[Peace-discuss] police destroy homeless tent city st. pete

[Ricky Baldwin]

I hope you can see these images.  This is the free,
compassionate society we live in.

Ricky
--- meghan at sfalliance.org wrote:

> Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:18:48 -0500
> From: meghan at sfalliance.org
> To: sfa-sc at lists.riseup.net, kandace at sfalliance.org
> CC: sfa-organize at lists.riseup.net
> Subject: [sfa-organize] Re: [sfa-sc] homeless tent
> city st. pete
> 
> sometimes pictures speak louder than words:
> 
> St. Pete police in the act of slicing up the tents
> (w/ people inside)
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrPdZmPB36U
> 
> St. Pete Fire Department's Rescue 8 stopping by Tent
> City to denounce the
> actions (& the mayor, Rick Baker)
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4SPjxAhPz8
> 
> Quoting kandace at sfalliance.org:
> 
> i thought some of yall FL peeps might have
> info/resources to pass along.  if so,
> you can email my friend amberly at:
> amberlypaz at hotmail.com...
> 
> PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYONE YOU KNOW THAT WOULD BE
> INTERESTED IN HELPING! THE
> FOLLOWING WILL BE BLOGGED AT:
> http://www.myspace.com/homelesstentcitystpete
> http://blog.myspace.com/homelesstentcitystpete
> 
> See also:
> http://www.stpeteforpeace.org
> and
> http://hurricanecarol.livejournal.com
> 
> Press Release Friday, January 26, 2007 for Immediate
> Release
> New Tent City Formed
> We are mostly the original members of tent city.
> Some of us are still currently
> homeless and some of us have been able to find
> temporary housing by combining
> the one-month voucher and the money that we had been
> saving. We stand together
> to do this press release as we all recognize that
> whether homeless or
> temporarily housed, that most of America are only
> two paychecks or a
> catastrophic illness away from being homeless
> themselves.
> 
> In less than a month, we have moved from in front of
> St. Vincent’s to the tent
> city on 4th Ave N , back to in front of St. Vincent
> ’s, and now to this new
> location. We would prefer to live in a warm clean
> apartment with a bathroom and
> kitchen. Many of us have lived in beautiful homes
> with wonderful families. We
> are living in tents not because we want to but
> because there is no available
> low cost housing, and tents, clustered together
> provide us with both some
> safety from the weather and more importantly safety
> from those who would want
> to harm us because of their prejudices and
> ignorance. Many of us have been
> offered mats to sleep on the floor of the cafeteria
> of St. Vincent ’s as an
> alternative to living in the tents. Given the choice
> between sleeping 20-30 in
> a room on mats on a floor where we have to leave by
> 5.30 AM taking all of our
> possessions with us, or living in a tent in a
> community where our possessions
> can be left in the safety of our tent while we work,
> is an easy choice.
> 
> We are not trying to make a political statement or
> to embarrass anyone. It was
> never our intent to make our plight political, but
> tent city has become
> political because our existence reflects the
> inadequacy of this city to provide
> low cost housing. We are just the most vivid
> examples of the city’s failure to
> address the issues of inadequate low cost housing
> combined with low paying jobs.
> We are moving from the site in front of the St.
> Vincent ’s for TWO reasons.
> First: We came together after of the tent city on
> 4th Ave north was forced to
> shut down when St. Vincent De Paul refused to fight
> a City zoning ordinance
> that was ridiculous if not illegal. The 60% of the
> residents in tent city that
> work daily had even offered to pay the fines from
> our paychecks if St. Vincent
> ’s would fight for our constitutional rights.
> Instead, they conceded and we
> were forced to move. We did; back in font of St.
> Vincent ’s.
> 
> Problems have plagued us since. First, the City
> decided to cut down our tents.
> This is AFTER a promise that if we consolidated the
> two tent cities to one IN
> FRONT of St. Vincent’s that they would allow us
> time to negotiate with them
> over the fire marshals’ concerns. WE complied and
> they lied! The police
> destroyed the only safety we had. We rebuilt, and as
> the destruction of our
> tents by the police made national news, hundreds of
> people came forward with
> love, support, and more tents; and we thank each
