A new Florida law prohibiting homeless people from sleeping outside went into effect on Tuesday.
House Bill 1365 prohibits camping on streets, sidewalks and in parks. Local governments are required to offer temporary housing, where individuals will be prohibited from using drugs. They will also be offered substance abuse and mental health treatment.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said the law was “absolutely the right balance to strike,” adding: “We want to make sure we put public safety above all else.”
People will also be able to sue counties that do not stop public sleeping. But the law includes a three-month grace period before people can start suing county governments for people sleeping in public.
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The public sleeping ban, however, took effect on Tuesday. Florida estimates it has about 31,000 homeless people.
“To be camping out in public as we are because we can’t find a place to live because the money he makes in his job is not enough for us anymore,” Mildred Forti told CBS News Miami. “This is another stupid law. We will start moving again and looking for a new place.”
Forti said she and her husband have been homeless in Miami for several months.
Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, told CBS News Miami, “We are working feverishly to create more opportunities for shelter and housing.”
“We are looking at setting up a navigation center, which is a step below, if you will, what a normal shelter is,” he said. “We hope to have it operational by the end of the year.”
Book also said his organization plans to move more than 140 people into rental units at the La Quinta Hotel before Dec. 31, 2024, referring to plans to convert the La Quinta Hotel in Cutler Bay into housing for low-income seniors.
“We are building an 8-unit building in Overtown and 190 single-occupancy units for men near Krome,” Book said. “We’ve also identified 80 additional beds for another shelter in the next 30 days.”
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Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a social media post that “Homelessness is not a crime.”
Under the new law, local governments can offer county-owned land for people to sleep on as long as they keep it clean and free of crime, and as long as the people staying there are provided access to showers and mental health services.
For approval, the county must prove there are not enough beds in homeless shelters to keep up with the local homeless population and that the camp would not hurt the property value or safety and security of other homes or businesses in the county.