By Kairo Munoz
Following two back-to-back hurricanes in October, the city’s law enforcement, shelters and homeless organizations cope with the enactment of House Bill 1365.
With the law being touted as a violation against the rights of the unhoused community, critics worry about the negative consequences that come with enforcing it.
Signed into law by the state’s governor on March 20 and enacted on Oct. 1, the statewide mandate prohibits local governments from allowing homeless residents to sleep on public property such as sidewalks, streets and parks.
The other half of the bill will go into effect at the beginning of next year, allowing residents, business owners and even the attorney general to submit an injunction against the city, along with an affidavit as proof that the problem has gone unresolved for more than five business days.
In addition, the bill allows counties and municipalities to vote on whether to temporarily allocate public property for camping and sleeping for upward of a year, with exception to “fiscally constrained” counties. The Florida Department of Revenue does not consider Pinellas County to be fiscally constrained.
Any designated public property will be monitored by the state’s Department of Children and Families, keeping in check that all basic and necessary standards and procedures that ensure safety, sanitation and access to mental health and substance abuse treatment are being followed lest the property be decertified.
Factoring in the cost to upkeep the property alongside the cost of its designation alone, among other expenses, has left critics concerned about the amount of money required just for local governments to comply with this mandate.
Serving both Pinellas and Pasco County, the Public Defender’s Office, Sixth Judicial Circuit, additionally expressed concern over the criminalization of homeless residents, highlighting a disparity where contributors lack the funds to provide the homeless with resources as taxpayers’ money is being used to comply with HB 1365’s demands.
“Until all of the stakeholders are properly funded to adequately address the needs of the unhoused community in Pinellas County, and throughout Florida, this bill could potentially put people in the criminal justice system who have never been and should never be there,” said the Public Defender’s Office, Sixth Judicial Circuit, in a statement to the Neighborhood News Bureau. “It will put an immense strain on law enforcement, the jails, as well as taxpayers, as the jails’ costs are directly covered by them.”
Despite the distress this law has had on critics, St. Petersburg Police’s Sergeant Todd M. Hancock of the Police Assisting the Homeless unit argued that too many people were misinterpreting the law.
“What I’m most worried about is people not fully understanding it [HB 1365], and then thinking that it’s a broad brush for anybody sleeping anywhere in the public view, which is not what it says,” Hancock said.
The PATH unit, of which Hancock manages as its third supervisor since its inception in 2019, is composed of six officers, a case manager and a social worker. Hancock said he recognizes the unit as the closest thing St. Pete’s police department will have to a non-enforcement unit. It serves as the go-to dispatch group for matters involving homelessness, portraying a supporting presence in the unhoused community.
Before Oct. 1, any unlawful encampments were considered ordinance violations, but as of now it can be a Florida state statute violation. Whether law enforcement relies on one or the other is a matter of jurisdiction.
Hancock said he prefers not to put either ordinance or statute into use and has spoken to briefing patrols about the enactment of this law.
“We’re not walking around trying to kill mosquitoes with sledgehammers,” Hancock said. “We’re not here to overdo things.”
Instead, Hancock opts to offer the homeless a helping hand by providing them with information on nearby shelters where they can receive the care and help they need.
Kathleen Beckman, the chair of the executive committee of the Pinellas Continuum of Care, worked alongside the Homeless Leadership Alliance of Pinellas to erect a task force designated to confront foreseeable challenges spurred by the ratification of the bill.
Throughout the summer, Beckman’s task force discussed alternatives to expand shelter space, such as the use of portable classrooms and even considered starting their own version of Dignity Bus, a mobile emergency shelter located within eastern Florida that provides sleeping quarters to the homeless. Beckman said that the major problem with these ideas was finding providers willing to fund and staff such projects, along with following through with many code requirements so that they’re up to par.
As of now, Pinellas County’s 2024 Point in Time Count report highlighted a 7% decrease in sheltered individuals and a 12% increase of unsheltered persons compared to last year.
Beckman said that the number of homeless people is likely to go up thanks to Hurricane Helene and Milton, which she said may have caused city officials to put HB 1365 concerns to the wayside.
Frustrated with the likelihood of rising homelessness, Beckman addressed how the problem was further being compounded by the state’s refusal to prioritize mental health and substance abuse, also highlighting the consequences of the Sadowski Fund raids as the contributor to the state’s housing crisis.
“There is not enough low- and moderate-income housing in the whole state, and in particular, in Pinellas County,” Beckman said. “We are at a huge deficit of affordable housing for our type of workforce, and our type of workforce is tourism and service industry, and those jobs do not pay high wages.”
The next Task Force meeting is pending, and even now, many still worry with the anticipation of the enactment of the bill’s second half on Jan. 1, 2025.