Ron DeSantis condemned over Florida's 'draconian' new homelessness law | Florida

A Florida law criminalizing sleeping in public that takes effect next month is expected to trigger a “tsunami of lawsuits” but do nothing to alleviate the state's homelessness crisis, the mayor of Fort Lauderdale warned.

Dean Trantalis says his city is desperately trying to find a way to comply with the law that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in March and that takes effect Oct. 1. It requires municipalities with inadequate shelter capacity to set up encampments for homeless individuals.

At a contentious Fort Lauderdale City Commission meeting last week, a number of proposals were floated, ranging from setting up tent camps in the parking lot of David Beckham's soccer stadium or the roof of City Hall to providing bus passes for the homeless that could take them to other states. But the commission took no action.

“The city is at an impasse because even though the state has given this draconian mandate to all municipalities, it has failed to provide a solution to work with us and meet their expectations,” he said of the public camping bill.

“We're doing our best to address the problem. We've staffed our police department and our homeless assistance program. We've doubled it in the past year because we see it as a priority. But the state mandate is a heavy burden.”

Figures show that the number of homeless people in Fort Lauderdale nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, contributing to an 18.5% increase in homelessness in Florida and a 12% increase nationwide.

Trantalis said he fears money currently used for homeless services and support would be lost when a provision of DeSantis' bill takes effect in January that allows legal action against any municipality that fails to curb the homeless housing problem.

“Any private citizen can sue if the city fails to fix an encampment situation,” he said. “This is becoming a business for a whole new breed of lawyers who think they can take money away from the city instead of using it to help the homeless.”

“This will trigger a flood of lawsuits that will affect all cities. And again, will this help the homeless? Of course not.”

Lawyers for the homeless have expressed similar concerns.

Diana Stanley, executive director of The Lord's Place, one of Palm Beach county's largest homeless shelters, told the Guardian in March that the bill would shift the financial and logistical burden of housing onto municipalities and counties alone, while exposing them to significant fines if they fail to meet that obligation.

“We should come together and find solutions instead of taking punitive measures,” she said.

Trantalis said the city also has not received the level of cooperation it expected from law enforcement or the judiciary in establishing a protocol for dealing with people sleeping in public after the law goes into effect.

Last week, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony wrote a blunt op-ed in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel saying he had instructed jail staff to turn away people brought in for “violations of municipal ordinances.”

“Homelessness is not a crime and the county jail system is not the solution to the homeless crisis,” Tony wrote. “Arrest and jail are not options this community can afford or that a homeless person deserves. We can do better.”

However, Trantalis said that this was not intentional.

“We had talked about bringing people to justice and putting them in prison, not to criminalize them, but to provide protection and social services to those in need,” he said.

“We didn't want them to have a criminal record. The prison system is a quick and easy solution to get people off the streets and put them in a safe place while they go through addiction treatment or mental health care, whatever these people need to get out of homelessness.”

Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, which is implementing the county's homelessness plan that prioritizes acquiring and renovating affordable housing over emergency shelters, said he welcomed the debate the law has sparked.

“What made me hopeful was that for the first time in over 30 years, we were having a real dialogue about how to address the problem of homelessness. And while the encampment bill as proposed was clearly flawed, I believe the sponsors listened to us. [and] made some changes,” he said.

“[But] I don't support encampments. They're a bad idea and do nothing to end homelessness overall.”

Legal experts who have studied Florida's law see this, among other things, as a power struggle within the state.

Stephen Schnably, a law professor at the University of Miami and author of a 2020 research paper on homeless encampments, said: “The intent appears to be to shift the policy question of whether homeless people should be arrested for, say, sleeping in public or 'camping' from local governments to the state level.”

“The problem, however, is that while it is supposed to solve the problem of homelessness, in reality it does not provide any government funding for it,” he said, adding that the bill does not solve homelessness but instead turns it into a “political argument.”

And he continued: “If the state were serious, it would not be hanging the sword of Damocles over the municipalities with its complaints, but there would be a comprehensive plan.”

Schnably also pointed out that homeless camps do not work.

“Where could they be? There are requirements that only the county can approve. They can only be in place for a year and can't be near a residential area. Putting it in the middle of nowhere and then moving it after a year is just not practical,” he said.

“That's not possible for people who are homeless and working when you're living in a remote camp. If I worked in a prosecutor's office, I would also be grappling with whether that really means we need to arrest or threaten to arrest every single person who is homeless and sleeping on the streets? Maybe not, because that would be empowering or allowing?”