DeSantis Signs New Law Cracking Down On The Homeless

Photo byRon DeSantis, Facebook | Jon Tyson, Unsplash

Homelessness is an uncomfortable topic for everyone, but it remains a prevalent issue on the national and state level. To add to that, between a new law coming into effect this October and the results of a recent study by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), it does not seem that Florida is as supportive of its homeless population as it could be, particularly in recent years.

Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 1365 into law on March 20, 2024, and it aims to prevent individuals from regularly sleeping or camping on public property. In other words, effective October 1, 2024, the entire law is essentially banning homeless people from being able to sleep in public.

An exception is if a state of emergency has been declared at the state level by the Governor or at the local level by officers. This law does also authorize municipalities and counties to follow a majority vote policy to designate public camping and sleeping grounds that must then be certified by the Department of Children and Families (DCF).

Even then, a person cannot stay at that public camping or sleeping ground for more than one year unless the property itself meets certain standards and is certified for continuous use beyond one year by the DCF.

Furthermore, this law allows local business owners, residents, and the Attorney General to engage in civil action against a municipality or county in the event that unlawful public sleeping or camping is being permitted.

Anyone caught violating this new law by camping or sleeping on public property unauthorized or when there is not an active state of emergency may be penalized.

Why could this be a problem? According to HUD, approximately 653,104 people are currently experiencing homelessness nationally. About 30,756 of them are located in Florida. This means that, in Florida, there are between 10 to 25 people experiencing homelessness per 10,000 people.

Between 2007 and 2023, HUD reports that Florida had the largest absolute decrease in homelessness compared to any other state. During those years, Florida’s absolute homelessness decreased by about 17,313 people, or 36%.

However, between 2022 and 2023, the homelessness rate in Florida began getting notably worse. Florida had the third largest absolute increase in homelessness compared to the other states. During that year, Florida had about 4,797, or 18.5%, more people experiencing homelessness.

HUD believes that Florida’s “recent increase was driven by changes in the number of unsheltered individuals in Florida, which historically account for at least 60 percent of individuals experiencing homelessness there”. It also identifies one of the potential causes of this increase as the “expiration of pandemic-related funding”.

In addition, HUD says Florida’s west coast claims that Hurricane Ian attributed to the increase, Central Florida and other inland communities claim that it is due to rapidly increasing housing costs and eviction rates that were up to 40% higher in January 2023 than in January 2022, and Florida’s east coast also cited the housing costs as a cause, as well as improved ways of counting unsheltered homeless people. The city of Miami added that the arrival of more than 200,000 new immigrants to the state within the last year may be a cause too.

Echoing what Central Florida and Florida’s east coast communities said about housing costs being an issue and eviction rates being high, HUD found that about 50.3% of Florida’s homeless population is currently unsheltered. This means that approximately 15,482 people do not have anywhere to sleep, pushing them to resort to public spaces.

Article by Ema Tibbetts