Rising rent brings St. Pete to a boil

Pictured above: Signs reading ‘Stop the Stanton Evictions’ and ‘Evictions Kill’ are posted outside of the Stanton Hotel in protest to the recent evictions that took place there. 

Courtesy of @sptenantsunion on Instagram 

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By Molly Ryan  

The Tampa Bay area has the second fastest increasing rental rates in the country, according to Florida Realtors. Now, the impact of this growth spurt is manifesting. 

“There’s a million different ways that these elected officials can address this housing crisis, and they’re not doing it,” said Karla Correa, founding member of the St. Pete Tenants Union (SPTU) and senior political science major in an interview with The Crow’s Nest. “We’re saying that if there’s political will, there’s a way.”  

On Nov. 11, the St. Petersburg People’s Council, with help from the SPTU, held a meeting to gather and unite the members of the community. 

The first emergency People’s Council took place on Oct. 7 after the announcement of the mass evictions that would be taking place at the Stanton Hotel — a 49-unit complex and a longtime place of residence for vulnerable and low-income members of the community — to expand the boutique hotel, The Cordova Inn. 

At the first meeting, community members declared in an overwhelming majority vote that housing is a human right.  

“[The People’s Council is] meeting again to discuss tactics on how to pressure our elected officials. Right now, we are shooting for getting a housing emergency declared by the mayor or city council so that we can get a ballot referendum for rent control,” Correa said. “If that doesn’t work, we want to have other options.” 

The meeting advocated a ballot referendum, much like the ones recently passed in St. Paul, Minn., which capped annual rent increases at 3%. 

Correa said The People’s Council also acts to signals “to city ‘leaders’ and the development industry that their limitless influence on policy in our city will be coming to an end.” 

Among some of the tactics discussed were writing letters to city officials, social media sharing and campaigns, petitions, attending city council meetings and boycotting establishments that supported the city’s gentrification efforts.  

One of the most discussed and supported tactics was various forms of demonstration. One of the most popular demonstrations was establishing a “tent city” on notorious sites of gentrification, like Tropicana Field.  

“Let them know what it’s like if they keep rising rent and don’t have enough money to shop at their stores when we’re all homeless and laying on their front doorsteps,” one council attendee said of the proposal. 

Since The Crow’s Nest’s last story covering the housing crisis published Sept. 12, which stated rent in the Tampa Bay has increased by about 21%, particular attention has been turned on The Cordova Inn for its urgent nature in evicting the tenants of the Stanton Hotel.  

On Sept. 31, Stanton residents received a notice that they would need to vacate their homes by Oct. 15. 

According to a post on @sptenantsunion on Instagram, the owners of the Stanton Hotel, Old St. Pete Development LLC, attempted to vacate its tenants before the sale with The Cordova Inn was finalized. In addition to $500, all tenants received to aid in their transition was a “crude printout” with a hyperlink to the Homeless Leadership Alliance and Catholic charities.  

In response to a public notice indicating that the Cordova’s expansion would be discussed at the Oct. 12 Community Planning Preservation Commission public hearing, the SPTU planned to mobilize Stanton’s tenants and community members to voice their opposition toward the project. Discussion of the project was later taken off the agenda. 

However, the evictions garnered widespread community attention when Kelvin Washington, a Stanton tenant, took a hard fall while moving out. Washington later died in the hospital due to a form of heart failure from the injury. He was 64 years old.  

“I was at the SPTU protest against Cordova Inn’s unlawful eviction of the Stanton Apartment tenants, and Kelvin Washington spoke at that protest about his living conditions and the stress that the eviction had put onto him and his neighbors,” said Evelyn Long, a junior interdisciplinary social sciences major and service worker. “Seeing people fighting for their homes was moving in and of itself, and the death of Kelvin Washington was devastating. 

“Sadly, a story like his is not a rarity when it comes to evictions — evictions kill,” Long said. 

