Florida City Caught Criminalizing the Homeless

Think twice before you lie down in St. Petersburg, Florida public park. Or before you ask for a quarter. Or stow your personal belongings in a public area. Why, you ask? You just might land behind bars.

City officials in St. Petersburg have taken the unfortunate approach of using the criminal justice system as a means for addressing homelessness, subjecting vulnerable individuals to an endless cycle of arrests and incarceration. Not only is this approach completely ineffective, it's also expensive, counterproductive, and downright inhumane.

In fact, the St. Petersburg ordinances are so outrageous, three advocacy organizations filed a federal class-action lawsuit this week against the city that challenges their constitutionality.

Here's the background from a National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty press release:

Since early 2007, St. Petersburg has passed six ordinances that target homeless individuals, including four different ones that make it unlawful to sleep, lie down or recline outside at various locations throughout the city and prohibiting the use of temporary shelters. The other ordinances outlaw panhandling throughout most of downtown and prohibit the storage of personal belongings on public property.

According to the 2007 Pinellas County Coalition for the Homeless' Annual Homeless Count and Survey, there are 5,195 homeless individuals, 1,221 of which are unsheltered, living in Pinellas County. Approximately 40%, or 1,700, of those individuals reside primarily in the City of St. Petersburg. Without adequate shelter space or affordable housing, many homeless St. Petersburg residents are forced to live outside.

St. Petersburg and other cities that choose to control and punish rather than serve and empower homeless people are incredibly frustrating. The logic behind the creation of these ordinances is so far detached from reality it's almost laughable; nowhere is it proven that criminalizing panhandling, sleeping restrictions, or other cruel methods to control the unhoused have any effect on moving people off the streets and into housing. Rather, they simply make life tougher for those already struggling against the odds just to survive. The St. Petersburg Times provides a street-perspective of how these ordinances are affecting those without homes:

The lawsuit claims the city regularly searches the homeless without probable cause and makes arrests for public urination though the homeless have nowhere to use the bathroom. Their belongings have been snatched from city parks and public areas without adequate notice and without information how to retrieve them. The homeless also have been ordered to move, under threat of arrest, from public places where they are lawfully allowed to be, according to the lawsuit. [snip]

At Williams Park on Thursday night, patches of homeless people reclined in the public square. Told of the lawsuit, they expressed hope life on the street would get easier.

"I ain't never been nowhere like this, with the rules and regulations," said Nygee Shabazz, 50, a drifter who's been in St. Petersburg about 15 years. "We are pawns. We are nobody."

Sadly, this kind of cruelty towards people who are unhoused is not restricted only to St. Petersburg. Take a glimpse at the list of the Top 20 Meanest Cities... see if your home is on the list. [St. Petersburg didn't even make the cut.]