{"id":4584,"date":"2019-11-13T10:28:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T15:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=4584"},"modified":"2019-11-13T10:28:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T15:28:39","slug":"panhandling-in-north-lakeland-is-a-growing-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/11\/13\/panhandling-in-north-lakeland-is-a-growing-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Panhandling in North Lakeland is a Growing Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Law enforcement, residents, and even members of the homeless population agree: Homeless people panhandling in unincorporated North Lakeland is a growing problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are a number of theories as to why things have changed\nin particular areas, including near Highway 98.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office said a big factor is that the county dropped an anti-panhandling ordinance earlier this year. The county dropped the rule because it thought a U.S. Supreme Court decision made the ordinance unenforceable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means deputies can\u2019t do much when they encounter people\nasking for donations even on the side of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We can offer services and encourage them to move\nalong. We can\u2019t make them,” spokesman Scott Wilder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homeless advocates also think the construction of\nBonnet Springs Park in a wooded area of Lakeland has displaced up to a\nhundred homeless people. They say many have migrated to encampments in north\nLakeland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Sifuentes, who is usually homeless, said he has had to\ngive up panhandling in downtown Lakeland because he keeps getting in trouble\nfor it with Lakeland Police. He\u2019s now panhandling for money at the intersection\nof Duff Road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey just ran me out of town,” he said. “They\ntold me I had to go out of town to fly a sign.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said there is now really stiff competition for the\nbest panhandling spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Lakeland resident Rebecca Baggett said she has been\napproached by panhandlers way too many times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt does bother me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d rather not go to the\nstores that have panhandlers in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office said it is keeping a eye on a new\nanti-panhandling ordinance passed by the Manatee County Commission to see\nwhether it withstands any legal challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Law enforcement, residents, and even members of the homeless population agree: Homeless people panhandling in unincorporated North Lakeland is a growing problem. There are a number of theories as to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}