How to Use the American Rescue Plan Funds

by Karla Correa

St. Petersburg residents can agree overwhelmingly on one thing: the rents are too damn high. Community members of all different backgrounds gave their input about what the $45 million in Covid relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act should be spent on, and housing affordability came out as the top priority. 

It's no surprise that residents took this position; the Tampa Bay Area has the fastest increasing rents out of every metropolitan area in the country. This is an emergency, and it must be treated as such.

St. Pete was suffering from a disastrous housing crisis long before the pandemic.

Rents have been rising throughout the city for years, forcing people out of their homes and displacing longtime residents in the name of "progress." 

The onset of the pandemic did not put a stop to any of these things. Even with a federal moratorium on evictions throughout the pandemic, over 5,400 evictions have been filed in Pinellas County since April 2nd, 2020. 

On top of the already skyrocketing rents in the Tampa Bay Area, people have lost jobs and other forms of income due to the pandemic. Private landlords are accountable to no one. So what happens to those who couldn't pay? 

We saw some landlords work with tenants to keep them in their homes. Other landlords, however, filed evictions and made sure they were carried out. 

Evictions are violence. We don't mean that in any sort of symbolic way. We mean that literally. Researchers from five universities cross-referenced coronavirus cases and deaths with data about where eviction moratoriums occurred between March and September of last year. They found that  433,700 additional COVID-19 cases and 10,700 excess deaths occurred in states in which eviction bans were allowed to expire or didn’t exist.

This cannot be understated: at least an additional 10,700 people lost their lives because, ultimately, landlords' profits were prioritized over human lives. 

The CDC moratorium that was supposed to last until October was the last lifeline for renters. Now that it has been struck down, renters are in a particularly vulnerable position. 

We must act now and use this $45 million to make sure no one is kicked out of their home during a pandemic.

At August 19th's City Council meeting, the city presented the results from residents to the City Council, and made recommendations about spending amounts for each category.

Spending earmarked for “public health/safety” needs to be cut completely. You know what’s actually public health and safety? Keeping people in their homes. Imagine if the $124 million the St. Petersburg Police were allocated for the next fiscal year went to housing security instead!

Additionally, while infrastructure is vital, we have a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill coming. We must take the $9 million allocated to infrastructure and the $3 million allocated to the police and move them both to housing. 

We must first issue an emergency declaration for the housing crisis in this city no later than October 1st, 2021. The emergency is undeniable, and in order to move forward, we must take this crucial step. Outlined below is what the American Rescue Plan funds should be and need to be used for to address this emergency.

We need to get everyone off the streets. Immediately. We must use some of the money to fill vacant hotel rooms in the city with our unhoused community members. In a civilized society, no one should be sleeping outside.

We need a huge expansion of the St. Pete Housing Authority. The Housing Authority must assume the responsibility of moving homeless individuals from hotels into empty apartments that the city buys using some of the money. We must also subsidize up to the first eight months of their expenses as these individuals get back on their feet and look to obtain stable employment. 

The Faircloth amendment limits housing authorities from receiving federal funds to operate new public housing above a certain threshold. Here in St. Pete, we are under that threshold of 891 units. We currently operate 371 units, so that is an additional 520 units that could be owned and operated now by the city. 

The city must make it as easy as possible for people to sign up to be placed in hotels and apartments. This should include doing a public outreach campaign, sending social workers to places where homeless people populate like Williams Park, and making the website to sign up as easy to navigate and user-friendly as possible.

Units must be reviewed to the standards of safety, livability, and central location, well before purchase. 

Next, we need to get these rogue landlords under control. According to the latest data from HUD’s Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy, 36,470 of the city’s households are “cost-burdened,” that is, they pay more than 30 percent of their gross income to put a roof over their heads. 

The working people of St. Petersburg are having to endure brutal rent increases, which force them to choose between adequately feeding and clothing their family, or becoming housing unstable. We need to enact rent control now. In Florida, rent control is permitted in municipalities in times of emergency for a maximum of one year. 

In the long term, the city needs a huge expansion in public housing. A portion of the funds could be used for the construction of new housing owned by the St. Pete Housing Authority. All units should offer a subsidized rate. Outside of the Faircloth amendment, cities can just fund public housing themselves. We must prioritize meeting the needs of the people before we think about projects like $80 million for a police headquarters and $93 million for a pier. All the resources there to house everyone in this city. 

