Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Homeless Targeted as St. Pete Increases Enforcement of Sleeping Ban


With city council set to vote this week on an ordinance banning tables and other objects from the public right of way, we’ve uncovered that the St. Pete Police Department is ramping up enforcement of an existing law used for the sole purpose of terrorizing the unsheltered.


You might not know that sitting down on the sidewalk or taking a nap on a public bench in St. Pete could result in a $500 fine and send you to jail for up to 60 days. Our homeless neighbors certainly do.

Since the start of the year, there have been 118 arrests or citations for “sleeping, sitting or reclining” on the public right of way – more than the total of the past 3 years combined.

Citations or arrests for violations of St. Pete's ban on "sleeping, lying or reclining" on public rights-of way

With city council set to vote this week on an ordinance banning tables and other objects from the public right of way, we’ve uncovered (via court records) that the St. Pete Police Department is ramping up enforcement of an existing law used for the sole purpose of terrorizing the unsheltered.

Sec. 20-73 of the city code prevents “sleeping, lying or reclining” on public rights-of-way during daylight hours, in a “prohibited zone” which encompasses most of downtown St. Pete and surrounding areas – between the Bay, 5th Avenues North and South, and 16th Street, as well as a narrow stretch between 1st Avenues North and South to 31st St.

Of those cited for Sec. 20-73 this year, all were listed as “transient” or had an address indicating homelessness, such as a shelter or services facility.

We found that the bulk of the violations occurred before 9 AM, sometimes within minutes of daybreak. As part of the increased enforcement effort, the cops appear to be executing a regular “morning wake up patrol”, as it’s referred to by an officer in a citation from early April. When the continual harassment and psychological tactics aren’t enough, the police resort to citations or arrests.

Some individuals also appear to be frequently targeted. One homeless man — who has received numerous citations for sleeping/sitting as well as other minor charges this year — has been consistently ruled incompetent by the court, yet the SPPD continues to lock him up and strain the system with charges which are unlikely to hold up.

In several cases, officers improperly cited individuals for violations of Sec. 20-73. Five citations were issued prior to sunrise. One was issued well outside of the “prohibited zone”.

While there is a separate ordinance (Sec. 20-74) which bans sleeping at all hours, including overnight, it can’t be enforced unless there is available shelter space and without offering transportation to one. The onerous requirements likely make it infeasible to enforce long-term and at large scale.

We did find one violation of Sec. 20-74 this year, involving a 58-year-old man asleep in his wheelchair on the 200 block of Central Avenue at daybreak. There is no indication that the officer inquired about shelter availability.

63% of the violations we counted occurred in the area surrounding St. Vincent de Paul, located at 401 15th St N. The facility provides a variety of services, however, shelter space there is limited and in high demand. Still, the sidewalks surrounding the block itself are somewhat of a safe haven, with the I-375 overpass providing shelter from the rain, and the overnight presence of others providing a relative sense of security.

The area of St. Vincent is within view of a major intersection and key interstate entrance and exit ramps. Several blocks to the south, luxury developments — such as the Moderna — are growing like cancer in the area between the downtown Edge and Grand Central districts. The city and their big developer buddies are likely targeting this nearby concentration of poverty, which they may feel harms property values and slows investment, hindering the ability to maximize profits.

In addition to St. Vincent, it appears the downtown area east of 6th St and near the waterfront is also being vigorously patrolled. This coincides with the completion of two luxury high-rises — the Ascent and the Evo — which are in the process of bringing hundreds of wealthy new residents to this immediate vicinity. A third residential high-rise, the Saltaire, is expected to open later this year.

Instead of harnessing the increased tax revenue generated by the onslaught of new development to provide permanent housing for the unsheltered and the offering of good jobs or support services for those unable to work, the city government appears committed to the costly and barbaric approach of minimizing visible homelessness with an iron fist.

Municipal ordinance citations may not sound like a heavy-handed tactic, but they often require an appearance before a judge. This puts the homeless at a critical disadvantage. Without a permanent address or access to mail, important notices and updates from the court are never received. A lack of transportation could mean missing a court date, resulting in a warrant, jeopardization of a separate case or probation violation. What appears to be a harmless slap on the wrist can, and often does, snowball into a jail sentence for our homeless neighbors.

Another issue is legal access. While these violations are actually criminal in nature, indigent defendants facing municipal violations aren't always entitled to legal counsel the same way as when facing certain other charges. In Florida, the city or county must separately contract with a legal service to provide public defense for municipal violations. St. Pete doesn’t.

Last year, the ACLU penned a letter to the city government, warning them that the lack of legal defense for those facing municipal violations runs afoul of both the 6th and 14th amendments of the US constitution. Refusing to budge, the city appears hellbent on risking the potential for costly litigation in order to carry out their sadistic displacement scheme.

