By Patricia Herrera
Thirty-one thousand, four hundred and sixty-two: this is the number of individuals that Florida’s Council on Homelessness–part of the Florida Department of Children and Families–reported experiencing homelessness in Florida as of June 2024.[1] This represents a 2.3% increase in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness within the state which, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) January 2023 Point-in-Count,[2] was 30,756 the year prior.[3] Of the 31,462 individuals currently experiencing homelessness in Florida, 16,979 individuals–approximately 54% of the total homeless population–remain unsheltered, meaning they are “either living outside, in a car, in a park or other place not meant for human habitation.”[4] Although the number of sheltered, homeless individuals decreased from 15,274 in 2023 to 14,483 in 2024 (a 5.8% decrease), the number of unsheltered, homeless individuals increased by a disproportionate amount during the same period—from 15,482 individuals in 2023 to 16,979 in 2024 (a 9.67% increase).[5] Florida’s Council on Homelessness has posited several “potential drivers” that may explain these change in the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population, including: “insufficient shelter capacity”; “[v]oluntary exits from shelters”; “[i]ncreased rents that outpace wage increases”; and “[l]imited rental units dedicated to households at the lowest income level.” This begs the question, what is Florida doing to address this?
Enter House Bill 1365: Florida’s new law addressing unauthorized public camping and public sleeping, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on March 20, 2024, and taking effect on October 1, 2024. The law prohibits counties and municipalities from authorizing or allowing “any person to regularly engage in public camping or sleeping on any public property, including . . . any public building or its grounds and any public right-of-way under the jurisdiction of the county or municipality,” (Section 2 of the law).[6] It defines “public camping or sleeping” as follows[7]:
- lodging or residing overnight in a temporary outdoor habitation used as a dwelling or living space and evidenced by . . . a tent or other temporary shelter, the presence of bedding or pillows, or the storage of personal belongings; or
- lodging or residing overnight in an outdoor space . . .without temporary shelter.
It excludes lodging overnight in a motor vehicle “registered, insured, and located in a place where it may lawfully be” from the definition.[8]
If a county or municipality fails to comply after receiving written notice and five days to cure violations of Section 2, the law provides residents and businesses of a county or municipality that is not in compliance with the law, as well as the Attorney General, with the right to bring a civil action to enjoin the county or municipality from authorizing public camping or sleeping on property not designated for such use.[9] If a resident or business owner prevails in their suit, the court may award them “court costs, reasonable attorneys fees, investigative costs, witness fees, and deposition costs.”[10]
The law does allow counties and municipalities to designate property owned by them to be used for public camping or sleeping, but only for a period of one year and subject to the following conditions[11]:
- If it is county property, a majority vote of the county’s governing body is required to designate the property for use in public camping or sleeping.
- If the property is within the boundaries of a municipality, additional approval by a majority vote of the municipality’s governing body is required.
- Once this approval is received, the county’s designation will not be effective unless the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) certifies the designation–a process that may take up to 45 days.
To receive this certification from the DCF, counties are required to submit a request to the Secretary of Children and Families which includes “certification of and documentation proving”[12]:
- (1) insufficient open beds in the county’s homeless shelters;
- (2) the designated property is not adjacent to property “designated for residential use by the county or municipality”;
- (3) the designated property will not “adversely and materially affect the property value or safety and security of other existing residential or commercial property in the county or municipality”; and
- (4) “the county has developed a plan”[13] that ensures the safety and security of the designated property and those lodging on the property, maintains sanitation by providing (at a minimum) restrooms and running water, provides access to behavioral health services (substance abuse and mental health treatment), and prohibits the use of illegal substances and alcohol on the designated property. (Fiscally constrained counties are exempt from some of the requirements if the county’s governing board makes a finding that compliance would “result in financial hardship.)”[14]
The law delineates various conditions local governments must comply with but does not in itself provide for the approval of state funds to target homelessness and assist local governments in complying with the law.[15] Rather, it places the burden on local governments to prevent public sleeping or camping by either ensuring sufficient shelter space for unhoused individuals or designating property–for a maximum of one year–for use in public sleeping or camping that cannot be near residential areas and must comply with a slew of other conditions. In the occurrence of the latter, designating temporary spaces for the housing of homeless individuals who, upon the expiration of the one-year term, are left scrambling to find alternative shelter, does not provide a permanent solution.[16] This one-year maximum term for designating temporary spaces proves alarming when taking into consideration that in 2022 Florida fell “behind the national average with respect to returns to homelessness.”[17] Additionally, returns to homelessness in Florida increased from 8.3% in 2022 to 9.0% in 2023, “indicating that people facing recurring or chronic homelessness experienced challenges in maintaining stable, affordable housing.”[18]
While Florida has outpaced other states in reducing homelessness, showing a decline of 36% “in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness” from 2007 to 2023, it has also experienced an increase in the population of about 23.5% during the same period.[19] As Florida’s Council of Homelessness states, “[a]t its root, homelessness is a housing issue,” and “the best way to address this issue is to increase the supply of affordable housing for Extremely-Low Income households,” or those who earn 30% or less of the Area Median Income.[20] Other solutions proposed by Florida’s Council for Homelessness include continuing “state support for local Continuums of Care by funding Challenge and Staffing Grants,[21]” “collaboration between organizations and leaders at the “community, state, and national levels . . . to create the policies and programs to solve homelessness,” and “amending the current State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) statute to allow local jurisdictions to allocate resources toward areas of greatest need.” While Florida’s new law addressing unauthorized public camping and public sleeping is not the solution to meaningfully decreasing Florida’s homeless population, the awareness it has created for the need to generate lasting solutions to remedy this should be used to encourage greater collaboration between our state and local governments rather than isolated, piecemeal solutions by each.
