In 2016, officials in St. Petersburg, Florida, unveiled their new Power of Change donation stations - repurposed parking meters placed around town to make it easy to donate to unhoused people instead of, in their words … "giving money to panhandlers."
But something wasn’t “giving” in this situation.
The sunshine yellow stations racked up thousands of dollars - but most of it has been going to the St. Petersburg Police Department's budget! And in 2022 specifically, ZERO dollars have gone to Florida's unhoused.
Mind you, the police department's budget is already over $131 million a year!
"The SPPD … are as much of an appropriate liaison to the homeless community as a wolf is to a flock of sheep," said organizer William Kilgore. And it's not just because of the money.
From slashing tents with box cutters to making mass arrests to force people off the streets, that same police force consistently attacks unhoused Floridians. And that's true for police forces criminalizing and targeting unhoused Black people across the country.
Police not only brutalize unhoused people but they also are NOT a reliable resource for housing! But from mutual aid efforts to forming connections in our own communities, we don't need them to make things better.