Rethink Homelessness

Please join us Monday, April 22, at the federal courthouse in Orlando to support humane, effective and PROVEN responses to people experiencing homelessness! !

Sadly, the Florida Legislature has passed its anti-camping law -- aka the "Unauthorized Public Camping and Public Sleeping" bill (HB 1365). Starting October, it will force counties to ban anyone from living on public property -- UNLESS the counties set up an outdoor site specifically for our unsheltered homeless population.
That might sound like a worthy goal (we don't want people to have to live unprotected on the streets either), but because of the rigid requirements for establishing a designated site, the odds are great against any city or county actually being able to do it. And since, after Jan. 1, 2025, people will be able to sue cities and counties for "allowing" people to live on the streets -- even when there's no other choice -- we have every reason to believe that our unhoused citizens will either be arrested or continually rousted from wherever they try to lay their heads.
In any event, this bill will not help people resolve their homelessness, and it could cost taxpayers big money on law-enforcement, jail cells or -- should a county actually establish a camp -- the security and personnel to run it. The estimate for Orange County was $10 million the first year.
It's cheaper, more humane, and vastly more effective to simply house people.