[1] Fla. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., Florida’s Council on Homelessness – Annual Report (June 30, 2024), https://www.myflfamilies.com/sites/default/files/2024-07/Council%202024%20Annual%20Homelessness%20Report.pdf.
[2] A “Point-in-Time Count” is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. This data is collected by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dep’t of Hous. & Urb. Dev., Point-in-Time Count and Housing Inventory Count, https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/hdx/pit-hic/#2024-pit-countand-hic-guidance-and-training (last visited Sept. 27, 2024).
[3] This was reported in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2023 Point-in-Time count–part of its Annual Homeless Assessment Report. See Dep’t of Hous. & Urb. Dev., Off. of Pol’y Dev. & Rsch., 2007 – 2023 Point-in-Time Estimates by State, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar/2023-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us.html (last visited Sept. 27, 2024).
[4] Fla. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., supra note 1.
[5] Id.
[6] Fla. HB 1365, § 1(2) (2024) (proposed Fla. Stat. § 125.0231(2)).
[7] Fla. HB 1365, § 1(1) (2024) (proposed Fla. Stat. § 125.0231(1)).
[8] Fla. HB 1365, § 1(1) (2024) (proposed Fla. Stat. § 125.0231(1)).
[9] Fla. HB 1365, § 1(4)(a) (2024) (proposed Fla. Stat. § 125.0231(4)(a)).
[10] Id.
[11] Fla. HB 1365, § 1(3)(a) (2024) (proposed Fla. Stat. § 125.0231(3)(a)).
[12] Id.
[13] Fla. HB 1365, § 1(3)(b) (2024) (proposed Fla. Stat. § 125.0231(3)(b)).
[14] Fla. HB 1365, § 1(3)(e) (2024) (proposed Fla. Stat. § 125.0231(3)(e)).
[15] Richard Luscombe, Ron DeSantis Condemned over Florida’s ‘Draconian’ New Anti-Homelessness Law, The Guardian (Sept. 11, 2024), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/11/desantis-florida-homelessness-law.
[16] See Miami-Dade County Press Release, Homeless Trust Response to Supreme Court ruling on Grants Pass v. Johnson (July 2, 2024),
[17] This information is based on the Specific Performance Measures (SPMs) reported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “HUD SPMs are a component of the CoC Performance Profile Reports, which are intended to provide a snapshot of CoC effectiveness in meeting the needs of people experiencing homelessness.” Fla. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., supra note 1; see HUD Exchange, CoC Profile Reports, https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/coc-performance-profile-reports/ (last visited Sept. 27, 2024).
[18] Fla. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., supra note 1.
[19] Id.
[20] Id.
[21] A “Continuum of Care” (CoC) is “the group organized to carry out the responsibilities prescribed in the CoC Program Interim Rule for a defined geographic area.” HUD Exchange, What is a Continuum of Case? (July 2024), https://www.hudexchange.info/faqs/1545/what-is-a-continuum-of-care/; The Florida Legislature has approved $30,016,822 for fiscal year 2024-25 to be allocated to the state-funded Challenge Grant which is distributed to Continuums of Care to be “passed on to residents experiencing homelessness and local homeless service organizations.” The Staffing Grant “provides operating funding for CoCs.” Fla. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., supra note 1.