“Meanest City in the Nation”

The area of I-375 and 15th St – one of the primary targets of St. Pete’s current crackdown – has long been a site of struggle against gentrification. Prior to the Great Recession of the late 2000s, St. Pete had been experiencing an explosion of investment and development. Pressure from the business community led to a spate of stringent enforcement, and the homeless were being forced from their usual sleeping spots in the immediate downtown. That’s when tents began popping up beneath the I-375 overpass, leading to the creation of a makeshift tent city.

On the morning of January 19th, 2007, about 20 St. Pete Police officers descended upon the encampment, slashing tents while people still slept inside. A video of the incident was widely shared on YouTube and now-defunct social media sites like MySpace, drawing national scrutiny.
Republican Mayor Rick Baker went on the defensive, boasting of the city’s accomplishments and dedication to the county’s (failed) 10-year Plan to End Homelessness and blaming the leadup to the incident on everything from the activists to “criminal elements”, though begrudgingly admitting calling the tent-slashing a mistake.

Beginning that summer, the homeless took to the steps of city hall and surrounding sidewalk each night. The movement was well-organized. To the city’s dismay, the homeless staged a large protest near the Mahaffey when it hosted the Republican presidential debate in November of that year, once again thrusting St. Pete’s homeless crisis into the national spotlight.

While pledging additional resources to address homelessness, the city also began drafting a series of ordinances to put a stop to the nightly occupation outside city hall. These new laws included prohibitions on sleeping and placement of makeshift shelters, as well as an unconstitutional anti-panhandling ordinance and outlawing the “storage” of personal belongings on public property.

In February 2008, the city began clearing the area outside city hall, marking an end to the uprising.

The Era of “Progress”

15 years later, hundreds of unsheltered residents still remain on St. Pete streets. Laws borne of a far-right administration are being quietly utilized under the leadership of a Democratic council majority and Mayor who ran on the slogan of “progress”.

According to HUD, homelessness has been on the decline in Pinellas county. This data is derived from a one-night survey (Point-in-Time, or PIT) conducted each year in January, but homeless advocates have long argued this approach to gauging homelessness is flawed and inaccurate.

In contrast to the decline in the PIT count, data from the Pinellas County School Board shows an upward trend in student homelessness. At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, the district counted a record-high 4,674 homeless students. By comparison, there were just 962 at the end of the 2007-08 school year.

The annual jail count reveals the number of homeless inmates in Pinellas has increased as well — from 302 in 2010 to 626 in 2022. Based on data we sourced from jail records, the overall number of individuals booked as “transient” steadily grew from 1,989 in 2006 to a peak of 5,553 in 2019 – comprising over 13% of the jail’s total bookings that year. While the number of transient bookings dropped to around 3,300 the following year (likely due to COVID), the number has been on the rise ever since, up to 4,107 in 2022.
 
At least 18 cities and towns in Pinellas county have anti-homeless laws on the books, ranging from sleeping in public to panhandling.

In 2019, the SPPD launched the Police Assisting the Homeless (PATH) unit in an effort to address homelessness with an emphasis on service referral before enforcement. The department frequently pitches feel-good stories about the successes of the unit. Yet behind the smoke and mirrors of a $643,000 public relations budget, enforcement and incarceration clearly continue to play a seminal role in the city’s efforts.

The PATH unit came under intense scrutiny last year, after it was revealed that the unit was hoarding thousands of dollars in donations intended for use on toiletries and other supplies for homeless individuals. City leaders have since reallocated the money to a different department.

Last month, Mayor Welch released his operating budget workbook for 2024, which contains a whopping $151 million dollar allocation for the St. Pete Police – a nearly $17 million increase over last year. Meanwhile, only a measly $2.4 million dollar appropriation is planned for veteran, homeless and social services, including $400,000 for rapid rehousing. "Progress" for whom?

This week, the city will be voting on an expansion of its table ban. The new regulation would criminalize the use and placement of tables and other objects on public sidewalks in a massive swath of downtown. Anything from tables and podiums used during protests, to props and tip jars used by street performers, to display racks used by artists hawking their wares would be banned from the right of way. Violators would be subject to citation or arrest and seizure of property. The city is pushing the ordinance due to the alleged “aesthetic and economic harm” to surrounding businesses.

The city not only refuses to meet our needs directly with the growing budget, but they’re actively working to make our lives worse through laws like the sleeping ban and proposed table ban. Instead of offering permanent housing to all homeless residents, they choose brutality and incarceration. Instead of stopping the merciless rent gouging and tenant displacement, they collude with the landlords and developers who exploit us.

Remember who the enemy is: it's the landlord gouging you for rent and the boss suppressing your wages; it's the real estate investors buying up your neighborhood and the developers rebuilding it as a playground for the rich; it's the politicians and the cops who make and enforce the laws on behalf of the profiteers! They're united in their war against us, so we need to be united in our own defense -- service workers, gig workers, educational workers, teachers, tenants, those of us who are unemployed, those of us who are homeless -- an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us!