Politics in St. Pete are controlled by developers and big real estate. Candidates for Mayor and for City Council MUST give back their donations that come from developers and real estate. 

We must work under the principle that housing is a human right, and we must relentlessly push for universal housing for the people of St. Petersburg. 

***

This Op-Ed first appeared in the St. Pete Catalyst Community Voices Section on 08/31/2021

Gentrification Investigations: Evicting the Elderly

Michelle Davis' childhood home was located at 1432 4th Ave. S., an address which no longer exists. A second generation resident of St. Petersburg, Michelle has fond memories of growing up in the Gas Plant neighborhood, one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in St. Pete which was demolished in the late 1980s in order to build Tropicana Field. She remembers her Aunt's bar, the Cozy Corner, which was located in the neighborhood, and visiting Webb's City downtown. As a hardworking single mother, Michelle raised a daughter, who now resides in Nashville, TN along with her husband and two children. Despite a lifetime of contribution to our community, Michelle, 69, is facing homelessness.

"At this point, I'd have no option but a shelter"

Michelle has lived in her current home in south St. Pete for a little over 6 years. In February, her home was purchased for $88K by a land trust linked to Demeter Properties, a Tampa-based "Local Woman Owned Boutique Real Estate Company". Demeter is in the business of renovating and flipping homes, taking advantage of neighborhoods with lower property values, leading to the displacement of low income renters holding out in some of the last affordable areas of the city. A Demeter property just down the street from Michelle is listed at nearly half a million dollars. 

A Demeter Properties listing in Michelle's neighborhood

After failing to fulfill Michelle's repeated maintenance requests upon acquisition of the property, Demeter declined to renew Michelle's month-to-month lease agreement in July, giving her just three weeks to vacate the property. Under Florida law, landlords are only required to give a minimum of 15 days notice to vacate for tenants on month-to-month agreements. After August 1st, Michelle became a holdover tenant and an eviction complaint was filed against her in the Pinellas county court on August 5th.

Despite our organization's request for Demeter to give Michelle at least 6 months to vacate considering the highly competitive rental market, Michelle's age and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, the company refused to respond or comply. Demeter's lack of compassion and basic human decency is representative of the cut-throat culture of Big Real Estate, enabled by our capitalist economic system which prioritizes the profits of a minority class of owners over the lives of seniors and working class families.

Michelle is on a fixed income and currently pays $800 a month on rent, comprising about two-thirds of her monthly expenses. With no car, Michelle relies on the close proximity of her home to public transit; she is just a few blocks from the Grand Central bus station. Despite an explosion of new construction and an increase in housing stock nearby, the cheapest apartments in these new "luxury" developments are priced at double of what Michelle currently pays. Some market cultists and industry technocrats theorize that the proliferation of new luxury units will stabilize or even lower rents across the board, a barbaric trickle-down theory masked in a progressive veneer. In reality, the lack of housing units priced for our poorest residents is actively contributing to the displacement of low income residents from the neighborhoods they reside.

It's clear that there is no market solution to the housing emergency here in the Sunshine City. It is unconscionable that our elders and working families are spending sleepless nights in fear of losing the roof over their heads. The market has never, and will never, guarantee housing for all members of our community. We must look to solutions that involve major public investment and establishment of a robust social housing program, similar to wildly successful programs in places such as Vienna and Singapore, where residents of all income levels share living spaces. As long as our elected officials allow Big Real Estate to dictate public policy and redevelop our city solely for wealthy transplants, we are only going to see more displacement, greater income inequality, decreased quality of life and trauma in working neighborhoods, especially those in south St. Pete.

We have gotten Michelle in touch with Gulfcoast Legal and are working to buy her some more time to stave off her eviction and find a new living space.

Tell the folks over at Demeter Properties how you feel about them evicting elderly residents during a deadly pandemic:

813-226-0687
info@thedemetergroup.com
Twitter: @DemeterProp
Instagram: @DemeterProperties
Facebook: @DemeterProperties

Over 1 in 10 Pinellas Renter Households are Currently Behind on Rent

As the CDC moratorium is set to expire this weekend on Saturday, July 31st, we are bracing for a possible spike in evictions here in Pinellas county. 

