In order to survive, humans require food, water, air, and something often forgotten, sleep. But for some people in the St. Petersburg community, doing something as simple as closing their eyes to get some rest could mean getting arrested. In our city, many people experience this every single day. I spoke with “Chicago”, a man who has lived this reality for years. “I was at Sarasota first, then they started arresting people down there, so I went to Bradenton. From Bradenton, I came to St. Pete, and I was on the street for three and a half years. I came here for the first time two and a half years ago.”
Chicago was in and out of a couple temporary shelters and tent communities, but the cycle of searching for shelter and ending up back on the streets also came with many arrests. “I’ve been arrested for trespassing seven times, three times for trying to stay dry. The rest were at churches, the library, and the senior citizens’ building. I was never a criminal…I’d never been arrested until I came to St. Pete. Now I’m a so-called criminal because I got arrested for trespassing.” Even just trying to stay out of the rain can lead to an arrest.
“I was trying to get out of the rain so I wouldn’t be soaking wet and catch a cold, once it stopped raining, the cops pulled up and got me for trespassing. Sometimes they wouldn’t even give me a warning… they’d just arrest me.”
From Chicago, we learn that homelessness can happen to anyone.
“It can happen to anybody, I wouldn’t have ever dreamed I would be homeless… I made maybe $180,000 a year. But there’s always a situation you can’t control that can put you in homelessness. People don’t realize that money won’t get you out of it. It can be taken away just as quick as you can get it.”
Chicago’s daily survival is made more complicated because of personal challenges like losing his eyesight.
“My eyesight is my hardest challenge. When I (became) blind, it was really hard because I had to depend on people to do things for me. And I’m the type of person that… I wanna do it myself. If I can’t do it, it frustrates me.”
Chicago has recently been living at a local Church, and he thanks the church and its pastor for helping him get the help he needed to fix his eyesight.
“I went completely blind on July 3rd… and when I got help is when I came here. If it wasn’t for this church… and people that helped me get to my appointments, I would be out there being taken advantage of completely”
While Chicago has gotten much help from his community in the form of churches, pastors, and compassionate people offering to help he has also experienced a lot of mistreatment from everyday people in the community.
“In the wintertime I’ve had a bucket of water poured on me, I’ve been spit on, cussed at, degraded… They make you feel like you’re a parasite… They think we’ve never worked and we’re just out there for a free ride… That’s just not how it is.”
For many people still on the streets, because of recent laws passed and more aggressive police activity, it’s becoming even harder to find places to live.
“They won’t let you lay on a bench anymore, it’s hard to find a safe place.”
When asked about how the police treated him and other homeless people just trying to get some sleep he said this.
“The St. Pete police, I’m just gonna say, are not very nice… I’ve seen them hit (other homeless people) and call out resisting arrest when they weren’t doing anything, just trying to get off the ground and there’s no sense in that happening.”
When asked how these interactions and laws impact his ability to survive he said this:
“It’s very hard because when you can’t find a place to rest… and you can’t go here and you can’t go there you start to wonder, am I gonna make it? And it’s really hard.”
Chicago says solutions are very possible if the city and the community really tries to help.
“Help the homeless people that want to help themselves and want to get off the street… If they don’t know how to work, teach them a skill… Try to better their lives. Most of them don’t even know how to write a check… Help them. Help the ones who really want help… Have somewhere they can go instead of a tent city because in a tent when it’s 100 degrees outside, you sweat to death… I want to change it… I want to help them feel better about themselves… Hopefully that happens, because it needs to be done.”
It is clear that something needs to change in our city and in our community. Humans need sleep. But when you have no home and no shelter to go to where are you supposed to sleep? Instead of criminalizing people for doing what they need to do to survive like our city is currently doing, our city and community must come together and help these people without housing get back on their feet by offering real solutions. Real solutions mean offering safe spaces, resources, and basic human kindness, not handcuffs and mistreatment. Because we can’t call ourselves a true community until we are supporting all of our neighbors. That means every person has somewhere safe to rest.