> one. However, the media
> attention also brought a few who saw this as a way
> to exploit or situation; and
> this is the reason that we are setting up another
> tent city.
> 
> Holy Ground, a religious homeless shelter from
> Hudson arrived last Friday with
> 6-8 tents, a porta poty, and fire extinguishers, and
> we thank them. They also
> came with the intention to “save” us at any
> cost. Many of us have been
> threatened by them if we disagree with these so
> called “advocates” from
> another county. We have been intimidated, trespassed
> illegally, and in some
> cases physically threatened. Tents, blankets and
> food that were donated by many
> wonderful people have been taken by them and used to
> make us comply with their
> desires. Holy Ground has even worked out a
> relationship with St. Vincent ’s
> were Holy Ground now serves many of the meals
> outside through Holy Ground. Many
> of us have been denied food, blankets, and tents
> donated by others if we
> disagree with their heavy-handed behavior.
> 
> We have always been a self-governing community. We
> have our own contracts that
> we wrote for the residents of the original tent
> city. In the 4th Ave main tent
> city, we have had our own security that worked
> together with the City of St.
> Petersburg police force, and most importantly, we
> had a community that worked
> on consensus and respect. The residents of tent city
> made the decisions and
> took the responsibility, and the advocates who chose
> to help, worked WITH us to
> create a model community respected and listened to
> our wishes.
> 
> Holy Ground has made a pact with the St. Vincent
> ’s to intimidate us and the
> advocates that we have chosen. It is because of
> these conditions that we have
> chosen to set up the new tent city at 18th St.
> between Central Ave. and 1st
> Ave. N. Holy Ground and St. Vincent ’s are using
> us as pawns and worse, and
> we will not accept that- we are human beings. WE
> will not be used by Holy
> Ground as a bottom line. According to their Director
> – Lisa, Pasco County
> pays over $400 a month rent voucher for up to a year
> for each resident of their
> shelter. Most of us are from St. Petersburg , have
> family and friends here, and
> want to make our permanent home here.
> 
> We have enough problems in our lives working 40-80
> hours a week at day labor
> trying to save enough for first, last and security
> fro an apartment. We fear
> for our lives as the murders of two of our fellow ex
> tent city residents still
> roam the city. We leave the tent city in front of
> St. Vincent ’s not as a
> protest, but as an act of survival and human
> dignity. We worry about our
> friends who may be taken to Hudson by Holy Ground,
> and condemn St. Vincent ’s
> for their collaboration with this group.
> 
> We ask the media to investigate the collaboration
> between St. Vincent’s and
> Holy Ground, and ask you to investigate Holy
> Ground’s homeless shelter in
> Pasco County that many of those in tent city may be
> taken to. We are being told
> if we don’t take a one-month voucher that is
> essentially us in St. Petersburg,
> that we either have to go to Pasco County to the
> Holy Ground shelter or face a
> repetition of our tents being destroyed and the
> possibility of us being jailed.
> We ask you also to investigate whether St. Vincent
> ’s has abused their
> responsibility to their Government funding by their
> current actions in
> collaboration with Holy Ground. However, most
> importantly we ask the media to
> please keep telling our story. You have shared our
> stories with the people of
> St. Pete, and treated us with the dignity that all
> human beings are due, and we
> thank you. And so we move to this new tent city in
> the hopes of reestablishing
> our initial goal, to create a safe and democratic
> community that will allow us
> to continue to work and partake of the American
> Dream, and then allow others to
> replace us as we move into apartments and homes. We
> had a model that worked and
> we hope to reestablish it again on 18th St . WE
> invite the press, all social
> service agencies and any advocates who want to
> participate. We have only one
> criteria, respect us as equals as we do you.
> 
> With love,
> The residents and ex-residents of the 4th Ave. St.
> Tent City
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> 
> 
>
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