Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Guest Column

Much achieved; much still to do

By RICK BAKER
Published January 30, 2007

In a news story Sunday, Times writer Elena Lesley predicted a coming conflict between the homeless and the city over the future of Williams Park. The article ended with the following quote from me: " 'We want to have a nicer park, a more active park,' said Mayor Baker." Lesley added her opinion immediately following my quote: "The intention, while unspoken, is clear: The homeless will have to leave."

My quote came from a discussion with a different reporter, weeks ago, about a farmers market that an independent group is bringing to Williams Park. I would use the same quote to characterize our redevelopment of Dell Holmes Park that was dedicated in Midtown last weekend. Improvements we have made to our parks citywide, both amenities and activities, have resulted in more activity for everyone. I still believe that a farmers market is a good thing for everyone enjoying the park.

The more disturbing point in the article is the cavalier assumption that the city is antihomeless. While we need to do better to help those in need, and we will, it is important to consider some things that have missed the headlines in the reports of the recent weeks.

- The city spent over $2.5-million last year in the homeless effort in a time when taxpayers are pressing for relief and the state government is threatening to reduce local resources. During the past five years alone, we have added support for programs and facilities, providing hundreds of new shelter and treatment beds, drug treatment, medical assistance, mental illness care, a one-stop center for homeless services and an outreach team that seeks out homeless in order to offer assistance. Significant county-wide needs still exist as identified in Pinellas County's 10-year Plan to End Homelessness, especially in the area of transitional shelter beds, and we are actively working toward solutions for these needs.

- The head of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, along with most other social service groups, reject tent cities as a solution to the homeless challenge. Tent cities are characterized as unhealthy and unsafe places that attract both the truly needy and a criminal element seeking to prey on the homeless. At the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Center of Hope, the homeless shelter location of the recent controversies, the tents nearby are the subjects of regular calls for police service.

- The parking lot tent city at the St. Vincent de Paul, which quickly reached 150 and was increasing daily, resulted in many adverse affects on, and complaints from, the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. Few who argued for the continuation and expansion of the parking lot tent city were among those who lived or worked nearby.

- After the city cited St. Vincent de Paul for establishing a parking lot tent city in violation of city law, our staff worked long hours for over a week with Pinellas County Human Services Department (who have been great) to offer each person access to services and a sheltered bed as an alternative to sleeping in a tent on the street. Among the occupants of the original 150 tents, most took the offer and are no longer there. Those who rejected the offer moved their tents to grounds alongside the streets nearby. For those who fell through the cracks, city and county social workers have returned on multiple occasions in attempts to offer services. In many cases, advocates have convinced the homeless to stay in their tents.

- After calls came from some for the city to extend the deadline for the code violation notice, officials from St. Vincent de Paul (the recipient of the citation) requested that the city not issue an extension in order to persuade the homeless to take the services offered.

- After the remaining tents moved alongside the street, there were reports of near accidents in locations along busy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. Additionally, the city fire marshal expressed very real safety concerns about the activities within the tents. With knowledge of the danger, if the city had done nothing and someone was struck by a passing car or injured by fire - three homeless people died in tent fires in Tampa in the past two years - the criticisms of the city would be even greater than what we have received.

- The action that most inflamed our community related to efforts to enforce the safety concerns identified. Our police cut the bottoms off of eight tents and removed the tents leaving the tent bottoms and contents in place. From my discussions after the incident with the major in charge, I am convinced that her motive was to prevent having to arrest or enter into a physical confrontation with the homeless individuals who refused to comply. Although the actions were lawful and well-intentioned, the result was to portray our city as hostile and uncaring. Cutting the tents was a mistake. Another way to address the public safety concerns should have been found. A review is under way and I have directed the police chief to take such actions as necessary to ensure that an event like this one is not repeated.

I have dedicated the past six years of my life in efforts to lead the poorest parts of our community in Midtown to an unprecedented revival, to develop public school support programs which are nationally modeled and under which we will complete 1,000 college scholarships for low-income children by 2009, and to develop our city's neighborhoods and business climate to a point where our image in the state and nation is strong.

The events of the recent weeks reveal how difficult it will be to advance our goal of becoming America's best city until we get better at moving people off the street and into independent lives. While we have expended great time and resources on the homeless effort, there is a clear need to do more. The issues surrounding chronic homelessness are complex and, at times, frustrating. No major city in America has solved the issue and many have poured in substantial resources only to see the problem get worse. But I believe that St. Petersburg and Pinellas County can find a way to do better.

My goal going forward is that we use the attention and interest garnered by the publicity of recent weeks to attract support for an effort to accelerate implementation of Pinellas County's 10-year plan to end homelessness. If our businesses, neighborhoods and faith communities join together, as we have in our other great successes, we can create one more model in St. Pete for others to copy.

Rick Baker is mayor of St. Petersburg.

[Last modified January 30, 2007, 01:12:44]