Photos by Chris Elrod
Editorial
The photos were taken in Lakeland and are REAL Homeless people NOT criminals
In the state of Florida, the 2023 homeless population was estimated at 30,700 the third-highest number of homeless people in the United States. California leads the United States in homelessness, accounting for 49% of homeless people in the nation.
Florida’s legislators cast homeless people as lawbreakers and eyesores rather than humans challenged by poverty-induced circumstances. Poverty and homelessness are public health issues, not crimes. Experiencing homelessness reduces life expectancy by about 30 years for the average American.
The funding and resources needed to create additional housing and supportive care are very cost-prohibitive to rural Florida. Such areas do not have to comply with the law’s public camping provision if they show that compliance creates a “fiscal hardship.”
The inconsistent jurisdictional implementation of this law will result in a redistribution of the homelessness problem in Florida, forcing people to shelters in designated areas where “fiscal hardship” is not proven. These legislative flaws reveal the lack of a strategic plan to help people exit a state of homelessness and support themselves.
The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness calls similar laws to HB 1365, “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” laws. The priority is not solving homelessness but instead channeling more people to incarceration to clear and clean up public outdoor spaces.
Legislators are enabling and attempting to solve a crisis with punitive and unsustainable solutions. They must instead focus on breaking the cycle of homelessness and implementing long-term humanitarian solutions across the spectrum of socioeconomic, legal, and health issues faced by Florida’s homeless population.
Meet the faces of the Homeless in Lakeland…….
