The Tampa Police Department (TPD) is set to update Tampa City Council on the status of its controversial ‘crime free multi-housing’ program on Thursday.
The verbal presentation will be provided by Interim Chief Ruben Delgado and Captain Bryan Hill of TPD, who will deliver an update on a program that attracted national attention and widespread condemnation earlier this year for its targeting of Black renters for eviction.
Since 2013, 90% of around 1,100 renters flagged for eviction in Tampa were Black, the Tampa Bay Times found in an investigation. While TPD claimed the program was made to target serious crimes, some renters—including entire families who did not commit any crimes—were at times evicted because their housemate had been arrested for panhandling and petty theft.
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay obtained the program’s original presentation to landlords, which likened criminals to weeds that needed to be uprooted. Yale Professor and author of “How Fascism Works” Jason Stanley called the language pre-genocidal, and fully condemned the program.
In September, residents spoke out about the program and Councilman Bill Carlson suggested suspending and reevaluating the program for the safety of residents. During that meeting, CL found TPD officers and media relations employees shuttling people to city hall to speak in favor of the program.
Councilman John Dingfelder suggested that TPD appear before council on Dec. 2 to give an update.
The latest presentation is on Thursday’s city council agenda, and the council has requested a comprehensive report on what the program will look like moving forward. In September, it was also requested that the Dec. 2 report include any relevant data on how the program would prevent crime in the future. Neighboring Orlando and Orange County ended their crime-free programs after seeing the reaction to Tampa’s program, but Tampa currently retains theirs, with Mayor Jane Castor leading the charge to defend the program.
After outcry about the program, Castor initially stood firm in her defense of it, but later announced several reforms to it on Sept. 18., which moved TPD to inform landlords only about certain serious drug and violent felonies, as opposed to evicting entire families for petty crimes.
Another aspect of the reforms that Castor enacted is that a police captain must sign off on notices sent to landlords. And landlords are notified only about arrests that happen on their properties.
But advocates for ending the program—including a nationwide coalition of the American Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and several legal groups—say the reforms are not enough. They’ve sent several letters to Castor and the City of Tampa and say that innocent people can still be evicted under the program as it stands. They have called for the crime free multi-housing program to end.
Send anonymous news tips to cltampabay_tips@protonmail.com. Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team works tirelessly to bring you news on how coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2021.
