Florida law banning public sleeping now in effect, leaving some homeless in the lurch

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Published  October 1, 2024 7:17pm EDT
FOX 35 Orlando
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Law banning public sleeping is now in effect

A new law is now in effect in Florida, banning sleeping or camping in public, and saying people can sue counties that don’t stop public sleeping.

ORANGE COUNTY - "Being homeless is not a crime," Demetrius Goree told FOX 35 News.

In Florida, as of Tuesday, that’s only mostly true.

A new law is now in effect in Florida, banning sleeping or camping in public, and saying people can sue counties that don’t stop public sleeping.

HB 1365 includes a three-month grace period before people can start suing county governments for this, so that doesn’t begin until January 1, but the ban itself started on October 1.  

"Where are we going to go? We have nowhere to go," Sherlean Tillman said the day the law took effect.

Tillman is a domestic violence victim from New York. She fled that situation and moved to Orlando with Goree. They have been homeless in Central Florida now for about a year. 

FOX 35 talked with them outside Matthew’s Hope, a faith-based homeless outreach ministry in Orlando.

"We're working people, and we don't want to be out in the streets," said Tillman. "We're trying to build ourselves up, where we can get a job and get a place. It's hard, but we're doing everything we can do to get it."

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They are having trouble getting Florida IDs. It requires a birth certificate, transportation, money for the appointment, and an address. They have got none of that, so, they sleep in the woods. 

"To put us in a situation where we have nowhere to go and say, ‘You can't stay here, or you can't do this’ – I think it's not right to do that," said Tillman. "We're trying to do the best we can to survive. We're not sitting around."

Labeling situations like this as "un-ideal" is mild enough to be offensive. When it rains, Tillman and Goree sleep on flooded ground. Goree burned himself falling into a campfire they’d lit trying to keep dry. But they stay there because it’s private land that they have permission to be on.

Although they aren’t safe overall, they might be safe from the new law. However, David Irizarry may not be. He said he had been shooed away by officers before.

"Each spot that we went to, we got ran off by the police telling us there's no camping, you know, stuff like that," Irizarry explained. 

Those run-ins can lead to arrests for trespassing or resisting. Although Sheriff John Mina told FOX 35 he has no plans to criminalize homelessness, he also said he plans to enforce existing laws. 

"It's like an everyday struggle," said Irizarry.

With HB1365, county governments can now face lawsuits over people sleeping in public.

"There's a lot of things that come into play with this law that no one seems to have an answer for," said Shannon Diaz, the Orange County Campus Director for Matthew’s Hope. "The places for them to be are just kind of closing in."

Under the new law, local governments can offer up county-owned land for people to sleep on, as long as they ensure it’s kept clean and crime-free, and they provide those staying there access to showers and mental health services.  These spaces are to be regulated by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

To get approved, the county has to prove there aren’t enough beds in homeless shelters to keep up with the local homeless population and that the camp wouldn’t affect the property value or safety and security of other homes or businesses anywhere in the county. 

"We're not bad people," said Tillman. "We only trying to survive."

Orange County’s Point in Time Count says between 2022 and 2024, the homeless population has increased by 28%, amounting to nearly 7,300 people in that county alone. Experts like Trinette Nation, the Development Director for the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, think the numbers are higher.

"There are so many wonderful community and service providers in this area. We just need more of them, more resources," said Nation.

In Orange County, there’s a board workshop coming up in November to discuss how to spend an extra $10 million the County approved to address homelessness in the community.

The Board is also working to find new locations for homeless shelters on the east and west sides of the county.

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