As cities across the country debate how to address thousands of homeless people sleeping on public property, Florida appears set to implement a harsh crackdown that would ban it outright.Legislation was approved by the state’s senate this week after it was passed in the house last week. The bill now heads to Governor DeSantis, who has expressed support for it. “We are not going to let Florida become San Francisco, where homeless are everywhere,” Mr. DeSantis said at a press conference in February. Referring to sprawling tent encampments in California cities, including at Los Angeles, he added that it’s “false compassion to say that people can sleep everywhere, harass people coming by, use drugs, open-air drug markets and all this stuff. That is a society in decline when that becomes the norm.” Homelessness shouldn’t intrude on quality of life, public safety, and the economy, he added. “I think what the bill’s trying to do, and I support this, is limit local governments from allowing this sleeping in public,” Mr. DeSantis said. The bill would ban counties from authorizing camping or sleeping on public property, with exceptions for recreational camping in areas meant for it. Counties would be allowed to designate areas for homeless people to sleep if municipalities get approval from the Department of Children and Families.Any designated encampment areas would be subject to a strict set of conditions, including a limit of one year of continuous use and requirements that the encampment area not adversely affect surrounding residents and businesses or negatively affect the safety of children. A county that designates encampment areas must also provide sanitation services, including running water and clean restrooms, ban illegal substance and alcohol use, and provide behavioral services. The legislation notes that citizens can sue counties for damages if encampments don’t meet those standards, as the Sun has reported.The measure allowing cities options to designate certain camping areas is a way for the bill to survive judicial scrutiny, Mr. DeSantis said, because courts have ruled that it’s unconstitutional to ban sleeping in public if there are no shelter spaces available. Any county-designated encampment would be subject to strict law enforcement, he said. “If they want to set up some of these sites, it can’t just be some site that is like Sodom and Gomorrah where they’re using drugs and doing all this stuff,” the governor said, adding that he is willing to help with mental health measures on the state level. Florida is facing recent spikes in homelessness — last year, the state had one of the largest absolute increases in the country, behind only California and New York. If Mr. DeSantis signs the legislation, it would take effect on October 1, several months after the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on homeless encampments and what cities can legally do to clear them. Meanwhile, some mayors in Florida have criticized the legislation, saying that the state is pushing the issue of homeless encampments off to cities. Homeless advocacy groups have said that increased affordable housing and services — not anti-camping bans — are the better way to address homelessness. “The nation has seen an increase in laws that criminalize homelessness. These laws punish our neighbors who have no other choice but to sleep on the streets,” the Florida Coalition for the Homeless notes. The Florida legislation “brought to light the issue of unsheltered homelessness,” the group said in a statement, expressing fear that “legislation like this will encourage local governments to manage homelessness rather than work to end it.”
