Local governments across Central Florida will have some big decisions to make in the coming months.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers can choose to ban people from sleeping or camping in public spaces, as it will no longer be considered “cruel and unusual punishment,” even when there are no shelter beds available.
At a press conference in Orlando that same day, the Christian Service Center’s executive director, Eric Gray, said his organization will continue providing services to all who need it, despite this ruling.
“This decision is short sighted, it lacks compassion, it lacks wisdom, and, frankly, it lacks the guts on the part of the six members of the Supreme Court who ruled in this direction,” Gray said. “We remain committed to making sure that we are pushing every decision maker in this community at a political level, at a business level, at a faith level.”
Other local nonprofit leaders joined Gray in debriefing the high court’s decision. Most of the speakers echoed the same message: the unhoused community is scared.
Gray said that, as legislators allow harsher punishments on people without homes, the problem will continue to worsen. But what he said might become a bigger problem is how local jurisdictions will choose to move forward.
“They're all going to be asking themselves the same questions: ‘Do we pass these laws? Do we not pass these laws?’ But because their neighboring county just passed a law that doesn't allow people to camp, they're going to be forced to pass it in their community, because we can't let all the homeless people come over to our county,” Gray said. “And they're doing this with extremely bad information.”
On Oct. 1, a new Florida law will go into effect allowing municipalities to arrest people for sleeping or camping in public spaces. Counties and cities across the region have already begun passing ordinances targeting homelessness.
State House Representative Carolina Amesty, a Republican for Orlando’s District 45, is one of the legislators who introduced the bill. She said the concept is just common sense.
“Contrary to what has been reported from those who have opposed the policy, this bill actually requires municipalities to transport the homeless population to safe shelters. It does not ban homeless people; it simply forces local municipalities to address the issue,” Amnesty said. “There’s nothing compassionate about just letting people camp out under an overpass or to live on a sidewalk.”
According to the new law, municipalities are to provide shelter for unhoused individuals, ensuring the facilities comply with sanitation and Department of Children and Families requirements for supervision, security, and safety, and as long as these installments don’t affect “the security or value” of adjacent properties.
The Homeless Services Network of Central Florida’s CEO, Martha Are, said that the bill would have more potential if it offered funding to help accomplish these demands. She said that when counties and cities find themselves lacking funding to make one of these locations happen, they might find themselves in a position where all they can do is relocate people out of the community — or arrest them.
“It opens the door for jurisdictions that are feeling pressured to just try and arrest people, move people along, versus solving the crisis. We may see a significant increase in people experiencing homelessness who are getting arrested or being challenged with fines that they don't have a way to pay,” Are said.
Gray calls the criminalization of the unhoused a self-propelling cycle. He said people experiencing homelessness being forced to move around, while lacking the means of transportation, which will only make survival harder for them, forcing them into behavior that is now being criminalized.
“So, this is a crazy doom loop spiral of insanity that just doesn't make any sense. And all it is, is kicking a very large can down a very dangerous road, and nobody knows where it ends,” Gray said. “This is a $350 billion problem, in terms of housing, so the cities and counties can't do that, and they’re going to look to the federal government, which doesn't have the ability to basically make breakfast cereal in the morning without an argument.”
An Orange County spokeswoman said officials are still studying the Supreme Court’s decision.
Other local counties and municipalities could not immediately respond to a request for comment on how they plan to move forward.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
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