Be sure to join us on Thursday, June 15th, 5:00 PM at city hall to give public comment before the final vote on the table ordinance!




Sunday, January 29, 2023

Mayor Welch Set to Choose Between Four Trop Redevelopment Proposals

Mayor Welch is set to announce his choice between four redevelopment proposals for the Historic Gas Plant District, currently home to Tropicana Field. Here's a closer look at the housing component of each.

***

Quick Reference:

So-called “affordable” or “workforce” housing is produced through a public-private partnership. The government gives a private developer or landlord a subsidy, such as a tax incentive, public land or cash. In exchange, the developer/landlord must set aside a certain number of lower-priced units at a rate which will not exceed 30% of a household’s income. These units are usually not required to remain permanently affordable, though it varies based upon the terms of the agreement.

Market-Rate: Rent is set based on whims of the market & for maximum profit.

Workforce: Rent set for families earning between 80%-120% AMI ($65,700-$98,520 in St. Pete, 2022 HUD Income Limits). In many cases, these prices are very close to or even at market rate, and are generally still profitable even without a subsidy.

Affordable: Units subsidized for families making below 80% AMI (<$65,700 in St. Pete, 2022 HUD Income Limits).

Very Low Income: Units subsidized for families making below 50% AMI (<$41,050 in St. Pete, 2022 HUD Income Limits).

***

50 Plus 1 Sports:

This is the only proposal in which the developer plans to enter into a 99-year ground lease with the city, thereby preserving public ownership of the land itself. This setup includes a revenue sharing agreement, which the developer claims could net the city around $3 billion through the first 40 years.

With 6,748 total housing units, this is the largest amount of total on-site housing. However, only 2,024 of those units will be priced for families earning 80% AMI or less. Only 674 units will be priced for families earning 50% AMI or less, a mere 10% of the entire total. The remaining 4,724 units will either be market-rate or “workforce”.

Despite the land remaining public, these apartments will still be owned, maintained and controlled by for-profit corporate landlords, with no guarantee of permanent affordability.

To finance the affordable/very low income units, the developer plans on utilizing the LIHTC program. It's not guaranteed that the developer will be able to secure the more competitive tax credits, which means there will either be a lower number of "affordable" units at the end of the day, or the developer will come asking for cash from the city despite their pledge not to use city tax dollars.

Restoration Associates:

This plan would involve purchasing certain parcels from the city and allowing for the possibility of a land lease in certain cases, meaning some of the land could remain under public ownership. Of course the apartments themselves would not be under any sort of public ownership.. The plan contains several different scenarios, resulting in more or less units depending on what happens with the Rays. If selected, there would be at least 2,800 total units. Of those, the proposal only specifies 800 for families making <80% AMI, and 230 for families earning <50% AMI. 920 units are categorized as either market rate or “workforce”. The remaining 1,080 units will be either "workforce" or "affordable", but the exact amount of each is not specified in the proposal.

The developer plans to finance the subsidized housing through a mix of federal, state and local sources, heavily relying on competitive LIHTC tax credits to fund the "affordable" component. Like the previous proposal, the number of subsidized units could vary drastically or require additional funding to complete. This developer will seek a variety of other taxpayer handouts to fund the project as a whole including “land write downs, tax increment financing support, entitlement land use support and the building of common area infrastructure”.

Sugar Hill:

Considered a top contender, this plan contains a total of 4,906 on-site units of housing. If you include an additional 300 off-site units, over a quarter of the total housing will be set aside for households making less than 50% AMI – the most of any other redevelopment plan (this is not reflected in the graphic above). Still, the vast majority will either be market rate or workforce. Like the previous two proposals, Sugar Hill will rely heavily on LIHTC, meaning the number of low income units could shrink or change without any additional city or county money. In fact, the developer even suggests at one point in the proposal that the city should reinvest the money made from selling the land to fill funding gaps.

There has been a great deal of criticism of Sugar Hill in the news leading up to Mayor Welch's announcement. It’s important to note that Sugar Hill is the biggest challenge to the Rays/Hines proposal which seems to be favored by the local ruling class, with glowing endorsements from the Tampa Bay Times, Chamber of Commerce and more. These criticisms, however, are not without warrant.

Lead developer JMA Ventures has been previously blasted for it's history of bait & switch. Similar behavior has been observed with DDA  – a major development partner with Sugar Hill –  who scrapped plans to offer mostly "workforce" housing at a west St. Pete development despite already receiving city approval. Another Sugar Hill partner, Blue Sky, was allegedly paid $2 million by the Church of Scientology to abandon an affordable housing project in Clearwater last year.

Rays/Hines:

Considered the leading proposal, the Rays/Hines plan has the full endorsement of much of the local ruling class establishment, including the Chamber of Commerce and the Tampa Bay Times. This plan, however, appears to be the biggest rip off for the public, relying on a measly $97 million land valuation for the entire 86-acre site – a rate of $1.1 million per acre. By comparison, the property directly across the street from Lot 6 of the Trop, which was home to the now-closed Dr. BBQ, was sold for $4.5 million back in August -- a rate of over $15 million per acre.

