The Issue Of Tent City

In what has become an increasing battle in Tampa Florida between homeless advocates and the city government, the issue of what is called tent city is now gaining news. Located on the property of St Vincent church in the county of Saint Petersburg, many of the local homeless sent up tents over a month ago after it came clear that social services weren't taking the issue seriously. Here is a closer look at the situation. 

A new report has revealed that both the mayor of St. Petersburg, Rick Baker and the fire department told the police department to look for any reason to close down tent city. Authorities a few days later came into the compound without warning and started cutting up many of the tents with box cutters. The reason given was that several people were caught smoking in their tents, violating fire code. As it turned out, there were no warning given by the police or by the fire chief according to the report. Representatives of Mr. Baker have gone on record with apologies over the situation, but the actions taken by the county follow a pattern that back almost a month ago when Baker ruled against the community, saying in violated camping laws. At the same time, service programs that were set up focus on the homeless have been doing almost nothing according to many of the homeless themselves.

Some NIMBY groups have sided with the mayor, complaining that they come home to people peeing on their driveways or somewhere near their homes. Others fear that the crime rates will go up. Unfortunately none of the members of these groups worry about where the homeless will end up.

Finally, the city of Tampa have been so lacks when comes to the homeless, that public officials have not conducted any recent census over the last few years to get any kind of idea on the actual numbers concerning those that are homeless. In fact, homeless advocates are now being forced to conduct the surveys themselves. Further troubling is that many organizations that were suppose to be taking care of the homeless are now being accused of performing abusive practices  concerning those they swore to protect. For more on this story, please check out the links below.

Until next time.

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