{"id":53179,"date":"2025-01-07T16:38:52","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T21:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=53179"},"modified":"2025-01-07T16:39:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T21:39:48","slug":"floridas-anti-camping-law-wont-affect-city-of-lakelands-approach-says-lakeland-city-manager-shawn-sherrouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/01\/07\/floridas-anti-camping-law-wont-affect-city-of-lakelands-approach-says-lakeland-city-manager-shawn-sherrouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s Anti-Camping Law Won\u2019t Affect City of Lakeland\u2019s Approach, says Lakeland City Manager Shawn Sherrouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Police will continue making arrests under a city ordinance prohibiting camping or sleeping on public property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of last week, Florida residents can sue cities or counties that don\u2019t enforce a new Florida statute outlawing homeless people from camping or sleeping on public property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Lakeland leaders say they have not changed the way they have handled people camping on public property for years: by arresting those violating a longstanding city ordinance<\/a> and taking them to the county jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland City Ordinance Chapter 70-5 <\/a>states that \u201ccamping is prohibited on all public property located within the city,\u201d unless it is permitted by the city manager. In addition, \u201ccamping is prohibited on all private property located within the city with the exception of property zoned commercially for use as a campground, and property zoned residential,\u201d unless the owner consents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, LPD made 130 arrests for camping on public property. As of December 2024 there had been 84. Kerr said those numbers may not include people given a notice to appear or a complaint affidavit.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he does not plan to send deputies to round up residents of homeless encampments, including one along New Tampa Highway and County Line Road on the outskirts of Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy goal is the county jail is not to become the de facto homeless camp,\u201d Judd said. \u201cWe need to keep those beds for real criminals and not just people who need a place to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City and county leaders say the law does not require them to create a shelter but merely suggests they could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bill does not require that local governments designate a specific public space for camping and sleeping,\u201d County Attorney Randy Mink said. \u201cIt does not say it shall designate a property for public camping or sleeping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lakeland City Manager Shawn Sherrouse said he is deferring to the county manager and the county\u2019s interpretation of the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have had related conversations with County Manager (Bill) Beasley regarding the city\u2019s willingness to partner with the county for any related future needs or requirements,\u201d Sherrouse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Bill Mutz is a longtime proponent of creating a tiny-house village for the chronic homeless. It would include a central area to provide social services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re parked on \u2018may\u2019 and I think the way the law was written was to keep it from being compulsory,\u201d said Mutz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police will continue making arrests under a city ordinance prohibiting camping or sleeping on public property. As of last week, Florida residents can sue cities or counties that don\u2019t enforce… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11235,"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":"12","_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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyMVwvMDVcL3NoYXduLXNoZXJyb3VzZS1zcXVhcmUucG5nP2ZpdD0zMjAlMkMzMTcmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJGbG9yaWRhXHUyMDE5cyBBbnRpLUNhbXBpbmcgTGF3IFdvblx1MjAxOXQgQWZmZWN0IENpdHkgb2YgTGFrZWxhbmRcdTIwMTlzIEFwcHJvYWNoLCBzYXlzIExha2VsYW5kIENpdHkgTWFuYWdlciBTaGF3biBTaGVycm91c2UiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.iwSNXCTrrgu_pbVBJ4uixGIJWZfh6BQLDfJWCHHh0K8MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":11235,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/shawn-sherrouse-square.png","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[10714,10715],"class_list":["post-53179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-floridas-anti-camping-law-wont-affect-city-of-lakelands-approach","tag-says-lakeland-city-manager-shawn-sherrouse"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53179","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53180,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53179\/revisions\/53180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}