Another widely discussed topic at the People’s Council was holding elected officials accountable. 

“Every time a luxury apartment is developed, people are displaced. Whether it’s the people who are literally living in the area that gets demolished like the Stanton, or whether it’s people in the surrounding areas,” Correa said. “[St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman] has done absolutely nothing to address the wave of evictions throughout the pandemic, and he has continued on like everything is fine.” 

In 2019, Kriseman presented his “Housing for All, From All” initiative. The initiative took effect in 2020 in hopes to create and preserve 2,400 multi-family units over the course of 10 years. 

“At this point almost two years into the program between those units that are already under construction, or are in the pipeline to be constructed, we’re at over 680 units, 687 I believe,” Kriseman said in an interview with The Crow’s Nest. “So, we’re ahead of schedule on the number of units that are either under construction or are in the path of being constructed.” 

Serving as St. Petersburg’s mayor since 2014, the city has seen massive development during his time in office. 

“The major differences [in the city] is the tremendous growth and development over the last decade,” said Mayor-Elect Ken Welch in an interview with The Crow’s Nest. “St. Pete had always, as I was growing up here, aspired to be more like a Tampa or Orlando.” 

A lifelong resident of the city, Welch carried his campaign on the promise of more affordable housing, and no more gentrification. 

“There has been a decrease in the affordability of housing in particular. And so that’s why, in my campaign, I’ve always talked about increasing the availability of affordable and workforce housing, housing proposal for folks that make the area median income of about $50,000 and less, because if we don’t do that, then we’ll gentrify the city,” Welch said. 

Despite Kriseman’s 10-year plan only coming to fruition in the last two years of his administration, Welch plans to carry on with the foundations of the plan. 

“I will say the fundamentals are there,” Welch said. “Again, it’s about subsidy or long-term affordability, it’s about policies and it’s about procedures. And his plan has those elements. We need thousands of units over the next five to 10 years. And so, the general concept will be the same, but I think the way we implement it will be different.” 

Despite these plans to mitigate the housing crisis, both Correa and Long feel Kriseman has done more harm than good. 

“Kriseman has accelerated gentrification throughout his time in office. He has continued to give disgusting amounts of money to the police, the people who harass homeless people in his city budgets,” Correa said.  

In the city’s July 15 recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2022, “$162.899 million (52.95%) of the recommended FY22 General Fund budget will be invested in our Police and Fire Rescue Departments” and “funding for rapid rehousing in the amount of $400,000.” 

While $400,000 is around 0.13% of the $307.522 million proposed budget, it is a substantial increase from the previous year’s $116,200 from the previous fiscal year. 

“Ultimately, the people are worth more than profit. St. Pete is not just for the wealthy, it’s also for the working class. The working class is what funds the city, that’s what keeps people coming to St. Pete,” Long said. “If there were no servers, there were no bartenders, there were janitors, there were no housekeepers, no one would come here. We deserve to live in a city that we keep running.” 

In addition to being an active member of the SPTU, Long is a full-time student who works as a bartender.  

“Activism is good. It’s important, voices need to be heard. I’m glad that there is this generation that, that cares about the future, because this is their future. And these are the places that they need to live currently or will be living going forward.  

“I think it’s really important for anybody, whether it’s me as an elected official or someone who is a community activist, to be as educated on the issues as possible, so that when you’re making arguments, they’re solid arguments. If you’re out there screaming and advocating, it’s great, but you don’t have all the facts,” Kriseman said. 

Both Welch and Kriseman agreed that maintaining affordable housing was especially important for college students and college-age individuals.  

“Whether it’s someone coming back from out of out of town, or to college, like at USF St. Pete, we want to make sure that there is adequate, affordable housing that meets standards that uplift communities,” Welch said. 

For now, the fight forges on to create a better future for the people of St. Petersburg. 

“Ultimately, St. Pete is not just a tourist destination,” Long said “It is a home for real people.”