This proposal also offers the least amount of on-site “affordable” housing – a measly 731 units. The remaining 4,997 on-site units will be either market rate or “workforce”. The Times editorial board has lauded this proposal for the limited amount of affordable housing, saying that “concentrating it risks creating a site that doesn’t fulfill its full potential”, a latently classist and racist sentiment.

Mayor Welch is almost certain to select one of these proposals during his State of the City address on Monday, January 30th. However, the details will still need to be negotiated over the next several months before a final contract is presented to city council for approval in late summer or early fall. Be ready: it's going to take a fight to ensure those 86-acres remain under public ownership and housing WE can afford!


Saturday, December 31, 2022

Your Luxury, Our Displacement: 8 Examples of Gentrification in Downtown St. Pete


For investors, entrepreneurs and transplants, the Sunshine City has become a land of opportunity and abundance. For workers and the poor – who have always struggled to survive here – the influx of wealth into the community has only brought greater adversity and scarcity.

With new homes and fancy high-rises going up all around, the wealthy have a plentiful selection of living spaces to choose from. Yet in the midst of this historic building boom, it seems like there is less and less selection available for working people.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), for every 100 renter households in the US who earn more than the median income, there is a surplus of 105 homes which are available and affordable at any given time. By comparison, for every 100 households earning less than half of the median income there are a mere 58 homes which are available and affordable to them.

In St. Pete, there are close to 12,000 renter households who earn less than half of the median income ($41,000/year). Of these tenants, 69% pay more than half of their income on rent. By comparison, less than 1% of renter households making at or above the median income ($82,100/year) spend this large of a share of income on rent.

The obvious solution would be to preserve, develop and expand access to publicly-owned housing for those with the greatest need – for poor and working people! Yet in a capitalist system, corporate profits and the needs of the rich take precedence over the needs of everybody else. This is why your rent is unaffordable and gentrification is spreading through downtown St. Pete as fast as the coronavirus.

We previously explored the way short-term rental services like Airbnb fuel our city's housing crisis by depleting affordable, working class housing stock (read more about it here). In this post we'll take a look at 8 recent examples of how our homes have been demolished or transformed to make way for luxury in downtown St. Pete:

511 3rd Ave S 


Four separate structures containing around 20 low-rent apartments were demolished in the summer of 2018. The land has sat empty now for over 5 years, though the city recently approved plans by a Chicago-based developer for a $72 million dollar, 22-story luxury residential tower. The land’s current owner, EquiAlt, recently found itself in hot water with the federal government for carrying out a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. After a little slap on the wrist & stern finger-wagging by Uncle Sam, EquiAlt stands to make millions of dollars gentrifying our community.

644 3rd Ave S


This 18-unit, working class apartment building was demolished in 2019 to make way for the Domus Urbana "refined condo residences". According to an SPTU member and former resident of 644, the developer convinced tenants to sign an addendum cancelling the terms of their lease agreements, then gave everybody 30 days to move out. This was home to many long term tenants including one man who had lived there for 20 years.

443 4th Ave N


Before it was converted into an actual hotel in 2015, the Avalon housed up to 50 working-class tenants until slumlord Terrance McCarthy sold the property to local hotel mogul Michael Andoniades. Tenants were kicked out, and the rooms now house wealthy tourists.

357 5th St S


A 110-year-old structure containing six apartments was demolished in 2020 to make way for a 5 story, "micro-unit" apartment building. Developer Brad Campbell said that because the building contained no parking, common areas or amenities like a pool, the prices would be "comparatively affordable". With rents starting at around $2,000 per month, it's slightly cheaper compared to some of the brand new luxury buildings downtown, but certainly far more expensive than what was there before.

532 & 536 4th Ave S


8 affordable units were demolished between 2016 and 2018 to make way for the Sabal St. Pete Townhomes – worth close to a million dollars apiece.

440 3rd Ave N 


A mass eviction took place leading up to the 2019 sale of a hundred-unit working class apartment complex located at the corner of 5th St N and 3rd Ave. Ault Global Real Estate Equities, a Las Vegas-based bitcoin miner, plans to erect a 23-story building containing luxury apartments. The developer has gleefully stated that the project will “transform the character of the neighborhood”. With several other luxury buildings planned nearby, Mirror Lake is indeed transforming from a working-class enclave to playground for the rich.

211 & 225 3rd St N - The Stanton


In October of 2021, slumlord Terrance McCarthy gave tenants at the historic Stanton Hotel and Apartments just 15 days to vacate their homes in order to make way for an expansion of the nearby Cordova Inn. Many of the residents were seniors on fixed incomes and service industry workers. The Stanton housed several long-term tenants, some of whom had lived there for over 20 years. These affordable apartments have now been demolished – a permanent loss of 49 affordable units in the heart of downtown.

