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When steps are beds

Advocates for the homeless say Tampa police are bothering them.

By JANET ZINK
Published October 15, 2006

TAMPA — Each day about 6 a.m. Father Sean O’Brien walks out of Sacred Heart Catholic Church before his morning run and rouses the dozens of homeless men and women sleeping on the steps.

“Do I have some volunteers to sweep?” he asks.

Two people take the brooms and brush off the steps as the group collects their cardboard boxes and blankets to move on for the day. Some go to low-paying jobs, others wander the downtown streets.
At dusk, they’re back.

“This is the last safe place for homeless people,” said Les Brown, 52, who has been sleeping outside Sacred Heart for three weeks.

As condos and townhouses go up downtown and new businesses open, Mayor Pam Iorio is closer to realizing her dream of turning downtown Tampa into a residential neighborhood.

But homeless people who have been living downtown since long before the construction boom say they are being pushed out of what was once their neighborhood.

City officials say their policy toward the homeless hasn’t changed. But church groups and others who feed the homeless say they’re increasingly being bothered by the police.

Pastor Tom Atchison of New Life Pentecostal Church of God said he had been serving food every Saturday to up to 200 homeless people in a downtown parking lot. Then in late August, police told him to stop. Atchison called a television reporter who did a story about the confrontation, and he asked for a meeting with the mayor and made plans to alert the City Council.

But before he could, a police officer called him and said he wouldn’t be bothered again.

“I think it was because of the TV story,” he said.

Fran Davin, the mayor’s liaison on homelessness issues, recently contacted police with a complaint she received about a group feeding people in Curtis Hixon Park.

On Oct. 5, a police officer approached Robbie Davis, who has been offering food to about 100 homeless people at the park every Wednesday for four years.Davis said the officer was apologetic, but the developer of a condo tower under construction across the street had complained.

“He asked if we might be able to do it someplace else,” said Davis, who tried to get a permit for his event from the city.

“The lady I talked to was real nice, but she was not real helpful other than to give me the names of the owners of parking lots,” Davis said.

He turned to Father Andrew Reitz, pastor of Sacred Heart, who  gave Davis permission to use church property.
Davin, who served on a homelessness task force created by Iorio, defended the call to the police.

“We have a standing policy that feeding in the parks is not appropriate because we don’t have the adequate sanitary services, and you can’t displace and interrupt other programs,” Davin said. “We have encouraged everybody that does feeding to do it on private property.”

Reitz said police asked him if he would like the homeless people chased away from Sacred Heart. No thanks, he told them.

“It’s God’s house, and they should be able to sleep near God’s home,” he said.  

Park is still fenced

The number of people sleeping at the church increased dramatically about a year ago, when the city fenced off Herman Massey Park downtown, where some people had slept and received food.

Linda Carlo, spokeswoman for the city Parks Department, said the park was closed because developers of nearby condominiums needed a staging area for construction. The project is almost complete, and the park should reopen to the public in the next couple of months, she said.

For now, the fence remains.

Up the street, Reitz has four rules for the people he calls his guests: No alcohol, no drugs, no swearing and no fighting.

“Anyone that violates those rules, we run them off,” Brown said.

City officials aren’t pleased that dozens of homeless people sprawl out in front of a downtown landmark every night.

“It’s not a good situation from the standpoint of the city, but that’s private property,” said Darrell Smith, Iorio’s chief of staff. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Countywide problem

Complaints about Sacred Heart and other downtown spots that attract the homeless have been mounting, said Laura McElroy, Tampa police spokeswoman.

Business owners report that homeless people urinate on their property, sleep on the sidewalk and intimidate customers, she said.

Ultimately, homelessness is not a police problem, said Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue.

“It’s a social problem,” he said.

Iorio said homelessness is most visible at the city’s doorstep because homeless people tend to live in downtowns. But it’s a countywide problem, she said.

“County government is responsible for providing adequate social services for the entire county,” she said. “The city can’t do it alone.”

Iorio said the city gives $55,000 each year to the Hillsborough County Homeless Coalition, an agency that coordinates the county’s homeless services. She also donated office space to the coalition. The county gives about $170,000 to the coalition, the group said.

Although some Florida counties have created new taxes to support programs for the homeless, Iorio said Hillsborough doesn’t need one. Property taxes should be able to cover the programs, she said.

But the county decided to cut the property tax rate this year instead of supporting the homeless, she said.

“The funding is available within the county’s countywide millage rate,” she said. “What it takes is a sensitivity to people who need help and a willingness to take a stand for them.”

The homeless issue has dogged Iorio since shortly after she took office in 2003.

As part of her efforts to create a “livable city” and residential downtown, she directed police to crack down on people using parks illegally, including those feeding the homeless.

In 2004, Tampa police arrested activists in a city park because they didn’t have the proper permits to feed people.
Iorio persuaded prosecutors to drop the criminal charges. But the homeless gathered outside Sacred Heart still hold a grudge.

“She lives in a fantasy world,” said Keith Johnson, 56, while sitting on church steps with a plate of hot dogs and baked beans provided by Davis. “You are not going to get rid of the homeless by not feeding them. They are going to start robbing people.”

Task force, programs

After the feeding arrests, Iorio pushed for creation of a task force on the issue. The 30-member group met for a year.

Their work revealed that the county has more than 11,000 homeless, nearly one-third of them have jobs, and more than 1,700 children have no permanent place to sleep.

The task force outlined some ways to address the problem, then disbanded and handed the work over to Hillsborough County’s Homeless Coalition. The coalition made the opening of a service center for the homeless a top priority.

Rayme Nuckles, coalition director, and board member Larry Carey, a Tampa surgeon, went to commissioners in June and asked for money to fund new programs.

The commission discussed giving the coalition $3.2-million that had previously gone to reserves for the indigent health care program. But only Commissioners Kathy Castor and Tom Scott supported the measure.

“I voted against it because it just wasn’t on my radar,” said Commissioner Mark Sharpe. He said he didn’t want to make such a significant investment in a program he didn’t know much about.

Instead, the $3.2-million was ultimately cut from the county budget to help reduce the property tax rate.

After voting down the allocation, Commissioner Ronda Storms suggested the city use the empty Fort Homer Hesterly Armory as an intake center for the homeless.

Davin said former members of the homeless task force are seeking support from business leaders and will ask legislators for state funding.

“The community’s got to acknowledge that we have a problem and the community’s got to solve it,” Davin said.

“There are only so many things that the city can do.”

For now, though, there’s Sacred Heart.

“These guys here are great,” Johnson said. “They fight for us.”

Times staff writer Kevin Graham contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 15, 2006, 22:45:05]