Thanks for posting this. For some reason the city has decided to turn a blind eye to this issue, even though it's been a very obvious problem for quite a while. The Salvation army doesn't help the issue, and the Styrofoam boxes they hand out food in are all over the area. St. Pete was able to clean up Williams Park by getting rid of the bus hub and a very high police presence. Let's see if they are willing to help our neighborhood, instead of copy and pasting " This issue has been forwarded to homeless and veterans affairs blah blah blah"

Acknowledged and forwarded to the attention of the SPPD

I agree 100%. Driving through that area I am MORE aware because the druggies and drunks walk right out in front of you. They lay on EVERY city bench strung out on drugs/alcohol every bus bench strung out on drugs/alcohol. The Salvation Army DOES NOTHING. They NEED to move that building ALL together! They CLOSE their gate and we as "neighbors" have to deal with them. I don't know how many times I have called non-emergency and reported on here to "fix" the problem. An increased in police activity would be nice, however WE as the people who live here have to be vigilant and continue with reporting all the issues. Because hopefully - eventually the area can get "cleaned" up and we can have a safe place to call home.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) - Police say a naked woman who was running through a St. Petersburg park told them she had been doing drugs and took her clothes off to get away from a giant spider.
St. Petersburg police officers responded to Bartlett Park at 2: 13 p.m. on Sunday and found Danielle Delores Teeples, 40, completely nude.
Witnesses told police that Teeples had been acting erratically and rubbing her hair and breasts while screaming and running between two trees.
There were numerous people at the park at the time of the incident and vehicles on 4th Street South were slowing down and honking at Teeples as they saw her running around in the nude.
Teeples allegedly told police she had recently taken spice, crystal meth and crack cocaine. She said she believed a giant spider was on her, so she took her clothes off to get away from it. She told officers she was disturbed by her behavior.
Police say she initially refused to put her clothes back on.
Teeples was arrested on a charge of exposure of sexual organs.

Issue 4777351 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Issue 4780934 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Issue 4780880 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Issue 4779727 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing PROGRESS in the area ASAP. Even though the homeless are still taking up residence on the Sugar Room front porch. There were 2 people lying on the porch and for a minute I thought they were dead?? Until they moved of course. PLEASE let's get this area cleaned up and SAFE!!! Can't go anywhere without "running" into a drugged out person on the corner or at the bus stop. Shameful. We can DO BETTER then THIS!!!.

There are certainly a lot of duplicate issues for this problem . This will be escalated.

Thank you all who have posted. I’m not there at the moment, but will certainly be involved upon return. Please keep us all in the loop as to how this situation of cleaning up progresses. If it does not, we need to have a meeting with our city officials and demand action and not let it go until the matter is cleaned up. Are we supposed to all call the police 24/7 to be heard?

Removal of the benches seems extreme. I would think the Mayor and Police could fix this issue with a little effort. Some say, removal of the benches would only make folks sit on the ground or concrete bench supports. It is a real problem for the SE community that seems to be ignored. The Salvation Army would seem to be exacerbating the problem. Thanks.

Every time you see the homeless sleeping on the porch of the old Sugar Room strip club you need to call the nonemergency police number. They WILL come out and make the people move on. But if you don’t call EVERY time then when we go to complain to the city there’s no record of it being an issue. So please call EVERY TIME that you see someone in there!!

