Coconut Creek Leaders Considering New Laws Targeting Homeless Campers, Allowing Police to Make Arrests After Warning

COCONUT CREEK, FL – The Coconut Creek City Commission is expected to take up changes to local laws at its Thursday meeting that mirror a controversial state law banning sleeping and camping on public property and gives city police new enforcement power.

Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a state law that prohibits local governments from allowing camping or sleeping on any public property or right-of-way in an effort to curtail homeless encampments that have popped up throughout the state. It goes into effect Oct. 1.

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The state law allows cities and counties to designate a place for public camping so long as they provide security, sanitation, and access to mental health and substance abuse services.

However, it also allows residents and businesses to sue municipalities for the homeless sleeping in public spaces. Lawsuits can be filed after Jan. 1.

Under the proposed changes to the local code of ordinances that city commissioners will review, city leaders outlined new procedures for enforcement, provided detailed definitions of what public camping or sleeping is, and what happens to personal property and penalties.

The proposed changes require police to determine whether a person needs medical or social services assistance and allow that person to be transported to either a shelter or medical facility. If the person refuses or doesn’t need those services, the police officer can order the person to move on from the camping site, giving them two hours to comply.

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After taking those steps, the police can issue a violation or arrest the person. And if the person is arrested or taken to a facility, the city would hold onto the camper’s belongings for 30 days, unless police find that they are unsanitary, according to the proposed law.

“One of the things that stood out to me was that it doesn't give any guidance to the officer on what to do if they determine that someone needs assistance, and that assistance is not available,” said Jacob Torner, vice president of programs, at the Fort Lauderdale-based Task Force Ending Homelessness, referring to Coconut Creek’s proposed law.

Broward County has less than 700 emergency shelter beds, and the task force estimates about 2,000 homeless people living in the county. In addition, giving a person two hours to comply with an order to pack and move is an issue, he said.

“Even if this idea of criminalizing poverty, where you take someone and put them in jail because they can't simply afford to get themselves out of homelessness, even if we were to go with that philosophy … the question that still begs to be answered is: Upon the release from jail, where do they go?” he said.

Toner expects litigation not just from business and residents upset about local homeless camps, but also from individuals who may have had their rights violated by laws trying to govern homelessness.

It’s not clear how many homeless people are living in Coconut Creek, but police discovered last year the body of a homeless man just off State Road 7 and the skeletal remains of another person in a homeless camps off Hillsboro Boulevard.

And an undeveloped parcel of wooded land at the corner of Lyons Road and Atlantic Boulevard has been the site of a homeless camp.

Toner said he conducted a focus group a few weeks ago with a number of Broward County law enforcement officers, and across the board they all said one thing.

“We cannot arrest our way out of this,” he said. “The guys on the ground see it. So, they know it.”

The new local ordinance requires two public readings. The first one is set for Thursday’s commission meeting, starting at 7 p.m.

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