By Mary Kate Krueger
TAMPA, Fla. — No Sleeping in Public or HB 1365, and 29 other bills were signed into law on Oct. 1 by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
HB 1365 bans people without housing from sleeping outdoors on public property. The law also proposes to provide more resources for the homeless population and authorizes counties to designate public areas for specific periods of use only.
The prohibitions of camping/sleeping in public do not apply to the homeless population when the governor or local officers declare a local emergency.
Republican state senator Jonathan Martin wrote this bill to allow local governments to designate specific areas for people to sleep, with security present at all times.
On the social media platform X, Desantis wrote in a post, “We are acting on homelessness to ensure Florida communities will not mimic the failed policies in other states that have allowed homeless encampments to overwhelm society.”
Another part of this law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025. This will give residents and business owners legal standing to take action against local governments that allow homeless people to sleep in public.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Tampa-St Petersburg metropolitan area has the highest rate of homelessness in the nation — with over 16,000 in the homeless population, and 1 out of 5 are children.
This law is facing criticism from Florida residents. Critics said this law is not receiving funding from the government to provide resources to the homeless population.
“I don’t think they have enough resources for it, and it’s going to be bad,” said Hillsborough House of Hope program director Linda Walker.
“What’s going to happen is they [the homeless population] are going to overpopulate the jail; we’re going to have to deal with more people in jail,” said Walker.
Hillsborough House of Hope is a transitional center for women coming out of jail and serves as a homeless shelter for women struggling with substance abuse, domestic violence, and other factors that contribute to homelessness.
“If they are going to take all the homeless people and bring them somewhere; they have to build something. I haven’t heard of them building anything yet,” said Walker.
Dean Trantalis, the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, said in an article by Local 10 that the government did not provide local governments with funding for this law.
He spoke to his city, stating that due to the lack of funds, they will need to be stricter with tax funding to create shelters.
Peggy Crain, a staff member at Pinellas Hope, a homelessness resource center in Clearwater, spoke about the impact of the new bill being put in place.
“Right now for them to make a law when there is no affordable housing is downright horrendous,” said Crain. “What they are doing is putting more and more people in jail when they don’t need jail — they need a place to live,” she said.
Crain said she believes the government has enough funding to support this bill, but the funding should be used instead to provide low-income housing and more shelters.
“I think a lot of people that don’t know anything about homelessness should probably learn a little bit about it,” said Crain.
According to NPR, the main cause for the increase in homelessness in Tampa is the rising cost of housing and other necessities.
“Homelessness is not limited to drugs, alcohol, mental health; a lot of people just don’t make enough money to afford to house,” said Crain.
The House Bill was signed by officers and presented to the governor on March 12, 2024, and officially signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 20.