St Petersburg, Florida Mayor Threatens to Evict Homeless

The dilemma began in recent weeks as a tent city was created in St Petersburg, Florida. The tent city was initially designed as a place where the homeless could live with the hope of becoming a lasting solution. Now it has become a tent city under attack! St Petersburg mayor Rick Baker is attempting to have the facility closed, due to what he deems as unsanitary conditions.

The tent city was set up a couple short weeks ago on 4 acres of vacant land at St Vincent De Paul Society. Bruce Wright and Michael Amidei are 2 christian ministers who are credited with helping to set the camp up. They have vowed to set up another camp within St Petersburg, if city officials fail to come up with a more permanent solution for the problem. Wright who is the founder of Refuge Ministries, has been an advocate for the homeless for years. They both claim the homeless situation has been a crisis in this waterfront city for too long. Now with all the media attention on this issue, the stage has been set for a fight.

Downtown St Petersburg, in recent years has enjoyed tremendous growth. With multi-million dollar condominiums going up everywhere, Baker and city officials are now worried more than ever, that the homeless will give the new look downtown a black eye. An emergency meeting was called for last Friday (Jan. 5th) to address the tent city situation. At the meeting, Pinellas County officials declared St Petersburg's homeless situation a crisis. Sarah Snyder, who is the executive director of the Pinellas County Coalition for the homeless said "it's a crisis because there is a concentration of homeless folks in a tent city in a place their not supposed to be". Not that the city has been overrun with more homeless people recently, but now they have become so much more visible being concentrated in one area. In any event, city code does not allow for people living in tents. Officials have contacted a realtor, and may attempt to locate a vacant building somewhere within the city as a possible solution to house the homeless.