In the eighties St. Pete decided to revitalize their downtown. The first thing they did was eliminate the homeless by arresting them, taking them to the processing center at the extreme north of the city then “discovering” they had nothing to hold them on and letting them go. The closest city was Clearwater. So, the homeless would walk to Clearwater. There was a lawsuit by Clearwater in progress when I left to stop this. When I went to visit a decade later the downtown looked amazing. There were lights, outdoor planters and outdoor cafes and businesses. I stopped and asked the clerk in an ice-cream shop with outdoor tables if there was a homeless problem. He said that the police patrols were constant and there were homeless, but the cops knew who they were, and all the cops would do is nod at them and the homeless would keep going without hassling the customers. The downtown area went from something resembling Detroit to something resembling a rich tourist area. Not one building was empty and all seemed to be prosperous. None of this would be possible with the homeless hassling the customers.
That reminds me, watching how the police in La Jolla dealt with the homeless, which was aggressively, I wonder if they are still relatively homeless-free.