FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A new law centered on homelessness is going into effect here in Florida on Tuesday. It prohibits homeless people from camping on city streets, sidewalks and public parks.
South Florida cities are now working to implement the law.
On Tuesday, Fort Lauderdale city commissioners are set to vote on a related anti-camping ordinance, plus a first reading on an item to purchase a property.
“We do not want to put people in jail for homelessness,” Fort Lauderdale District 4 City Commissioner Warren Sturman said.
Sturman said he is working with his Broward County Commission counterpart, Lamar Fisher. They are also exploring solutions to meet the needs of homeless families, including identifying places they can safely park.
“I speak to my counterparts on the school board and there are children living in cars,” Sturman said.
Sturman said homelessness is a county issue.
“The city of Fort Lauderdale is bearing the brunt of it for two reasons, we have the jail and we have the hospital in the city and both in my district, so they are are either arrested and released or sent to the hospital and discharged into the streets of Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “So it is really a county problem and the understanding is whatever pilot program we have it will be countywide, they will have land and buy-in from all the municipalities in the county, so it is something we need to do as a county.”
One idea is to create “comfort zones” in conjunction with the city’s disaster response contractor.
“We worked with them during the flood, within a week or so, they put up a ‘comfort zone’ and that had air conditioning, beds, cots, showers, feeding, toilets, it also had places that had respite,” Sturman said. “We are thinking of using them to do anywhere between 20 to 50 beds for people taken off the street to not be put in jail.”
In the intermediate period, officials also said they’re looking at building container homes as housing.
In the long term, they said they are working with the Salvation Army to increase capacity.
Read related city documents at the bottom of this page.
Miami Beach City Commissioner Alex Fernandez said Miami Beach already has an anti-camping law in place that is “actually stricter than the state statute” and allows officers to arrest homeless individuals who deny shelter assistance.
“Last week alone, our police officers made 57 arrests of homeless individuals who were either drinking in public or engaging in some other illegal activity,” he said. “Twelve of those arrests were actually for refusal for shelter placement. The goal is to get them a safe place to get back on their own two feet.”
But some see the new law as an attack on people down on their luck.
“I think the war on homelessness is really heartbreaking,” Jahbuela Sol said. Sol, once homeless herself, drove to Miami Beach from Palm Beach County to donate to Pastor Frank Diaz’s “United We All Can” outreach service Monday.
“I drove down here to donate about five bags of clothing that were left over from a clothing swap I hosted at The Womb in Lake Worth, Florida. I wanted to bring to people in need,” she said. “They don’t want people living in the streets because they don’t want to damage their tourism industry. I was homeless once for about a month. I found myself camping out in public places and being kicked off by state park rangers. There is a lot of stigma about homeless people.”
Diaz said, “We give the people — the poor and the homeless — an opportunity to pick some clothing and food.
“Things are getting tough and it is going to get a little tougher for the homeless population,” Diaz said.
Sol added, “The reason why they are on the streets is not because they are unfit humans; it is because society does not set us up for success.”
A bilingual prayer moment followed: “We bless South Florida, we bless the governor and we bless this homeless law. It looks like it is cruel, but God will turn it for good. Amen, amen.”
Fort Lauderdale city documents: