A new law limiting where homeless people can sleep is now in effect in Florida. Local governments can no longer allow people to sleep in streets, public buildings or public rights of way. And the new law has prompted a whole new discussion.
“It is both carrot and stick. It is different,” said Rep. Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island, talking about House Bill 1365, which he sponsored. “We’re going to give our local communities the flexibility they need to address the problems in the way that respects the local conditions in the way that is best for their citizens.”
The new law has been criticized as an effort to get homeless people out of sight. Beginning in January, local governments can be sued over the issue. During legislative debate over the policy earlier this year, some lawmakers worried about placing additional costs on municipalities that try to comply.
Some communities are already spending their own money. The Big Bend’s Kearney Center has added four staffers, says Executive Director Sonya Wilson, the better to help shelter residents get jobs and permanent housing.
“If we come together, we can really not only address, ‘Do you need socks-and-underwear-clothes-food-MREs-water?’” she says. “But we can see what other services you need. ‘What’s standing in the way between you and getting a job? Or you and housing? Is it a Social Security application? What is it?’”
Lobbyist Ron Book, who chairs the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, says Miami-Dade has 1,002 homeless individuals as of its August point-in-time survey. Thirty-four years ago, he says, there were more than 8,000. Book supported the bill in committee and is pushing hard to meet the need it created.
“Under 1365, while we are always a broad-based continuum, we are working significantly more aggressively in standing up more shelter beds to meet the demand of 1365 and working just as aggressively to create new units of housing,” Book said.
He says no one should want jails turned into homeless shelters.
“There will be people who will be arrested because they resist going to shelter. That will be a consequence of what we’re all going through,” he said. “But what we’ve got to do as advocates: We’ve got to use 1365 as a calling, as a message to up our games.”
The law exempts smaller cities and counties from its mandates, while calling on others to create camps that provide sanitation and mental health services.
Johnna Coleman, executive director of the Big Bend Continuum of Care, is trying to do that, too. She’s responsible for eight counties, where the emergency shelter charges $10 a night for people from outside the area.
“We cannot afford to take on cases of people from outside our community,” she said. “We are stressed. We are strapped.”
She says HB 1365 should have had an education component.
“I think it was left up to so much interpretation based on each county, each city, municipality to determine how they would address this or how they would respond,” said Coleman. “And not everyone has those built-in relationships that we have in Leon County with city-county staff – not everybody has that. And so, we’re seeing that play out all kinds of ways throughout the state.”
Coleman points to Jacksonville, which has a multi-million-dollar plan to address homelessness that Coleman calls “holistic.” It includes data, a contact in the mayor’s office, beefed-up outreach, and an effort to raise private money.
Coleman would like to see Leon County create a task force. She says that if any local government set up an encampment, that would be “cause for pause” for her.
“I believe for a lot of CoCs, we understand that sanctioned campgrounds is not the way to go,” she said. “It is pouring a lot of money into a temporary situation when we could house people for much cheaper than sanctioned encampments.”
Communities across the state are trying to comply with the new law without punishing people for being homeless. But on January 1st, a new section of the law will go into effect: giving legal standing to residents to file civil lawsuits against local governments that allow sleeping or camping on public property.
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