Sarasota: Homeless Havoc

There’s a new group of homeless people roaming downtown that’s drawn the ire of downtown residents, business owners and pedestrians. Making matters worse, there are rumors circulating that the group of roughly 40 people, estimated to be in their 20s, accepted bus tickets to Sarasota from the city of Clearwater and other neighboring cities.

Downtown Sarasota resident Frank Brenner has been emailing Sarasota city commissioners for weeks, complaining about “a group of young able-bodied people” that are lounging around Selby Five Points Park and the Selby Public Library.

The group, which has been making appearances in downtown for the last two months, carries their belongings with them and many of them have bicycles.

“It’s a blight,” Brenner said. “You shouldn’t even call them homeless people because they are vagrants who could work if they had the drive to do so.”

Peter Fanning, president of the Downtown Sarasota Condominium Association, said there’s a concern that the group in question “is too aggressive.”

“They seem to come and go in waves,” Fanning said. “But when they’re here, they make their presence known.”

Tsunami Sushi & Hibachi Grill owner/manager Johnny Chen experienced, firsthand, the group’s aggressive behavior.

July 23, a man who was loitering with the homeless group across the street entered Chen’s restaurant after hours to use the bathroom. When Chen told him to leave, the intoxicated man grabbed a pen from a waitress and tried to cut Chen’s throat.

The man spent one night in jail and has since returned to the area, holding bottles of alcohol and taunting Chen’s customers, along with the rest of the group.

“Since July when this group arrived, it’s affected my business as much as 60%,” said Chen, whose outdoor seating area is no longer used because patrons are scared to sit there and the group steals the silverware off his tables.

“They pee on the trees, have sex in broad daylight and have scared most of my customers away,” Chen said.

Sarasota Police Lt. Randy Boyd said the homeless issue has reared its head again because the city’s trespass program was suspended in May and just reinstituted this weekend.

The town’s former code, according to city attorney Robert Fournier, didn’t comply with a recent federal appeals court ruling in a case that challenged the constitutionality of the city of St. Petersburg’s trespass warning ordinance.

Using Selby Five Points Park as an example, Fournier said police formerly could verbally warn people not to come back to the park for a year if they are trespassing after hours. But the recent ruling stated there has to be a way to appeal the warning.

Fournier instituted a suspension of the verbal trespass warnings until the ordinance was amended to give violators seven days to appeal it.

The city’s revised code, which was unanimously approved by the commission at the end of May, now accomplishes this.

But the police department couldn’t reinstitute the trespassing program until this weekend, Boyd said, because officers needed to be trained on the new program .

“It’s very important we get this right for the businesses, residents and visitors and those that don’t have a home,” Boyd said.

When asked if the new group of homeless in the area received bus tickets from a neighboring city, Boyd said the department has heard the rumors.

“I have no evidence of that,” Boyd said. “But if that is the case, then that’s a shame because we are all in this together to make all of our cities and towns a nice place to live.”

Elizabeth Watts, the city of Clearwater’s Police Department public safety information officer, directed questions about a bus ticket program that might have directed some people to Sarasota to the city of Clearwater’s public information office. Calls and emails made by the Sarasota Observer to that department were not returned.

St. Petersburg Public Information Officer Mike Puetz told the Sarasota Observer that his department and other programs he’s aware of give out tickets, but only to locations where police are able to verify that a friend or relative lives in that city and can help that person get back on his or her feet.

“We have an officer whose duties entail homeless outreach and he works with a social worker that can provide travel to those looking to get back on their feet with a support group behind them,” Puetz said. St. Petersburg has a $4,000 monthly budget that it can use to provide bus tickets, but Puetz said none of those bus tickets have gone to Sarasota and most of them have destinations for cities in the Midwest and the Northeast.

“It’s not and never has been an attempt to vacate people and move them on to another city to let them
deal with the problem,” Puetz said. “I’d be shocked if neighboring departments would ever do such a thing.”

Some have suggested that Sarasota is a popular place for the homeless community because of the programs available downtown, including the Sarasota Salvation Army’s bed and food program.

But Sarasota Salvation Army’s director of programs and facilities David Sutton said his facility “is no Holiday Inn.”

“We are about helping those that want to be helped and get off the streets, Sutton said. “If you just want to hang out on the streets, Sarasota isn’t the city for you.”