On Dec. 4, at about 10:30 p.m., Lakeland Police Officer Michael Hammersla was patrolling the midtown district of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
Hammersla spotted a 54-year-old woman asleep on the bus stop in front of the Tax Collector’s Office on Massachusetts Avenue — the same spot he had removed her from about a week earlier. She had also been ordered not to enter the Tax Collector’s office.
“She was completely covered in urine,” Hammersla wrote in the woman’s arrest affidavit. “Urine was draining from her body down the sidewalk. All her belongings were also saturated with urine.”
Why this matters:
Local leaders continue to seek ways to mitigate homelessness in Lakeland. It appears one tool this winter is an increase in arrests for camping or trespassing on city property — although police say it’s a matter of officers doing their jobs, not a specific initiative.
Hammersla noted the woman was taken to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center during his prior encounter with her on Nov. 29, but she was currently not being held in the hospital for any medical or mental health reasons and had no medical complaints.
She “appears stable, and makes the rational choice to keep returning to the same location to sleep and urinate on the sidewalk and in the bus stop,” he wrote.
So this time, he arrested her.
An increase in arrests
Lakeland Police — who have increased patrols of certain parts of the city at the behest of the Community Redevelopment Agency — have charged almost a dozen people experiencing homelessness with camping or trespassing on city-owned property over the past two months.
Seven were arrested by LPD for camping on city-owned property. Three others were charged with trespassing.
A review of court appearances in 2023 shows such arrests were very sporadic and infrequent earlier in the year.
The first of the recent cases came on Oct. 24 when Charles Luster was arrested for trespassing at 901 North Tennessee Street, a CRA-owned vacant lot adjacent to the Talbot House Ministries homeless shelter. Luster is listed in an affidavit as “a known homeless subject who wanders the area.” He was also on felony probation for battery. On Nov. 3, he pleaded guilty to trespassing and was sentenced to time served on that charge. He remains in the Polk County Jail for violation of probation.
LPD spokesperson Stephanie Kerr said there hasn’t been any particular initiative to step up enforcement of city ordinances. “During the course of their duties, the CRA officers and Homeless Liaison officers will take enforcement action they deem necessary for city ordinance and state statute violations. Our patrol officers also enforce these as time permits during their shifts.”
‘Streets cannot be the solution’
Executives for both Talbot House and Lighthouse Ministries, Lakeland’s two largest homeless shelters, say a better solution needs to be found.
“The streets cannot be the solution for permanent housing,” said Steve Turbeville, president and CEO of Lighthouse Ministries. “As a provider for caring for the homeless, we need the help of law enforcement to be able to protect everyone in our community including the homeless, the businesses and property owners who need to avoid risk that creates liability for them or their families.”
Turbeville said the most viable and financially feasible solution to help the homeless are life-learning campuses, opportunity centers and housing.
“This is a process and we must be strategic to offer dignity and a better quality of life,” Tubeville said. “Let’s work harder and smarter to bring people indoors and actively engaged in their rescue and recovery. Shelters and residential campuses with opportunity gateways are a better solution.”
Talbot House Ministries executive director Maria Cruz said she agrees with Tubeville.
“We urge local authorities and community leaders to work collaboratively with organizations like Talbot House and Lighthouse to develop compassionate and constructive solutions,” she said. “It is imperative that we prioritize access to affordable housing, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and job opportunities for those experiencing homelessness. By addressing the root causes of homelessness and providing comprehensive support, we can make meaningful progress in helping individuals transition out of homelessness and rebuild their lives.”
She invited community members to join with the two organizations as they advocate “for policies that prioritize housing stability and support for those in need. By working together, we can create a more compassionate and inclusive community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.’
Talbot House serves 160 overnight guests daily, with 70 staying with them as short-term residents — anywhere from six to 24 months. Those short-term residents work with case managers to try to mend their lives and are welcome to stay inside the center during the day. But the other 90 people have to leave each morning. Talbot House does not charge a fee.
Nearby Lighthouse Ministries charges about $200 a month to spend the night, but again — the men who stay there have to leave each morning.