There are currently 2,130 open eviction cases in the county dating back to January of last year, according to data we’ve collected from the Pinellas Clerk’s website. The expiration of the moratorium may allow some of these cases to proceed, and there may be a spike in new eviction filings as the moratorium has likely discouraged many landlords from filing evictions to begin with. 

Pictured is data from a recent NYT editorial. 

According to this estimate, 14.7% of rental households are behind on rent in the US, with tenants owing an average of $3,800 in back rent. Over 1 in 10 Pinellas county rental households are behind on rent, owing $4,115 on average in back rent. Despite receiving $21.4 million from the federal government for emergency rental assistance, the Pinellas ERA only managed to distribute just $2.2 million to struggling tenants last month. It’s clear that this assistance isn’t getting out quick enough, and removing the moratorium before these funds are fully distributed will likely result in an unnecessary, fully preventable spike in evictions here in Pinellas county. 

Additionally, we are seeing a massive surge in new COVID-19 cases here in the state of Florida, with daily case totals now around what they were in January. Evictions and housing insecurity during so-called “normal” times are public health crisis; during a global pandemic this amounts to nothing short of a public health catastrophe. 

One study from UCLA showed that there were more than 10,000 preventable COVID-19 deaths before the establishment of the CDC moratorium last September. With totals surging once again there will likely be countless cases of preventable death, illness and trauma directly caused by our system’s violent and barbaric prioritization of profits over human lives. 

Housing is a fundamental human right that should be guaranteed. We must continue to work to shift our societies’ view of housing away from a regular commodity that can be withheld, and instead as a basic necessity that should be unconditionally afforded to all. 

As uncertain as the future may appear, we must continue to struggle alongside vulnerable tenants here in St. Pete and work to wrest power away from big real estate and back into the hands of regular folks who make up the backbone of our city. 

When we fight together, we win together. 

✊All power to the tenants! 

✊All power to the workers! 

✊All power to the people!

Press conference today at the Paradise Apartments

Terrence Gordon (pictured) was one of the residents facing eviction by Council Member Robert Blackmon.
 
Terrence, 62, told reporters “I’ve been homeless before, I don’t want to be homeless again”
This is the lived experience of countless individuals and families here in Pinellas county. Those experiencing the fear and trauma of eviction here on a daily basis are suffering in silence.
It goes beyond Robert Blackmon’s errors.
 
It goes beyond individual slumlords and gentrifiers.
 
Housing insecurity and homelessness represent deep moral failures of our society and of our Capitalist economic system. It is a failed system that has never, and will never, provide for the most vulnerable.
We need guaranteed housing here in the Sunshine City and in cities across the country.
 
Not affordable.
 
Not attainable.
 
Guaranteed.

Anything less is an injustice, and our Union will continue to struggle alongside our friends in neighbors against the exploitation and violence of landlordism.

All power to the tenants! All power to the people!

 The St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union and Florida Rising stand in solidarity with Paradise Apartments residents facing eviction by Robert G. Blackmon

On April 30, 2021, St. Petersburg City Council member Robert G. Blackmon purchased a 10-unit rental property at 330 45th Ave. S, known as the Paradise Apartments. Notices of non-renewal were issued to two tenants just 12 days later on May 11, giving them less than three weeks to vacate their homes. Another tenant was served a three-day notice for non-payment of rent. According to several residents, another tenant of 17 years was given just two weeks to move under Councilmember Blackmon’s management, and voluntarily complied. The eviction complaints for the other three residents were officially filed in Pinellas court on June 14. One case has already reached a final judgement, which opens the door for a writ of possession, or final eviction order, to be issued at any time.

Members of the St. Petersburg Tenants’ Union arrived at the location on June 20 to conduct an investigation. Through our observations and conversations with tenants, organizers were made aware of several critical maintenance failures involving the building's plumbing, electrical systems, and appliances. Organizers returned two days later with a letter demanding that these maintenance issues be rectified and that all evictions be voluntarily dismissed by Councilmember Blackmon. Organizers observed maintenance workers scrambling to make repairs, and residents informed us that the property manager, Carolee Blackmon, was aware of the activists’ presence and was "very unhappy". 

