In a landslide vote, the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee agreed on Wednesday to move legislation that targets the state’s growing homeless population, SB 1530 — unauthorized public camping and public sleeping — forward to the Fiscal Policy Committee.
The bill defines “public camping” and “public sleeping,” and prohibits counties and municipalities from allowing such activities on public property without a permit. Filed in early January, the bill is progressing quickly compared to some bills that began their journey through the Legislature in late 2023.
As the bill successfully travels through the Senate, members of the Judiciary Committee in a meeting on Monday cited their reasoning for strongly supporting the bill. According to the Judiciary Committee, the desperate need for this comes from an ever growing homelessness issue in Florida.
“According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on a single night in
January 2023, approximately 653,104 people were homeless in the United States,” the committee was told. “This represents about 20 of every 10,000 people.”
Support for the bill is also guided by a desire to ensure that public order and safety remain a priority. As the Judiciary Committee met, Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference in Miami Beach voiced his support for the bill behind a “Don’t Allow Florida To Become San Francisco” sign.
“My bottom line is, we just want the streets safe. We don’t want homeless(ness) to be an issue in everyday life. And that’s what it’s become — it’s overwhelmed day-to-day life in some of these cities throughout the U.S.,” DeSantis said. “And that, first of all, is not good for the public, but it also really isn’t good for the people that are out camping on the streets.”
On a local level, in Leon County, this trend can be seen coincides with a growing housing problem and homelessness becomes more prevelant. This is in part because of a lack of affordable housing as highlighted by the executive director for the Tallahassee Housing Authority, Brenda Williams.
“Our public housing properties are always 98 percent occupied. We have very, very, very low turnover in our public housing properties,” Williams said.
The THA, which falls under HUD’s jurisdiction, provides housing through two programs: public housing and the housing choice voucher program.
“Vouchers for rental assistance are awarded to communities based on the size of the community. So, for our community here in Tallahassee, HUD has provided about 2,700, and it’s based on the size of the community, but if you go someplace like Tampa, it’s a larger community, so of course they’re going to have more vouchers than we have here in Tallahassee,” Williams said.
The approval of SB 1530 without prior assessment of housing availability raises questions about whether alternative considerations should be taken into account.