Homeless group turn bridge into condos

[Extend a Hand]

They were trying to make it safe...The police made them leave but let them get most of their stuff.
This makes me sad.
watch the video.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10787633/detail.html?rss=dgo&psp=news

Officers found the extensive encampment on Thursday afternoon. They said that seven homeless people were living in the bridge and had transformed the interior of one of the supports, erecting tents, even putting up shelves and pictures on the walls.

One of the occupants told NBC 7/39 that the group were in the process of turning the bridge into a multi-level condo complex.

[evlbstrd]

1. That's a scene right out of a William Gibson novel.

People living in every available space.

[Tunkamerica]

6. my thought exactly

reading all tomorrow's parties right now.

[otherlander]

2. They set up a homeless town in Miami too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/us/16umoja.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

This is so fucked up.

[RagingInMiami]

4. I wrote an article about it

http://www.category305.com/mobilize/shantytown,-usa-2.php

[Extend a Hand]

5. otherlander and RagingInMiami

I'm so glad you posted this. It's good to hear that the local community is helping out as well. I hope they get to stay.

[otherlander]

9. Food, Not Zoning!

:thumbsup:

[Swamp Rat]

3. If the homeless cannot live under a fucking bridge, where the HELL do they go?

Homeless shelters are always full.

Welcome to Bushler's Amerika.

[soup]

7. Where do they go? Not Saint Petersburg, Florida

City raids two homeless camps
January 19, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG — City officials raided two homeless camps Friday afternoon, seizing more than 20 tents and further rattling a community still shaken from the murders of two of its own.

Those who refused to get out of their tents or remove their belongings watched as two dozen police and fire officials sliced the tops of the tents away from their base, tossed them into a truck and drove off. Some said they didn’t have enough time to get out before the officials, using scissors, box cutters and other blades, began to cut.

><

The whole operation took less than 10 minutes.

The raid was the city’s latest attempt to deal with the highly visible tent camps that have sprung up in recent weeks and a homeless population that is becoming increasingly organized and close knit.
>more<
http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2007/01/city_raids_two_.html

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Homeless men found slain in early hours

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN and ALISA ULFERTS
Published January 18, 2007

><
The two homeless men were gunned down within an hour of each other early Wednesday morning. Their bodies were found in alleys in United Central, a quiet residential neighborhood.

Police believe the same three teenagers killed both men. Witnesses at both sites told police they saw three black male teenagers with close cropped hair walking briskly away from the bodies. Police say they appeared to be between 13 and 18 years old; one wore long pants while the other two wore shorts.

The murders of the two homeless men shot fear through St. Petersburg's homeless population, which grew closer in recent weeks after its members fought to establish a tent city.

The murders also added pressure on the city and county to find more housing for the area's homeless, whose tents have added both visibility and legal complexity to the issue.

><

There are about 250 emergency shelter spaces and 500 longer term housing spots in a city with about 2,250 homeless.
http://www.saintpetersburgtimes.com/2007/01/18/Southpinellas/Homeless_men_found_sl.shtml

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Housing promise evaporates for poor

Hundreds in St. Petersburg will be relocated and the public housing converted to condos.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published December 19, 2006


ST. PETERSBURG - More than 300 of the city's poorest residents have been ordered out of a city public housing project, despite three years of promises that they could stay.

The residents of Graham-Rogall, a 486-unit subsidized housing complex near Tropicana Field, will be relocated throughout the county starting as early as next month.

The complex is expected to be emptied within about two years, St. Petersburg Housing Authority officials said Monday.

It will then be sold to a St. Petersburg developer, who plans to turn the building into condominiums.
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/19/Southpinellas/Housing_promise_evapo.shtml


and so it goes...

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. The Day the "Modern Urban Democratic Party" begins to care about this issue

will be a very interesting day, considering the money connections that Hillary and Rahm Emanuel are trying to cultivate in order to sideline the left. Just think... in today's DLC, Howard Dean is considered to be on the LEFT, when he was in reality a CENTER-RIGHT of the Democratic Party in the early 1990s! And is Howard Dean on fire about the plight of the poor in the US? Is Obama? I have no idea. They are wealthy individuals with few friends who are middle class, being in politics. At least Obama used to work in the Chicago black community, not that that's saying much given the vicious pro-gentrification and pro-urban renewal attitudes in cities like Chicago. I haven't heard them protest the planned demolition of all public housing in New Orleans, or the closure of almost all public schools in New Orleans, except the "desirable" ones.