ORLANDO, Fla. — Every day under the Interstate 4 overpass in downtown Orlando you will find homeless people who camped out there for the night and every morning you will see officers telling them as the downtown gets moving, they need to get moving too.
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We were with them as they handed out flyers to folks just before hurricane Milton arrived, telling them they needed to get to a shelter and get away from the storm.
We spoke to a woman who said she was homeless since the pandemic and usually sleeps in the park but said because it was raining, she tried to take cover, but officers helped her find the shelter so she could stay for the next few nights.
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And these officers aren’t just any officers on patrol.
They are part of a specialized unit specifically assigned to our city’s homeless population to check under these overpasses, in front of convenience stores and in the encampments and do what they can to make sure they are not only following the ordinances, but also to make sure they are doing okay.
Lt. Mike Lanfersiek leads the unit.
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“The people that are in this unit were handpicked specifically because it’s a really good mix of officers that have a lot of time in the department who have been here for a long time and brand-new officers, but they all are genuinely compassionate and have empathy and just really want to make a difference,” Lanfersiek said.
He said this is one of the ways the department is trying to free up other officers to be able to respond to other calls and to increase response times when the homeless need help.
When asked what the biggest challenge is, Lanfersiek said, “I think having shelters, having places, not just some place for the night, but just long-term solutions where, you know, getting people back on their feet and then working through it and finding long term a long-term solution, a long-term place.”
And the situation, because of the lack of affordable housing he said has made it worse, “I think it’s gotten better recently. I think we’re having a good positive impact, but just it’s not just an Orlando problem. It’s nationwide. Just the price, the price of power and so on. The price of an apartment or just kind of like a starter home is so high now, so there’s just so many bare barriers to having a stable place to live.”
According to The Coalition for the Homeless and its 2024 point in time count, there was about 2883 homeless on a single night.
That number is likely way more than that, because so many others were not found when they did their assessment and the numbers have grown as it becomes harder to afford a place to live.
Right now, there are only 17 affordable rental units available for every 100 low-income households in Central Florida and now that has pushed a sector of the population onto the streets.
One of the fastest growing demographics is people over the age of 55.
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