720 Charles Court S


This past summer, Indiana-based developer White Peterman Properties Inc. purchased this 1-acre property which currently contains 16 working class homes and apartments. They plan to develop a 15-story luxury apartment building on the site.

As we prepare to ring in the new year, let's resolve to continue our struggle for housing justice! It may seem like the developers and landlords have the upper hand, but when tenants organize and fight these parasites don't stand a chance!

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Sunday, September 4, 2022

St. Pete’s 10-Year Affordable Housing Plan is a Hot Pile of 💩. Here’s Why.

St. Pete Protesters Demand Rent Control Out Front of City Hall

In the summer of 2019, then-St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman laid out a housing affordability plan set to begin the following year. The plan is expected to impact around 7,000 households through $60 million in spending over the course of a decade, improving and expanding both new and existing affordable housing options within the city. However, upon closer inspection, the plan is nothing more than a trickle-down, corporate handout scheme with progressive trappings. Here are 5 big reasons why St. Pete’s 10-year housing plan needs to be thrown out and redesigned completely.

1. The Plan’s Nexus Study was Conducted by Real Estate Developers

Imagine if the city commissioned a public health study to be conducted by a cigarette company, or an environmental study conducted by big oil. Allowing real estate developers to craft policy which is supposed to combat gentrification is as stupid as letting an arsonist tell you how to put out a fire. Unsurprisingly, the city’s Nexus Study focuses exclusively on ways the city can increase developer profits & subsidies in order to make housing more affordable. The report completely overlooks the complicity of the private sector in the rapid onslaught of gentrification, and fails to explore things like public ownership and market controls as options for preserving housing affordability.

2. The Plan Doesn’t Prioritize Black Families, the Poor or Those Currently Homeless

The plan is geared toward a wide range of households, including those earning up to 120% of the Area Median Income (AMI), or $99,000 a year. However, only a tiny number of renter households on the higher end of this spectrum are considered “cost burdened”, meaning they pay over 30% of their income on rent. By comparison, a whopping 69% of renter households in St. Pete who earn $41,000 a year or less (<50% AMI) pay over half of their income on rent. Yet, only a quarter of the new rental units funded through the plan so far have been aimed at families making this lower level of income. What’s worse is the metric for calculating the area median income is tied to inflation, meaning it increases every year regardless of whether your wages have gone up. Many families who need help the most make too little to qualify for units subsidized through the plan. In addition, the AMI for Black renters in St. Pete is 33% less than the average, meaning these families are at an even greater disadvantage of obtaining housing through the plan. In a city where the vestiges of Jim Crow have persisted well into the 21st century, the affordable housing plan is nothing more than an extension of the St. Pete’s racist status quo.

3. Affordable Housing Only Stays That Way for a Limited Number of Years

Affordable housing requirements attached to most city funding allows the owner to jack rents up to market rate in as little as 15-30 years after it’s built. That means the $60 million of taxpayer cash being poured into the pockets of wealthy developers & landlords doesn’t result in a permanent return for our investment. When the affordability requirements inevitably expire, the city must bribe the owner with another big wad of cash so residents won’t lose their homes.

4. Lack of Public Ownership and Accountability Lead to Slum Conditions

Despite public funds being poured into units built under the plan, everything will remain privately owned and operated, usually by a big for-profit developer and/or corporate landlord. In order to maintain profits, these private owners will skirt tenant safety and comfort, leading to slum-like conditions. In St. Pete, the city recently cut child-care services in order to dump $1.4 million into the pockets of the new owner of the Citrus Grove Apartments in Bethel Heights. For decades, residents there have faced deplorable conditions, like no hot water, rodents, electrical hazards and more. The property has changed ownership at least 3 different times since 2012, with the most recent being this past October when it was sold to a massive California-based corporate landlord who owns over 25,000 rental units across the country. Instead of the city government buying the property outright to ensure good living conditions for tenants, they've decided instead to throw more money at private ownership in hopes that this time things will be different for the residents at Citrus Grove. Yet without public ownership, we've been shown time and again that there is no way to hold landlords accountable.

5. It Comes Nowhere Near Meeting St. Pete's Housing Needs

In St. Pete, there are just over 20,000 renter households who pay more than 30% of their income on rent. Only 829 new rental units have received funding through the plan so far, the vast majority of which have not even been built yet. This amounts to around 4% of the need. It’s clear that building our way out of the housing emergency is not the solution. Of the 7,000 “affordable” homes expected to be built or preserved through the plan, nearly half come from the city backing down from threatening to steal homes with outstanding code violations from working-class homeowners, something that should have never been happening in the first place.

The longer the city drags it's feet in implementing solutions that have the greatest effect on the majority renters -- such as rent control and right to counsel -- the longer families will continue to be forced onto the streets and out of our community altogether. The city wants you to believe they're doing the best they can, but that's not true. They're doing the best they can for big real estate, developers and landlords, not us.

