Florida Workforce Housing Network, of which I am a principal, is modeled after DailyKos.com and focuses on affordable workforce housing issues in Florida. Last month I diaried the news of Umoja Village, a block of occupied city-owned property in the poverty-plagued Overton area of Miami where people have constructed a makeshift "shantytown." (Don't cringe at that word, it has the noblest origins).
Now people power - Florida style - has taken root across the state in St. Petersburg.
Rev. Bruce J. Wright, who heads Refuge Ministry in St. Pete, helped establish an impromptu tent city for homeless people on the St. Vincent de Paul property in St. Pete on Dec. 30. Now the mayor wants St. Vincent de Paul to evict them.
On Sunday, Rev. Wright led his flock on a little march - to the Northside Baptist Church, where St. Pete Mayor Richard Baker worships.
Robert Farley of the St. Petersburg Times reported Monday:
They held signs that read, "Rick Baker Didn't Learn Anything at Church" and "Real Christians Don't Evict" and "Save Tent City." Many of the messages were written on the back of Baker's re-election campaign signs.
Rev. Wright (left), a member of the Pentecostal Charismatic Peace Fellowship, is a well-known housing advocate and peace activist in the St. Petersburg area.
A decade ago, the Refuge Ministry was kicked out of its downtown headquarters. Rev. Right has patiently and creatively kept the organization alive, and now it's back, in full flower.
By covering both exits at Northside Baptist - denying Mayor Baker the reverent back-door escape - Rev. Wright assured himself a little hue and cry. And no one can whine like a pharisee. St. Pete city council chairman Bill Foster, who was critical of the mayor's eviction ultimatum days before, rose to his defense:
[Foster] said a lot of positive things have spun out of last week's controversy. He called the demonstration "unfortunate."
"We have momentum for the homeless cause," he said. "Demonstrating in front of a house of worship, in my opinion, that sets it back some. You're not going to make friends with the top guy in the city doing that."
Isn't that almost exactly what they said to Jesus (in the Mel Gibson movie version)?
Update I: Kenneth Quinnell at the Fla. Progressive Coalition blog addressed this issue yesterday:
The City of St. Petersburg has issued a codes violation regarding no camping in tents in the city of St. Petersburg and has given the community of "Coming Up" until next Friday, Jan. 12th to get out. They are further pressuring St. Vincent De Paul to require the organizers of Tent City to not allow anyone else into to Tent City and to limit the number to 100 that allowed in there, as well as limiting the ability of the press to get on site and any of those who wish to help. Now more than ever, we need everyone’s support!!! Please call the Mayor, Mayor Baker at 727 893 7171 and urge him an city council to over turn this action. Also, please call the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg to urge them to pressure the city and encourage St. Vincent’s to stand up to this assault of human rights and the very nature of who Jesus was and is about. We are planning to fight this action legally, with phone calls and emails, protesting, media attention, and if necessary a blockade. Please call Rev. Bruce Wright at ... for more details or email him at bgcwright (at) aol.com.
Update II: Cristina Silva and Aaron Sharockman have a big story in today's (Tue) St. Petersburg Times that focuses on political theatre:
The creation of St. Petersburg's tent city was part organic and part political, a delicate two-step that advocates for the homeless hope will result in a more lasting solution.
Sharockman, whose reporting was the basis for the Greedy Scumbag Developers in St. Pete series at floridaworkforcehousing.net, and Silva bear down hard on the tent city organizers:
Just two weeks after 60 homeless men and women set up tents on 4 acres at St. Vincent de Paul Society, a pair of advocates continues to use the spectacle as an opportunity to drum up public sympathy and coerce city officials into dialogue.
Bruce Wright and Michael Amidei, two Christian ministers who helped found the encampment, have vowed to set up another homeless camp if city officials do not come up with a permanent living solution for St. Petersburg's homeless.
Rev. Wright has been doing this for two decades. He responded:
"If it takes something like this, then that's what is necessary," said Wright, a longtime advocate for the homeless and the founder of Refuge Ministries. "There has always been a crisis, but now that there is media attention on it, (city officials) are responding."
Update III: I earlier reported that the homeless people moved to the St. Vicent de Paul site after the city threatened police action. Apparently this was not the case. As Silva and Sharockman reported further down in a meaty story:
Wright, Amidei and other activists had been discussing setting up a tent city for weeks as both an effort to provide shelter to residents on the streets and a message to the city.
In December, they got their chance when a dozen homeless men and women set up a makeshift camp of tents and furniture under an Interstate 375 underpass near St. Vincent de Paul's food center and shelter.
Sophie Sampson, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Society, and Wright then agreed to move the emerging encampment to a lot adjacent to the food center. Overnight, the population doubled, and during the next few days, dozens of homeless people entered the camp.
This diary is cross-posted at Fla. Politics.