What is the status of this issue?

This issue was forwarded to the Park Department for action.
Sincerely, St Pete Marina

Update from the City's Homeless Services office: "The church is Central Christian Church - they feed some Saturdays at approx 5:00 PM at Demens Landing. This is an outreach ministry they do, it was not a special CareFest event. The Parks Department confirmed that the church currently does not have a permit to do these feedings, so this will be escalated to the head of Neighborhood Affairs to address." Any further updates will be posted here. Thank you, M.A.C.

Any update on this issue?

Mike: the last update we received was that the church was told that they need to have a permit. You might want to check with the office of Veteran, Social and Homeless Services to find out what the status of their permit application might be - contact information can be found here:

http://www.stpete.org/socialservices/homelessness/

Today, 11/7, there is another homeless group feeding. What happened to the last issue that was reported which was handed off to another department? Doesn't St. Pete have ordinances regarding this issue? It is crowding out the residents that want to use the park and bring their kids to the playground .
Other cities are aggressively addressing these issues. Why not St. Pete?

I agree that the City needs to aggressively address the homeless issue. My neighbor forgot to lock her car and left to go to work and a homeless in the back seat asleep. Scared her out of her wits! St Pete City forgets that the taxpayer is paying for these park services and should be entitled to use them when they would like with their children and own benefit. It seems that St Pete forgets about services due the taxpaying citizen.

Update from Cliff Smith, Manager of Veteran, Social and Homeless Services: We notified the church that was distributing meals to the homeless at Demens Landing that they would need to cease this activity unless they wanted to apply for a permit through the Parks Department. They advised us that they were planning to stop the feeding after this past weekend, and that they understand the permit requirement and would comply should they desire to take part in future food distribution. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.