The demand letter was signed by four residents in total, and was co-signed by the Tampa Bay chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Pinellas Democratic Socialists of America, Rev. Andy Oliver of Allendale Methodist Church, and the Pinellas Democrats. Upon failing to receive the requested written response, an organizer was able to speak directly with Councilmember Blackmon, along with his mother, Carolee, who handles the day-to-day operations of Blackmon Properties.

Several activists spoke at length with Carolee, who insisted that it was not their "intention" to evict anybody. It should be noted that a writ of possession was served and a resident was recently evicted at another Blackmon Properties facility in West St. Petersburg on June 22, 2021. 

There were many contradictions present between what organizers heard from residents and the claims made by Carolee Blackmon. Based on these conversations, it is our belief that there was little, if any, effort exercised on the part of Blackmon Properties to improve conditions and work with residents who had been behind on rent prior to the involvement of the Tenants’ Union. Efforts have been made by Blackmon Properties to improve conditions, but there are still many unaddressed issues. On July 9, Carolee Blackmon informed us she had instructed their attorney to dismiss the three cases no later than July 16th. We consider this a major victory that can be directly attributed to the efforts of our Union and to collective tenant power. However, our work at the Paradise Apartments is far from over.

We believe, unequivocally, that housing is not a commodity, but a fundamental human right. Housing insecurity has been directly linked to reduced quality of life, systemic inequity, mental health trauma, and premature death. Any system which elevates the so-called property “rights” of career landlords and corporations above the right to safe, guaranteed housing for all residents is inimical to the values of a democratic society. 

The Sunshine City is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis of immense proportions. More than one-third of Pinellas families currently pay in excess of 40% of their income on rent. This puts low-income tenants at a major disadvantage in the rental market. It is, therefore, reasonable to believe that residents at the Paradise Apartments may not be able to secure stable housing if evicted and thrown suddenly into such a market.

Furthermore, we are still in a national state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Dozens of new deaths and hundreds of new cases are still reported in our state each week, while less than half of all Floridians are fully vaccinated. Given these facts, we believe that Councilmember Blackmon's attempts to evict these tenants have the potential for deadly consequences. A recent study from UCLA estimated there have been roughly 10,000 additional Covid deaths due to evictions during the pandemic; more than three times the number of Americans killed on September 11. Adding to this urgency is the fact that the CDC has noted that members of the black community are twice as likely to die from Covid-19, and nearly three times as likely to be hospitalized because of the virus. It should be noted that all residents facing eviction at the Paradise Apartments are black.

We are calling on Councilmember Blackmon to unconditionally dismiss all eviction cases at the Paradise Apartments by Friday, July 16th as was promised. We also call for repairs and renovations to be completed in full, and for all tenants to be given the opportunity to sign long-term leases to lock in current rent prices, enabling them to continue to live at the property for years to come. We ask Councilmember Blackmon to do the right thing and be a champion for the people of St. Pete, not a champion for his personal enrichment. We will continue to struggle against the exploitation of these vulnerable tenants until our demands are met in full.

All power to the tenants! All power to the workers! All power to the people!

UPDATE: Osprey Pointe Apartments

Today, we completed our canvas of the Osprey Pointe Apartments here in St. Pete, knocking on the doors of some 500 units in total. We made numerous face-to-face contacts with residents, many of whom described the same sort of issues: slow and/or unfulfilled maintenance requests, leaks and water damage, rent and utility hikes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 
“You can request maintenance but they won’t come out”

“Every time it rains the water comes right through the windows and floods everything”

“They want our money but they ain’t coming out to fix what needs to be fixed”

During today’s canvas, we made contact with one resident who had been given a notice to vacate and provided him information on how to apply for the Pinellas rental assistance program as well the Pinellas Eviction Diversion Program. “I’m not going to be able to pay this next month, and I’m already a month behind”. On another door we saw a fresh eviction notice, taped up and waiting for the resident after work.

From the outside, many of the buildings are dirty with paint chipping off of doors, missing and unsteady guard rails and signs of pest infestations.

One resident we met brought us inside and showed us a big hole in his bathroom ceiling. Every time his upstairs neighbors shower, water comes pouring in so he keeps a bucket down below. He said it has been like this for a year and nobody will fix it.