The solution to all of this is simple: we need funding for housing, a hell of a lot more. And when the government invests this public money into housing, it should be under public control and ownership. The city already owns and operates a 76-unit apartment complex just outside of downtown called the Jamestown Apartments, and could easily allocate new funding to begin buying up apartment buildings across the city to expand this city-owned enterprise. Apartments with numerous code complaints could be expropriated through eminent domain to drive slumlords out of our city for good. Hundreds of good paying, union jobs would be created, with an end goal of guaranteed housing for all residents. However, Mayor Welch and certain members of city council are reluctant to do so because this would harm the profits of their political donors. They would rather continue to coddle slumlords and force people to cram in with family, live in cars and sleep out on the streets instead of putting together a housing plan which puts people over profits.

It's important we don't allow these disgusting displays of corruption cause us to become jaded. Knowledge is a weapon, and the more we know, the better equipped we are to fight back!

**The developers have public relations teams working round the clock to crank out fake news and information surrounding the causes and "solutions" to the housing crisis sweeping our city. That's why it's vital that you share information like this with family, co-workers and neighbors. If you enjoy the information we're providing you, please consider a donation:

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Thursday, July 14, 2022

St. Pete HLUT Committee Obstructs Tenant Protections...Again!


This morning, by a vote of 3-1 the Housing, Land Use & Transit committee voted to obstruct an ordinance which would require landlords to give 6 months notice for notice of rent increase, instead opting for a mere 60 days for those on year leases, and 21 days for those with monthly agreements. Despite receiving 180 emails in support, council members Gabbard, Driscoll & Montanari sided with corporate interests and the city’s tiny landlord minority over the needs of tens of thousands of St. Pete tenants.

Committee Chair Brandi Gabbard, former chair for the Pinellas REALTORS® & current trustee for the Pinellas REALTOR® Foundation, spouted off inaccurate statistics & disingenuous industry talking points, claiming that tenants would actually be harmed by a stronger protection. The Pinellas chapter which Gabbard belongs to is an offshoot of National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), a radical special interest group which views nearly all tenant protections, including rent control, as infringements on the right to property & profit. The group’s website states that “any restrictions placed on a property owner…reduces freedoms inherent in our society.” The REALTORS® were responsible for suing to overturn the moratorium on evictions last summer, which has resulted in countless families being made homeless in the midst of the ongoing, deadly COVID pandemic, and is the 2nd biggest lobbying organization in DC, having spent over $700 million on these efforts since 1998.


The NAR often evokes the plight of so-called “mom & pop” landlords as a cover for their corporate agenda. Indeed, the vast majority of the country’s rental stock is owned by corporations, a number that has only grown during decades of NAR influence on policy. Regardless of size, any hardship facing landlords comes nowhere near that of tenants. For perspective, there are estimated to be around 10 million landlords in the US, compared to 109 million people living in renter households. Around 70% of households earning income from rental properties make $90k or more annually, compared to renter households who have a median annual income of $42k.

Today’s vote is not a loss. Every time politicians shamelessly expose themselves as servants of the corporate class, it only draws more support into our camp and bolsters our fight for an economy that serves the needs of ALL people. We will continue to fight like hell before this ordinance reaches full council for a final vote. From city hall, to the door of every slumlord & into the streets – we have a city to win, we have a world to win!

✊All power to the tenants! 🔥

✊All power to the workers!🔥

✊All power to the people!🔥

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Gentrification Investigations: Is Airbnb Driving Up The Rents?


Through services like Airbnb & VRBO, short-term rentals are changing the landscape of housing in cities across the world, allowing for the home next door, spare bedrooms, an old camper & entire apartment buildings to be transformed into DIY hotels. While this has proven to be a lucrative investment for some, others associate the rise of Airbnb with increased gentrification & skyrocketing rents. Recent studies from Carnegie Mellon & another featured in the Harvard Business Review reinforce these concerns.

It’s known as the Airbnb effect and here’s how it works. Investors who rent property are generally afforded much more flexibility and profit than they would get from serving long-term tenants. As residential properties are converted into short-term rentals, the options available to tenants seeking permanent housing decreases. Without market controls & policy to guarantee the human right to housing, conniving landlords use the reduction in available long-term rental supply as a justification to gouge tenants & maximize profits, causing rents to rise dramatically.

Florida law doesn't allow local cities & counties to ban short-term rentals outright, or regulate their duration or frequency of use. However, local ordinances which existed prior to 2011 are grandfathered in, which is why vacation rentals are generally prohibited in most residential areas of St. Pete without a costly & cumbersome special overlay approval. St. Pete residents are limited to renting out their property for short-term use no more than 3 times in a year if the duration of the guest’s stay is under a month. Anecdotal accounts indicate that enforcement is somewhat lax and unlikely to occur unless a violator is reported to codes by a neighbor.


