{"id":49362,"date":"2024-09-03T23:02:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T03:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=49362"},"modified":"2024-09-03T23:02:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T03:02:47","slug":"a-new-florida-law-banning-the-homeless-from-sleeping-in-public-starts-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/09\/03\/a-new-florida-law-banning-the-homeless-from-sleeping-in-public-starts-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"A new Florida law banning the homeless from sleeping in public starts soon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senate sponsor calls measure \u2018compassionate response\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A controversial Florida law<\/a> designed to prevent homeless people from sleeping in public places while requiring local governments to address the issue goes into effect next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\/W Photos by Chris Elrod<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Starting October 1, 2024, the law will bar cities and counties from allowing people to sleep at places such as public buildings and in public rights of way.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Senate sponsor Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Senate sponsor Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, said the goal is to provide safer locations for people than sleeping at places such as parks or under overpasses and pavilions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInsufficient shelter beds and insufficient permanent housing solutions result in unsheltered sleeping and camping in public places, places that we want our kids and grandkids to enjoy, like the parks,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThis bill is a compassionate response to the shortage of shelters and supportive housing by providing an alternative to sleeping in the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats argue the state would provide limited resources to local governments to carry out the measure, potentially exposing the local governments to lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, said the measure is \u201cliterally reshuffling the visibility of unhoused individuals with no exit strategy for people who are experiencing homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand that this bill does not make it illegal for people to sleep in public places,\u201d Jones said. \u201cBut rather, it appears to make it illegal for local governments to ignore people sleeping in public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure allows local governments to designate certain property for sleeping or camping if the sites meet standards set by the Florida Department of Children and Families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such areas, which could only be used for one year, would have to include access to such things as restrooms and running water, have security, and be deemed alcohol- and drug-free. Also, the sites must not harm the values of nearby properties or safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill gives residents and business owners standing to file civil lawsuits against local governments for allowing illegal sleeping or camping on public property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiscally constrained counties — mostly rural counties — would be exempted from certain requirements if complying would create a financial hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of May 2023, 4,256 students in Polk County, Florida were identified as homeless by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The McKinney-Vento Act defines a homeless student as someone who lacks a regular and adequate place to sleep at night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a breakdown of the students’ living situations at the end of the 2022-2023 school year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Cars or public spaces:\u00a0268 students<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Emergency or transitional shelters:\u00a0322 students<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hotels and motels:\u00a0925 students<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Sharing or doubling up homes:\u00a02,741 students<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    In Polk County there were approximately 823 homeless people (adults 18 years and older) in January 2023, according to a point-in-time count conducted by housing agency leaders. This was an increase of 11% from the previous year, and 18% from 2022. The number of unsheltered people also increased by 14%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Some organizations in Lakeland that help the homeless include: Talbot House, Lighthouse Ministries, and The Salvation Army.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Senate sponsor calls measure \u2018compassionate response\u2019 A controversial Florida law designed to prevent homeless people from sleeping in public places while requiring local governments to address the issue goes into effect… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[9630],"class_list":["post-49362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-a-new-florida-law-banning-the-homeless-from-sleeping-in-public-starts-soon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49366,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49362\/revisions\/49366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}