Cops slash tents of homeless, St. Petersburg, FL, Jan. 22, 2007

Pinellas Hope is the city of St. Petersburg's latest attempt to "resolve" the homeless crisis. But, as with their other efforts regarding this issue, it appears that all they really want to do is rid the city of homeless people. And this time they are putting $1.3 million into another flawed and disingenuous plan. Where is all the money going?  If you'd like to help bring attention to this situation, please contactBruce@stpeteforpeace.org, or call 727-278-1547.

Picture blog of Nov. 27 vigil outside of Republican presidential debate site  Nov 27, 2007 The city of St. Petersburg appears to be trying to hide the local homelessness issue from the CNN Republican presidential candidate debate.On Monday, barricades were erected at the rally site and homeless people and homeless supporters were threatened with  arrest if they did not move from the public area across from the Mahaffey theater. Leading up to the 4-day rally it was  understood by event organizers that the public area utilized for the sleepout and associated demonstration would remai just that - public. In response to the question of moving the demonstrators off of the agreed upon public property three days before the debate, St. Pete Police Chief Chuck Harmon said “If anybody’s causing a confrontation it’s certainly not the  police department, but we’ve got a job to do and we’re going to do that". And St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker said “To me if reflects the fact that we’re in America, we’re a free country the ability of people to protest is a great thing.” READ MORE: http://stpeteforpeace.org/pastevents/tentcity.html