To be clear, the focus of this article is not directed at working-class homeowners or tenants setting up part of their own living space as an Airbnb to help pay the mortgage or keep the lights on. Our focus is on the corporations & wealthy investors who are snapping up properties which would otherwise be serving the long-term housing needs of locals, and converting them into vacation homes for rich tourists.

Here is a snapshot of a few of the short-term rentals popping up across the Sunshine City & the profiteers fueling our housing crisis locally:



Location: 1608 Preston St S
Property Acquired: 2021
Zoning: NT-1, short-term rentals prohibited


This Airbnb in Midtown St. Pete is an asset of local mortgage lender Ryan J. Speltz, a self-described #kickbuttmortgageguy and recent transplant to St. Pete. Nestled in a historically working class Black neighborhood, Mr. Speltz seems to have no scruples about contributing to the rapid gentrification happening here. This zip code, 33712, has seen one of the highest rates of eviction during the pandemic, a decreasing Black population & has one of the highest housing vacancy rates in the entire city, with over a quarter of homes sitting vacant for part or all of the year.



Location: 3601 6th Ave N
Property Acquired: 2021
Zoning: NT-2, short-term rentals prohibited


This 5 bedroom home in the Central Oak Park neighborhood is advertised to sleep up to 20 people. The home is listed on VRBO by Vacation Rentals of Florida LLC, a company which operates at least 34 short-term rentals across Hillsborough and Pinellas county according to their website. The deed to the home belongs to Mark Christen, an Orangeville, California real estate investor.



Location: 537 5th St N
Property Acquired: 2020
Zoning: NT-4, short-term rentals prohibited


This multi-unit property in historic Uptown is owned & managed by Hey Vacay, a south Tampa-based vacation rental company which operates a handful of other properties in St. Pete & St. Pete Beach, including a single family home located at 4453 2nd Ave N. According to his LinkedIn, company President Shaun Carcary has been a landlord for over 25 years and recently began converting some of his properties into short-term rentals. He boasts about “family business principles” and his dedication to “improving our community” although it’s unclear how restricting long-term housing from the market improves anything except the profits of Carcary, his fellow landlords & real estate investors.



Location: 459 31st Ave N
Property Acquired: 2021
Zoning: NT-2, short-term rentals prohibited


According to property records, this VRBO was purchased by an individual named Ahmad Shaker in 2021. Another home needlessly withheld from the market while thousands of working class families in St. Pete struggle to find and afford a place to live. It must be a fairly lucrative investment considering Shaker lives in a $3 million waterfront mansion on Snell Isle, according to property records.



Location: 610 8th St N
Property Acquired: 2021
Zoning: NT-2, short term rentals prohibited


This parcel contains a main house and a separate structure containing two apartments. Both rear apartments are currently listed on VRBO. The property is an acquisition of Carlos Mazariegos, a disgraced pharmacist who was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2019 for ripping off taxpayers through a kickback scheme involving TRICARE. He owns another VRBO a couple blocks away at 519 Grove Street as well. While he may no longer have the feds on his back, he may soon have the St. Petersburg codes department to contend with if he's operating short-term rentals in parts of the city where they're prohibited.



Location: 3604 7th Ave N
Property Acquired: 2022
Zoning: NT-2, short-term rentals prohibited


This single family home is listed by HotelierYo LLC, a company recently founded by Francis C. Dewolf IV, the 20-something year old son of a Sarasota-area millionaire merchant banker. It is unclear what other properties the company owns, but based on the single review on VRBO which complains of unresponsive owners & poor quality of service, it appears this side-hustle may not be quite passive enough of an income for young Dewolf.



Location: 2508 Imlay Ct S
Property Acquired: 2021
Zoning: NT-1, short-term rentals prohibited

This 4 bedroom Airbnb in the Lake Maggiore Shore neighborhood “can easily fit 11 adults” according to the listing. The property is owned by Kidma Investment LLC, a Tampa-based company which operates several short-term rentals across Pinellas & Hillsborough counties including at least 2 other Airbnbs in St. Pete, located at 7581 17th Way N & 7596 16th St N.



Location: 1668 28th Ave N
Property Acquired: 2021
Zoning: NT-1, short-term rentals prohibited


This property contains two separate VRBOs, owned by Martinez Assets, LLC, a real estate firm founded by Chris Martinez. According to public records, the company owns a property in Clearwater as well. Another opportunist investor generating personal wealth at the expense of our community!




In addition, it appears that corporate landlords of two downtown luxury apartment buildings, the Vantage & the Wayland, are shelving dozens of units for use as short-term rentals through a company called Frontdesk. The zoning for both buildings allows these apartments to be used as vacation rentals, but if demand for long-term housing is through the roof, then why?

It's no surprise that Atlas Real Estate & DevMar Development, landlords of the Wayland and the Vantage respectively, are big players in the downtown St. Pete development game. Both would certainly benefit from deliberately withholding long-term housing from the market, not only as a justification for inflated rents, but to aid in propagating the disingenuous housing shortage narrative which is used as cover for industry deregulation & to sustain the onslaught of new high-end development.