Decades-long challenge
The issue of homelessness has stymied the city for decades, particularly as Lakeland has worked to revive its downtown over the past 20 years. City leaders, business owners and concerned residents say plans to revitalize Munn Park cannot move forward until the city creates a viable alternative for homeless people who migrate to the park when Talbot House and Lighthouse close.
Many shelter residents spend their days congregating on benches around the perimeter of the park. Churches and volunteer groups often come to Munn Park to bring them meals, clothes and hygiene supplies.
The de facto use of the park as a hub for people experiencing homelessness has made it less appealing to other users. In addition, the lack of public restrooms downtown has contributed to people urinating and defecating in alleyways, stairwells or business backdoor steps.
The Lakeland Downtown Development Authority board held a half-day retreat in August to discuss these and several other issues.
Julie Townsend, executive director of the LDDA, said in August she does not like to use the word homeless and called it a behavior issue.
“How do we create a level of expectation of behaviors? Arresting people over and over again for their behaviors is not the answer,” Townsend said. “Homelessness is not a crime. How do we mitigate the bad behaviors?”
A different type of ‘snowbird’
Lt. Joe Parker, who is in charge of the CRA officers, the neighborhood liaison officers and the Police Athletic League, said his officers work to build trust within the redevelopment community, forming partnerships with business and homeowners.
Often, people who are homeless “communicate to those officers what their chronic issues are, and then they try to come up with the best possible solution to actually solve the problem,” Parker said. “There’s nothing really new in the way that those officers operate. They’re just working on it. Same chronic issue, just trying to figure out ways to make it better for everyone.”
Parker said there hasn’t been a directive from anyone to arrest people experiencing homelessness. But he noted that the homeless population increases in Lakeland during the winter months as some people migrate to the comparatively warmer climate in Florida.
“It really starts to become obvious because they’re camped up more and you can start seeing that sort of stuff,” Parker said.
Do police ever arrest people to give them someplace warm to spend the night if they can’t get into a shelter for whatever reason?
“I’m sure in some places, in somebody’s mind, that probably has been taken into consideration,” Parker said. “I know that some of the homeless people have used that as a reason to go to someplace warm — you know, they commit some kind of crime on purpose to be caught so they have someplace to go.”
Parker, who experienced homelessness as a child, said there are simple steps that city officials could take to help these men and women. One is creating a pamphlet officers could hand out that includes a list of agencies and services with contact information for each.
“So that when the officers show up, when they’re called, they can direct these folks to the best possible resource to fix whatever their malfunction is, so they get back on their feet,” Parker said.
It can be anything from getting a bus ticket to go back to their homes where they have support or getting a government-issued photo identification card so they can get a job.
But that one simple task can get complicated quickly for people who do not know how to negotiate government websites or who don’t have the money to pay for the ID. Parker pointed out that people typically need to show a birth certificate and a bill with their name and address on it.
“They don’t have that stuff. And so then you know, they’ve got to petition their home state to get a copy of the birth certificate, and they don’t have any means to do that,” he said. “That’s a process. The rest of them, they’re not going to get a driver’s license or picture ID down in jail.”
A shady place to sit
On Friday evening, as the thermometer began falling, two homeless men sat in the dirt in a fenced in area behind Talbot House, along North Tennessee Street.
Charles, 53, said the police are always hassling them.
“They arrest us a lot — some of them do, some of them don’t,” said Charles, who said he grew up in Winter Haven and declined to give his last name. “They won’t let us sit anywhere.”
He said officers will often give them a trespassing citation and give them a court date for the government center along East Memorial Boulevard.
“I was there this morning,” he said “It got thrown out.”
When asked if he wanted to share how he became homeless, he shook his head. “Life… bad decisions. … Like quicksand. Once it starts, it won’t stop.”
Charles said if one thing could be done to help them it would be to just have a place to sit in the shade and charge their cellphones.
As the sun sank and the grey clouds darkened, Charles said he was going to get a spot in Talbot House to stay out of Friday night’s expected storms.
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Where would we be without the LPD around to kick these people when they’re down?
Zachariah you should go pick up some homeless and let them sleep at your place… At least then they won’t be urinating on the city property that the rest of us tax payers are paying for.