Sarasota, Florida -- Downtown Sarasota's Main Street, filled with luxury condos and exclusive stores, is missing something.
"They're trying to chase us away from all the rich people," says Patrick Warrick.
The homeless who used to hang out downtown have moved north to Gillespie Park.
"This group seems to be younger and more aggressive," says Carmela Pedicini.
She lives across the street from the park and says the homeless have become a nuisance.
"There's more yelling, arguments. [I've] seen hookers working here. I've found condoms in the park, in my driveway," Pedicini says.
She says at night the park is littered with trash.
"They leave trash and garbage, bathe and wash their clothes in the water fountain near the tennis courts."
What ran the homeless out? They blame the Downtown Merchants anti-panhandling campaign called Downtown Cares. Instead of giving money to the homeless, merchants encouraged visitors to donate to organizations that help the homeless.
"That hurt us a lot," Warrick said. "We try to ask for food, pocket money for socks, clothes. I guess if you have money, you have power. They forget we are human beings too like everybody else."
Sarasota Police have stepped up enforcement. On July 21, city commissioners gave up on building a homeless shelter. Since then, police have made 46 arrests of the homeless and issued 243 summons. Most cases involved possession of open containers of alcohol, trespassing and lodging outdoors.
"We're are not arresting our way out of this issue," says Lt. Kevin Stiff of the Sarasota Police Department. "I teach all of our police officers we do not make arrests on lifestyle, we make arrest on criminal behavior," adds Stiff.
With each homeless person the police contact, police say the Homeless Outreach Team, known as "HOT", offers help.
Calvin Collins, clinical case manager for HOT tells one homeless man, "We want to make sure you are okay. Our hope is housing, education, employment if you need it."
Lt. Stiff says HOT's officer offered the homeless services 336 times in October but not all homeless accept the help.
"Our approach is to get people to services no matter as many times as it takes to get them to the door."
Whether you speak with the homeless or the people they impact, both groups have the same solution: build a shelter.
"You need a shelter, they now need a place to be and it shouldn't be a public park. If it's a public park at least clean up after yourselves," says Pedicini.
Warrick tells city leaders, "Build it. Don't give up. Build it, then you wouldn't have complaints."
The City is using its HOT teams to reach out to homeless veterans. HOT also offers bus passes to the homeless who want to go home. Sarasota County has opened transitional housing for homeless families.