We could also be witnessing a new process by which rental housing will be accessed in the future. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky believes services like his will eventually do away with long-term leases altogether, envisioning a world where people pay for rent "the way they pay for cable television, or for Netflix". The company has seen a recent surge in long-term stays totaling a month or more, accounting for 22% of stays booked through the service. In New York City, Airbnb listings have surpassed the number of apartments available for rent. It's not difficult to see where this could be headed.

In Florida, where protections for non-traditional leaseholders are scant, landlords have a greater legal advantage in these arrangements than with a long term tenant. Landlords don't need to provide a reason for terminating a month-to-month rental agreement, which can be severed in as little as 15 days. Premium rents are normally charged under the guise of tenant convenience & flexibility. The replacement of traditional rental agreements by services like Airbnb wouldn't mean the end of long-term tenancy; it would just mean less stability & less rights afforded to these tenants. While Mr. Chesky's dream of an Airbnb renter class may never fully materialize, it's a trend that housing justice activists everywhere should be keeping a close eye on.

In a capitalist economic system, the so-called "right" of investors, developers & landlords to profit off housing takes precedence over our right to actually be housed. This is why a whopping 19% of all homes & apartments across St. Pete sit vacant, or are used as lodging for rich tourists while people are forced to sleep on the sidewalk. This is why developers get our tax money to make "affordable" housing, and are then allowed to jack up the rents to market rate in as little as 15 years. This is why corporate special interest groups like the National Association of Realtors and the National Apartment Association dictate public policy & stymie basic protections for tenants. This is why tenants can be arrested and even killed by the police during evictions, but slumlords are allowed to exploit tenants with impunity. This is why no amount of new housing that is built under this system will ever guarantee a home for everybody. Don't be fooled.

Corporations & developers routinely bankroll public relations efforts and fake news to try and sell you on their bogus narratives. It's important to share articles like this one and educate your friends, family and neighbors about what's really happening in our community. Be sure to follow the St. Petersburg Tenants Union online for all the latest updates and ways to get involved. 

If you support our efforts to bring you this information, please consider a donation!

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Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Don’t listen to police Chief Hollow-heart, be sure to give your homeless neighbors cash, food or whatever else they may need if you’re able to. Instead of providing labor & resources to Big Charity, check out some of the amazing local mutual aid groups like Progressive People's Action of Pinellas and St. Pete Food Not Bombs to see how you can get involved.

Back in April, the ACLU of Florida sent Mayor Ken Welch & the city government a warning about the unconstitutionality of St. Pete's anti-panhandling law

This week, council member Ed Montanari doubled down on his support of the ordinance during the police department's quarterly report presentation, asking Chief Holloway if he’d directed more enforcement of the ordinance, to which the chief replied “Yes, sir”.  

Notice how the administration & some members of council are unwilling to move forward with rent control & other tenant protections due to legal challenges, but will happily take on the risk of lawsuits to defend an inhumane ordinance which turns our homeless neighbors into criminals for simply asking for a couple bucks. 

Our government is *supposed* to be “of the people, by the people, for the people”, so what’s really happening here? 

While massive inflation & an unprecedented housing emergency ravage working people in the Sunshine City, the politicians are bolstering the police to violently suppress the consequences of a failing economy instead of addressing the root of the problem by serving the needs of the people directly. Instead of providing housing, more good paying jobs with benefits & access to vital resources, the city would rather allow corporations & developers free rein to gentrify St. Pete while using the cops to strong-arm people who don’t fit in with this new playground for the rich. 

The truth is that if the city enacted rent control, strong tenant protections or a robust public housing program with a housing guarantee for all, this would directly threaten the profits of landlords & developers who maintain their stranglehold on our Democracy through huge campaign contributions. This is the reason these politicians continue to fail us, because they don’t actually serve or represent our interests as working people. It’s not a matter of Republican vs Democrat, morality or rationality — it is the needs of the corporate & business elite taking priority over the needs of the working class majority! 

However, the situation is NOT hopeless.

The power of tenants & workers united is stronger than any puppet politician or corporate parasite which stands in our way. We pay the rents, we work the jobs. Together we keep this city running & together we can shut it down! 

Let’s continue to struggle together, care for one another, organize & inspire each other! Let’s continue to educate our friends, family, neighbors & co-workers about what’s at stake and what it’s gonna take to permanently liberate all of us from the shackles of economic servitude & suffering. 

We have a city to win, we have a world to win! 

✊All power to the Tenants🔥
✊All power to the Homeless🔥
✊All power to the Workers🔥
✊All power to the People🔥

Be sure to join us for a protest to tell the city to FUND THE PEOPLE, NOT POLICE! 

📅WEDNESDAY, May 25th 
⏰6:00 PM 
📍City Hall, 175 5th St. N.

Homeless Targeted as St. Pete Increases Enforcement of Sleeping Ban

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