Florida Residents Can Now Sue Counties That Fail To Enforce the State’s Strict Homeless Crackdown

Florida residents can now take legal action against counties that aren’t enforcing a recent statewide ban on public camping and sleeping — as part of a law to not “let Florida become San Francisco” kicks in.Earlier this year, the state implemented a strict crackdown on homeless encampments by banning municipalities and counties from authorizing anyone “to regularly engage in public camping or sleeping on any public property.” While that part of the law was effective October 1, a second provision went into effect on Wednesday that allows residents and business owners, as well as the state’s attorney general, to bring a civil lawsuit against a county that isn’t properly enforcing public camping bans. Residents who succeed in court can be awarded “reasonable expenses” including attorney fees and investigative costs related to the lawsuit. A slew of states and municipalities have been taking action to crack down on homelessness, partly in response to a Supreme Court ruling in June which held that enforcing public camping bans, even in the absence of available shelter beds, is constitutional. Notably, Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed a first-of-its-kind ballot measure to allow property tax refunds for residents affected by homeless nuisances. The measure’s backers have told the Sun they hope to take similar proposals to “many other states.” Homeless advocates in Florida tell the Sun that even ahead of the January 1 provision taking effect, the looming threat of lawsuits has changed the homelessness policy landscape in the state.“While there is still a lot unknown about how any civil suits brought under the new law will play out in court, including how the court will handle concerns that the law is vague, we have already seen a local impact in response to the threat of potential suits,” the chief executive of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, Martha Are, tells the Sun. “Specifically, in Central Florida we’ve already seen jurisdictions feel pressured to pre-emptively enact or explore enacting what they are calling homeless sleeping bans, mirroring the state law, in hopes of avoiding lawsuits.”The local anti-camping ordinances give law enforcement power to move homeless people “even where there is no place to go, under threat of arrest,” she says. Her organization has been working to establish “low-barrier shelters” in the area, where “people can sleep without having to give up their pets, separate from their unmarried partners, leave behind all their belongings,” she says, but it will likely take a year or more to get those shelters running. In the meantime, it’s “possible,” she says, that civil rights organizations will file a legal challenge against Florida’s homeless law.Governor DeSantis has defended the state’s homeless law as a way to “keep Florida’s streets safe.” “We are not going to let Florida become San Francisco, where homeless are everywhere,” he said earlier this year, as the Sun reported. In reference to more liberal homelessness policies in other states, he said 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.” There were more than 770,000 homeless people nationally on a given night in January 2024, a recently released report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development indicates, though the number is likely different heading into 2025 given changes in homeless policies nationally. The 2024 homeless numbers represented an 18 percent spike from 2023, which the federal government attributed to migrant crossings earlier in the year, post-pandemic rental cost spikes, and natural disasters, including the Maui fire. The report indicated that Florida had more than 31,000 homeless people. Florida’s homeless camping ban has exceptions for registered motor homes and recreational camping, and it allows counties to designate areas for homeless encampments if the county submits an application and receives permission from the state. To obtain certification from the state, the county must prove that local shelters do not have enough beds, the designated encampment area does not affect property value of nearby residents and businesses, and does not put children’s safety at risk. The designated areas must also maintain sanitation and health standards including running water, working restrooms, and access to mental health resources — and illegal substance use and alcohol use is banned on the premises.

Florida Residents Can Now Sue Counties That Fail To Enforce the State’s Strict Homeless Crackdown

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