Two weeks ago, in Jesus is a housing advocate in St. Petersburg, Fla., I diaried about a "tent town" that crusading Rev. Bruce J. Wright of Refuge Ministry in St. Pete helped organize on the St. Vincent de Paul property in St. Pete a month ago. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker (right) wants St. Vincent de Paul to evict them.
On Wednesday, two homeless men were shot and killed nearby. Police believe teenagers committed both murders.
On Friday, St. Pete police raided the tent town. They didn't arrest anyone - they just destroyed the tents and carted away the tops "as evidence," leaving the homeless worse off than they were before.
The St. Pete Times posted the YouTube video link.
Greetings from Florida. Wish you were here.
Homelessness is a huge and complex issue. A recent U.S. survey - the first in a decade - estimates there were 774,000 homeless in 2005. (P.S., enjoy my radical link, but the story, from AP on Jan. 11, was widely published in the MSM too). There are probably almost as many reasons for homelessness as there are homeless people.
Solutions are getting crazy too. In DeLand, Fla., near Orlando, developer Michael Arth wants to build a $100 million resort-style "village" in rural Volusia County where transients could "live, work and receive counseling," a retread of an advertising slogan ubiquitous in Florida touting self-contained communities such as Disney's Celebration, where families can 'live, work and play.' Funny.
But Arth is serious. He wants to create a 5,600-bed community on 125 acres near the Volusia County Branch Jail. And some county commissioners are interested.
"The tranquil and beautiful natural setting will be good for both physical and mental health, giving the appearance and ambience of a resort. Curious visitors visiting from suburbia will be heard to exclaim, 'Wow, I wouldn't mind living here,' " Arth wrote in his proposal.
Who said Republicans don't have a sense of humor?
In St. Pete, when homeless advocates protested the mayor's jack-booted thuggery (that's him at right), fire and safety officials unrolled a list of public safety violations their destruction is intended to correct: Lt. Rick Feinberg, a spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Department, said people were smoking and cooking in their tents ("I'm shocked, shocked to find..."). Tents were too close together, too close to public thoroughfares, and worst of all they lacked fire extinguishers. (Note: photo source is City of St. Pete public web site).
"They were all in violation of codes," Feinberg said. "No one submitted plans..."
Homeless advocates argued that police might better spend their time searching for the people who killed the two homeless men on Wednesday.
"...now they're putting all these people in jeopardy again," said Rev. Bruce Wright of Refuge Ministries. The reason the homeless cluster in tents is for safety, Wright said...
Wright isn't backing down.
"We're getting more tents," Wright said.
"We're bringing down the big guns now. We're gonna sue 'em."
(Note: this diary is cross-posted at FlaPolitics.com)