‘No one wants to be arrested for being homeless’: Encampment ban takes effect in Florida

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — As of Oct. 1, people living on the streets or any other public spaces across Florida could be arrested.

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This is after the new homeless encampment ban went into effect. Now, local organizations across our area are bracing for an expected influx as Orange County prepares to enforce the new law.

“This is my house, one story house. It’s all I got,” said Stephen Golub as he showed the place he’s called home for over four years – a car full of his belongings. “Shortly after COVID, I lost my apartment because it was just so expensive, and I had medical problems. I went on disability because I couldn’t work full-time hours or even part-time.”

Golub, who used to work at a local theme park, is now disabled and spends most of his days between homeless services and public parking lots. “It gets depressing each and every month I go by; you think about it and what you have, and then you just lose everything,” he said. “I had everything; now I’m just living in my car.”

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Stephen Golub is far from being the only one. County data shows about 2,000 people are homeless in Orange County alone.

Many of them live on the streets and in public spaces.

House Bill 1365, now an effective law in the state of Florida, bans any type of encampment in those areas.

The law states that cities and counties will have five days to address the violation, which means homeless people would have five days to find a place to stay - that includes temporary shelters.

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However, according to the county, there’s not enough space for everyone. “We estimate that, at around 900 beds, we are short for the unsheltered population,” said Lisa Graham, Homeless Services and Mental Health manager for Orange County. “We do have a good amount of shelter beds in existence already. So, what we’re trying to do is looking at clients, looking at the unhoused population, and maybe seeing evaluating who could be out of the shelters right and who could be placed in different types of housing, bridge housing or temporary housing facilities.”

If an unhoused person refuses to comply with the new law, they could be arrested – but that is a decision that would vary from county to county. “We’re definitely talking to other municipalities. We’re talking to our law enforcement partners. Florida counties also are talking to one another, but nobody has that solution yet,” said Graham. “In this current fiscal year, the county is investing approximately $56 million into homelessness services.”

The Samaritan Resource Center in East Orange County is one of those services.

There, those who experience homelessness can shower, eat, get new clothes, and even have access to mental health services. “The clients know about this law. They’re very concerned on a daily basis about what we know. No one wants to be arrested for being homeless because they have nowhere to live,” said Diana Geremia, Director of Operations at Samaritan Resource Center. “We’re concerned, obviously, about losing clients because they’re going to end up in jail, which isn’t the right answer. And the other issue is, there’s no shelter here in East Orlando, and this is home for our clients.”

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About 100 people show up at the location daily – a number that’s only gone up over the past few years. “When I first started, we saw 45 to 65 people, and it was somewhat manageable,” said Geremia. “Right now, a lot more people are experiencing homelessness. We’re seeing families because the rent in East Orlando has gone up 400, 700, $1,000 a month. Families can no longer afford to stay where they are. They come up with the money somehow, some way, and when they go to sign the lease, they’re being told, ‘I’m sorry, we’re not going to renew. You don’t make three times what the rent is now.”

The county will have a workshop in November to discuss plans and alternatives to reduce the homeless population. The board of commissioners approved an additional 10 million dollars in funds. So far, they still do not have a date or a location for a possible new shelter.

Another part of the new law will allow residents and business owners to file civil lawsuits against local governments that allow sleeping or camping on public property. That part of the law will take effect Jan. 1.

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