People who are unhoused in Florida will be banned from sleeping in parks and on sidewalks under a new law signed by Ron DeSantis, the state’s Republican governor.
The law, which critics have said will do little to address the issue of homelessness in Florida, will require counties to create “temporary campsites” if homeless shelters reach maximum capacity.
“These are difficult issues, but you should not be accosted by a homeless like we see,” DeSantis said at Wednesday’s news conference. “You should be able to walk down the street and live your life.”
DeSantis, a hard-right Republican who dropped out of the Republican presidential primary in January, has regularly criticized the housing problem in Democratic-run cities including New York and San Francisco.
After the law passed the Florida legislature in mid-March, advocates for homeless people said it contained little that would alleviate housing issues in the state.
“We should be coming together to come up with solutions, not taking punitive approaches,” said Diana Stanley, chief executive of The Lord’s Place, one of south-east Florida’s largest and longest-established homelessness charities, to the Guardian.
“It’s really disheartening for someone like myself, who’s given over 40 years to serving the poor and the homeless, and it’s a statement that we’ve stopped caring about our brothers and sisters: ‘If we can’t see them then we don’t have to help them’.”
In a press release, DeSantis claimed the law “upholds our commitment to law and order while also ensuring homeless individuals have the resources they need to get back on their feet”.
DeSantis said the campsites will provide people with access to substance abuse and mental health treatment resources, although critics said the $30m the state has allocated for those services is insufficient.
“We’re going to need so much more funding if we’re going to build up these resources,” said Megan Sarmento, an outreach program manager for the Florida Harm Reduction Collective in Tampa, to USA Today.
“Even now, how the system is, we are finding people on the streets and are unable to link them to care because of the lack of resources, including housing and detox.”
The law will allow residents and business owners to sue local authorities if homeless people camp or sleep in public areas.
Questions have also been raised regarding the feasibility of creating the encampments, in which people will be prohibited from using drugs or alcohol.
“It’s telling jurisdictions they’re going to have to build these encampments, they’ll have to provide security facilities, wraparound services, the encampments can’t impact property values, so I’m not sure where they’re going to be,” said Amy Donley, professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida, and co-author of the book Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State.