Thank you for reporting these concerns. Based on observation, there are individuals congregating in the right-of-way near Wendy's and McDonalds and in Bartlett Park. Individuals are legally permitted to be in these locations and we can not remove individuals from these locations unless they are violating the law. The Police Department is aware of neighborhood concerns about this area and I am sure they will take appropriate action for criminal activity. In addition, we actively offer assistance to homeless individuals who desire it, including shelter accommodations. Congregations of potentially homeless individuals in the City right-of-way or in public parks is not an issue isolated to South St. Petersburg. The Police Department and homeless care providers encounter this issue at different locations throughout the City. I have shared this complaint with our homeless street outreach team and asked them to go by this location to offer their assistance to anyone they find in need of help. Our outreach team can get them connected to shelter, housing, meals, medical care, substance abuse treatment and other services they may be in need of. I've also referred this to our Police Department and asked them to actively monitor this location at all hours of the day, including evening and early morning hours. Should they encounter anyone, they will also offer their help, including free transportation to shelter, and, if necessary, enforce the criminal laws and local ordinances. However, if any of you observe obvious criminal activity, please call the Police Department immediately, because it will prompt a much speedier response than lodging your concerns via SeeClickFix. I appreciate you contacting us regarding this issue as communication with the public helps us to understand and prioritize community concerns. I want to assure you that we are actively engaged with the homeless population along 4th Street South and we are working to address your concerns within a legal framework. Thank you again for reporting this to us.

Theresa Jones. Manager
Veterans, Homeless, and Social Services

Please get in there and help fix a difficult problem. I want to avoid the "bureaucratic salute" where bureaucrats cross their arms, one pointing to the police and the other to the community or some other entity. We need intervention. I don't know the number of shootings, but I suspect this could become another Chicago. Thanks.
Bob

The Veteran , Homeless and Social Services are HOMELESS ADVOCATES .... does everyone understand the meaning of that word, advocate? The people in that company are not there to help those of us who pay our taxes and maintain our properties and try to live in a nice neighborhood. They are there to help homeless people. They say promising stuff but inevitably their mission is to help the homeless, it’s not to help us!

St. Petersburg paid multiple tens of thousands of dollars to have a study done many years back about the homeless. They paid an outside think tank like cities do for some reason even though those think tanks come up with things that we all know anyway , usually it’s just the obvious logical conclusions. My hometown in New Hampshire paid many thousands of dollars to have a think tank come in to tell him how to rearrange parking in our small parking lot… The end result?… We got one extra parking spot! LOL!

Anyway I digress , my point is there is a report that is public and anyone can see it , and one of the main things they stressed was feeding the homeless does not help them and in fact it hurts them! Anyone who uses their brain and not their heart to think about this can see that that only makes sense. Feeding them and really you could extend that to housing them and giving them showers etc. just ENABLES them to continue living that way. While obviously there are some homeless who need and deserve a helping hand, especially our Veterans who fought for our freedom, the majority of them are choosing to be homeless… Think about it, if there were no food kitchens and no salvation army and no homeless advocates handing out food and clothes… and the homelss were literally starving , do you think they would still choose to live that way?

And why don’t the homeless advocates invite the homeless to live in THEIR neighborhoods instead of coming to our neighborhoods and bringing them food and enabling them to continue to ruin our standard of living and urinate and defecate in OUR backyards??

Our taxes already pay for countless social programs such as Medicaid and Medicare and food stamps and section 8 and Social Security and disability and child support services… The list is literally endless. The homeless people have no excuse to be living on the streets.

It is a choice. CLOSE THE SALVATION ARMY NOW!!!

I couldn't agree with Goldenwolf more. The individuals I observe daily in the areas in question are obviously intoxicated at all times of the day. That's not trying to get your act together. As for Homeless services stating that they aren't violating any law by being in a public right of way, there is in fact a city code about laying down in public, as well as littering and public intox. They certainly enforced it tenaciously when the city needed they needed to eradicate the homeless from William's Park, too bad they don't feel that way about southeast. Salvation army needs to go away, and SPPD needs to crack down on lawbreaking vagrants.

Raleigh and Goldenwolf.... Thank you! I agree and was going to respond to Goldenwolf, but Raleigh you summed it up! I respect to some degree what Veteran has said, but bottom line I do not hear a game plan on how to correct this matter ASAP. Where do we go from here?

The problem here is this is a circular argument… The police and the city say their hands are tied… Then various citizens point out some of the rules that could be enforced…then the city and the police say their hands are tied.....and the argument goes round and round! So to stop this argument once and for all we need to really think about the statement I’ve made on here multiple times: “If the Mayor lived here this would not be happening.”

