said. "No one could tell me what law we were breaking, just that we were not allowed to be there."

Santiago Corrada, Buckhorn's chief of staff, said there is a whole host of state and local regulations for activities where food is served to large groups on city-owned property.

"If they've been doing this for years without permits, somewhere along the line we might have dropped the ball," he said. "There are all kinds or requirements on public feeding."

He denied the move was part of a policy to rid the city's streets of homeless.

"Absolutely not true," Corrada said Thursday, "at least that I'm aware of."

But an email from the city's Parks and Recreation Supervisor Linda Carlo, who oversees special permits for parks and other city-owned land, to several city officials indicates that the police department has been trying to curtail homeless feeding on public property.

"We've had an increase of feeding the homeless in downtown and TPD has been working to move them to private property if they do not meet the state mandated guidelines and are not permitted by the city," she wrote. "Unfortunately, there is no state agency that enforces the regulations so TPD does it within the downtown area."

Laura McElroy, a spokeswoman for the Tampa Police Department, said complaints about the city's swelling homeless population have prompted the department to begin enforcing a city ordinance that requires a special-use permit for such activities on public property.

"Every city and county in the Tampa Bay area has passed an ordinance that puts a ban on panhandling, with the exception of Tampa," she said "As a result, the city's homeless population has skyrocketed and so has the complaints from citizens and business owners."

McElroy said the department will be working with county's homeless organizations to find alternative locations for groups such as the Holts' to feed the homeless.

She said the enforcement of the city's permit laws on feeding the homeless don't have anything to do with next year's GOP convention.

Lutkus said some officials suggested the group move the feeding operation to a different location, on private property, or partner with a homeless advocacy group.

"Are you kidding me? she asked. "Who would give us permission to use their property?"

Group members buy most of the food with their own money but sometimes get donations from church groups and local business owners who want to get involved in the effort.

"We're not rich people, believe me," Lutkus said. "We do this because there is a need and because we feel that any one of us could find ourselves in a similar situation."

Katie O'Brien, who owns the Army-Navy Surplus store next to the city lot, said there's never been any problem with the group. She was surprised the city kicked them out.

"I think that's just ridiculous," she said. "It's hard out there for everyone right now."

Tom Atchison, a pastor and president of New Beginnings of Tampa, which operates a homeless mission on Nebraska Avenue, has been feeding homeless for more than 10 years on Saturday mornings from another city-owned parking lot just down the street.

Several years ago, Tampa police tried to shut down his feeding operation but he took the issue up with then-Mayor Pam Iorio. "She told the cops to leave us alone," he said.

He said there are dozens of homeless feedings across the city that don't have permits.

"There's no such thing as a permit for feeding the homeless," he said. "It's a grey area."

Atchison said Hillsborough County has seen a substantial increase in the number of homeless – more than 17,000 by the most recent count – and organizations such as his have been overwhelmed by a demand for food and shelter that they simply can't meet.

"We're seeing a lot more women and children ending up on the street," he said.

On Saturday, The Holts and other members of the group say they will go to the parking lot to explain what happened. They expect to find hungry mouths waiting for them.

Lutkus the group won't abandon its efforts to feed the homeless without a fight.

"Tampa doesn't have a big enough rug to sweep this one under," she said.