Florida's strict homeless law kicks in Tuesday

A revolution in how Florida handles its homeless starts Tuesday.

A new state law will ban people from sleeping on public property, and could force massive changes in how cities and counties respond to the growing unhoused population. Enforcing the ban may mean exponential increases in arrests of those with nowhere to sleep, advocates say.

The new law allows private individuals and groups to pursue litigation to force compliance, but that is not allowed until Jan. 1, offering a respite before the law’s most profound effects. Proponents of the law have praised the litigation clause as a way to crack down on lax local governments.

Eric Gray, the executive director of the Christian Service Center, said Monday that he suspects 911 operators and booking officers at county jails will likely see the initial impacts.

“They’ll start getting calls about people sleeping on sidewalks or near railroad tracks or public parks,” he said. “It could be one call, it could be 100 calls. I have no idea.”

The law was pushed by Republicans in the Florida legislature, and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April. In a news conference praising the bill, DeSantis said he supported it to prevent the homeless from taking over public spaces.

“You don’t want the homeless intruding on quality of life, on public safety and on businesses and the economy,” he said at the time. “And so that has got to be the firm line that you have.”

The problem, advocates say, is homelessness is rising quickly both in Florida and in the Orlando region. As housing prices have skyrocketed, families have been evicted from their apartments and had nowhere to go.

This past year’s point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness found more than 2,800 considered homeless in Central Florida, and 1,201 were counted as unsheltered, more than twice last year’s total. Of those, 73% were in Orange County.

County officials estimate Orange is short roughly 1,000 shelter beds, so many of those on the streets have no other option.

While the bill has sparked conversations about building more shelter beds, no local government thus far has made firm plans, a recent survey by the Orlando Sentinel found.

Advocates fear that, with no shelter beds into which to relocate somebody sleeping in a public space, law enforcement will be forced to arrest them. In the Sentinel survey, many officials said they do not intend to incarcerate homeless people who have committed no other crime.

But arrests are already on the rise in Central Florida, according to WKMG. The news station reported Monday, citing UCF research, that arrests for panhandling are up 200% year over year, along with a 175% increase in public urination arrests and a 375% increase in public camping violations. However, the Orlando Police Department disputed those numbers

Gray, whose downtown campus offers meals, laundry, showers and health services to those experiencing homelessness, said he expects its daily crowds of about 400 people to grow because of the new law.

“We expect to see an increase in people coming to visit us because it’s one of the few safe places they can go,” he said.

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