Rick Baker and Co. take another slash at the tents

Rules to ban tent cities

St. Petersburg responds to complaints about homeless camping out on sidewalks.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published March 16, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG

The St Pete police (like the Tampa Police) never stop serving and protecting ....

The City Council passed a series of ordinances Thursday that would outlaw impromptu tent cities from forming along city sidewalks.

The ordinances, which each passed 6-0, also would prohibit people from sleeping on sidewalks next to residential property and all city rights-of-way if shelter space is available. Council members Rene Flowers and Earnest Williams were not at Thursday's meeting.

The ordinances were a response to the tent cities that have grown in parts of the city since December.

"We are committed to help folks in need. We'll continue to help folks in need," said Mayor Rick Baker. "But we have to protect people who invested in their home and their businesses in St. Petersburg. We have to do that."

The council heard more than four hours of contentious debate Thursday night.

"I have had it with the demands tent city and the facilitators are dishing out," said Lynn Hawkins, a city resident who supported the measures.

(the usual nazi)

Eric Rubin, an advocate for the homeless who opposed the ordinances, said of the 75 tents at the city's temporary encampment on 15th Street, 74 are now filled. Yet more people are still looking for a place to stay, Rubin said.

Rubin suggested that the city lease vacant land it owns for 10 years to become a more permanent tent city.

A coalition of civil rights groups and the Pinellas-Pasco public defender's office also opposed the ordinances, telling council members they may be unconstitutional. Federal courts have ruled that local governments cannot criminalize homelessness, said local attorney Mark Kamleiter, speaking for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Legal Counsel and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

City officials say the ordinances make arrest a last resort. No one sleeping in the public right of way, for example, can be arrested if shelter space is not available within 3 miles of the city limits.

It was not immediately clear when the ordinances may start to be enforced.

I'd be willing to bet that it will be purty GD soon.

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