The Osprey Pointe Apartments are run by BH Management, a corporation who operates in 24 states plus D.C., and generates around a billion dollars in gross annual revenue. Between their 4 Pinellas county properties they’ve filed nearly 60 evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Executives at BH and their chairman, Iowa lawyer Harry Bookey, price apartments at Osprey Pointe at around $1,000/mo, while cutting corners by chronically maintaining the facility in order to keep their profits, and their salaries, sky high. They get RICH off the hard earned cash of Osprey Pointe residents, who pay a premium to live in substandard conditions. Mr. Bookey and the other BH executives sleep safe and comfortably in their mansions while they continue to kick people to the curb during a deadly, once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.

 
We look forward to reaching out to residents again in the coming weeks to begin the next step of the organizing process. The residents of Osprey Pointe deserve so much better, and united together we can take the power back from these greedy crook landlords!

All Power to the Tenants!

All Power to the Working Class!

All Power to the People!

The Ongoing Failure of So-Called Eviction "Moratoriums"

As lockdowns were established to contain the spread of COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic, millions of tenants found themselves unable to pay rent due to job loss and other income disruptions. A number of eviction protections were established across the country by federal, state and local governments.

In Florida, a state moratorium on evictions was established by executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis and was effective between April 2-September 30, 2020. This was followed by the federal CDC moratorium on evictions, which began on September 4, 2020 and is currently still in effect until June 30, 2021, although a court decision briefly voided it for about a week last month. In addition, a limited moratorium on evictions at properties with federally-backed mortgages was in effect between March 27-July 27,2020 as part of the CARES act. In Hillsborough county, Sheriff Chronister announced his deputies would be suspending the execution of writs of possession there between March 18 and April 20, 2020. 

This patchwork of protections caused a lot of confusion over interpretation and enforcement, and began to fall apart as lockdowns were slowly lifted throughout the summer. On July 30, Governor Ron DeSantis narrowed the scope of the state moratorium to only include tenants who were "adversely affected" by COVID-19, and allowed eviction cases to proceed in the courts up until final judgement. 

Upon the expiration of the Florida moratorium on September 30th, Florida tenants were able to seek protection under the CDC moratorium on eviction. Unlike the Florida moratorium, in which protections were automatic, the CDC moratorium requires tenants to sign a sworn declaration that must be submitted to the landlord in order to receive protection. As was the case with the Florida moratorium, the CDC moratorium only applies to tenants who were adversely affected by COVID-19, and does not cover cases other than non-payment or protection from lease non-renewal.

In Pinellas county, landlords and their lawyers quickly moved to take advantage of the narrowed protections.

A subsequent spike in writs of possession ensued here in Pinellas county, with a whopping 438 writs issued in the month of October. A writ of possession, or final eviction order, directs the Sheriff to deliver possession of a property back to the owner. Deputies will post a notice like the one pictured below, which gives tenants 24 hours to vacate, and tenants who refuse to comply will be removed by force. Initial eviction filings would also reach their highest levels throughout the duration of the pandemic so far, with over 100 evictions filed on average per week between October 2020-Febuary 2021. 

Since April of last year, there have been 2,218 writs of possession issued in Pinellas county, along with a total of 4,353 eviction filings, according to data collected from the Pinellas Clerk of Court. There still around 2,000 open eviction cases here in Pinellas county dating back to January 2020.

It should be noted that some of the most aggressive eviction filers during the pandemic have been so-called corporate landlords, or career landlords, who manage numerous properties as their primary source of revenue. In Pinellas county, over half of the 4,353 eviction filings during the pandemic have come from companies, not individuals. Some of the top filers here include Dominium, BH Management and Radco, just to name a few. 

So why did our system fail to protect the people who needed help the most?

This is because our system is made to elevate property rights for some over human rights for all. Instead of enacting strong, effective protections for vulnerable tenants, our political leaders attempted to strike a "balance" between the health of the multi-billion rental industry and the health of you and your family, which resulted in deadly consequences. A recent study showed that evictions lead to an additional 10,000 deaths from COVID across the country. 

As working people, our lives are completely expendable in a capitalist system. There is nothing fair or free about a system which withholds basic necessities from some people in order to make other people extremely rich. The freedom of the ruling class, the CEOs and corporate landlords is based on our hard work, on our hard earned cash. 

We must demand more. 

We deserve better. 

And if they don't deliver then it is our duty to fight to take our power back. ✊🔥