Let’s all stop and think about what that statement means. If the Mayor lived here a solution would be found. If the Mayor lived across from Bartlett Park no way in the world would this problem be allowed to persist! Now I don’t think there’s anyone in the Police department or in the city or any citizen who would disagree with that statement? So what does that mean… It means that there IS a solution because if the Mayor lived hear a solution would be found. I do not know what that solution is but clearly it exists , so why don’t the city and the police department just pretend the Mayor lives here and go ahead and enact that solution!

Stop telling us no solution exist… I think I just made clear that there is a solution...

Thank you for your complaint regarding homeless nuisance and potential criminal activity along 4th Street South. This information was forwarded to the District I Commander, Major Matthew McKinney to address. Currently the district I Community Service Unit, supervised by Sergeant Brian Gainer is actively working this area. The Community Service Unit has recently teamed up with cooperative business owners in the area in a manner to allow the effective initiation of operational plans which are in place. Due to individual rights, this is a sensitive issue which requires careful, deliberate actions on a going forward basis. Please be assured that the results of our efforts will soon be visible. Please direct any further complaints regarding this issue to Sergeant Brian Gainer at (727) 893 – 4970.

Thank you again for your concern.

I could NOT agree with you MORE!. THE SALVATION ARMY NEEDS TO GO!! They DO NOTHING and leave at night go home and like I have said before - we the neighborhood have to "deal" with them. DON'T COME DOWN HERE AND FEED THEM - take them with you and supply basic necessities if your'e so inclined. That just keeps "feeding" the fire. Why leave - I can pitch a tent ANYWHERE, I can sleep on city benches in the parks on porches of condemned buildings ~~~ and people are going to come HERE and FEED ME!!! Why would they LEAVE????? That's NOT PRO ACTIVE St. Pete. This area NEEDS DIRE attention ASAP.......as you can read through the thread ~~~ WE ARE FRUSTRATED AND WE WILL NOT GO AWAY!!!!! Let's see improvements immediately! I for one have not a problem calling - sending letters and emailing and using this as a resource........WE ARE FED UP and WANT A SOLUTION NOW!!!!!! Thank you!!

It may be to our advantage to ask our City Councilwoman, Gina Driscoll, to look into this problem. I'll send her an email today.

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CONTENT BLOCKED???? Not sure why? Can someone explain this to me?

The System or should I say the computer program searches for certain keywords and if it finds them that it blocks your post. This is not a human moderator reading your post and not liking it or anything like that. Somewhere on the site there’s a list of rules which I’m sure will tell you the words you’re not allowed to use. Go back and look at your post and just try to figure out which word or words might be something the computer would not want you to put on here. Then just use a word that is similar. For instance I think I tried to say the homeless were dee rug attics ( I spelt it properly when I first tried to post it) and when I went back and used a different word or sounded it out like I just did here it let my entire post go through.

Thank you!! Goldnwolf

(posted on behalf of Assistant Chief Joseph Dente, SPPD)

Thank you for this SeeClickFix post regarding homeless nuisance and potential criminal activity along 4th Street South around the 400 Block of 17 Avenue South. This information was forwarded to the District I Commander, Major Matthew McKinney to address. Currently, the District I Community Service Unit, supervised by Sergeant Brian Gainer is actively working this area. The Community Service Unit has recently teamed up with cooperative business owners in the area in a manner to allow the effective initiation of operational plans which are in place. Due to individual rights, this is a sensitive issue which requires careful actions on a going forward basis. The safety and quality of life issues of our citizens is our utmost priority and this area will be constantly monitored as we move toward a resolution to this issue. Please direct any further issues to Sergeant Brian Gainer at (727) 893 – 4970.

Thank you again for your post.

Sincerely,

Joseph Dente
Assistant Chief of Police
Uniform Services Bureau
St. Petersburg Police Department

Issue 4777351 is no longer marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Issue 4780934 is no longer marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Issue 4780880 is no longer marked as a duplicate of this issue.

Issue 4779727 is no longer marked as a duplicate of this issue.

This issue has been marked as a duplicate of issue 4697265.

Issue 4697265 has already been closed and archived.
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