FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Starting Tuesday, Florida’s homeless grew to become banned from tenting on metropolis streets, sidewalks and parks.
After three months, starting on Jan. 1, people and companies can sue cities and counties for failing to uphold the brand new state legislation.
Local 10 News has explored how quite a few South Florida cities — and Miami-Dade County — are reacting to the brand new guidelines.
On Tuesday, we spoke to leaders with Broward County, together with Nan Rich, the county’s mayor.
She mentioned the county is making an attempt to implement the brand new legislation “as humanely as possible.”
“You don’t want to put anyone in jail and you want to give them an opportunity to fix their lives, hopefully, and give them services and an opportunity to get a job and then get into affordable housing,” Rich mentioned. “That is the goal for us.”
Rich mentioned the county is taking a multi-pronged, multi-million greenback method.
“Overall we are putting $26 million into our homeless budget from the general fund and another $17 million we have from HUD and from DCF, so altogether we have $43 million and then we have an additional $25 million to build affordable housing.”
The county can be increasing shelter mattress capability with state {dollars} and investing extra county cash into its current eviction prevention program.
Patrice Paldino, the director of Broward’s Housing Options, Solutions, and Supports Division, mentioned the county is getting roughly $667,000.
“We are trying to find additional ways to add beds to our shelter capacity with those dollars,” she mentioned. “An additional million dollars from the county and part of that program is not only funding the Legal Aid attorneys but giving them dollars to pay the arrears so the landlords are made whole and the tenant can remain in the property because if we can stop an eviction that is one less family or individual on the street.”
The county can be figuring out landlords with vacant items, with a landlord recruitment effort referred to as “Project Home Again.”
“We have over 500 landlords that we pay them rent to place people.,” Rich mentioned.
Paldino added, “As a matter of fact, just today I was talking to a landlord who wants to provide the county with some units when they become vacant. So we have a great partnership with landlords in the county that want to, when they have vacancies, make them available to the people we serve.”
Rich mentioned a few of the landlords are “immigrants who came here with nothing and now they are making it and want to give back.”
The county can be working with builders to construct inexpensive housing. Rich mentioned the county has put one other $25 million in its finances for financing to incentivize inexpensive housing building.
Paldino referred to as the affordability disaster the county’s “biggest hurdle.”
“We are going to have to look at it from a new creative approach,” she mentioned.
Rich mentioned the county is working with Fort Lauderdale to construct a palette shelter. Paldino mentioned the county commissioners have earmarked $750,000 for the proposal.
“We have not identified a site for them yet or what they will look like yet because there are different models, some are for families, some for individuals, some have onsite bathrooms and so forth but with land it is a solution so if we can find somewhere to put that it does provide transitional housing,” Paldino mentioned. “It is not a permanent option, but it will expand bed capacity, with the end goal of moving them into affordable permanent housing.”
Rich mentioned the county is working to acquire land.
“These things can go up like that,” Rich mentioned, as she snapped her fingers. “There are a lot of people who won’t go into a shelter but we actually interviewed people in the streets, asking if they would want to go into one, and all but one said yes because it is private, it is safe, they can walk into it and close the door.”
Next Tuesday, county commissioners are set to debate a brand new associated ordinance giving civil citations to violators.
“It doesn’t put you in jail, if you violate it a few times, I think two, you could end up in jail, but our focus is on providing services,” Rich mentioned.
Padrino added, “We need an approach that is a collaborative effort everyone needs to look at with compassion and humanity and come with their best ideas, maybe some of their dollars.”
And whereas the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, since April, has pitched an thought of utilizing a former Broward Sheriff’s Office jail at 5400 Powerline Road — owned by the county and identified as the “stockade” — as a shelter, Rich dismissed the proposal.
“We are not putting anyone into the stockade. The stockade is the original jail for Broward County. It is 50 years old, I went to see it, spent over two hours there, I met with BSO, they rent some of the space to do training there and I have to tell you it is horrendous and that is not what my colleagues and I have in mind of how to deal with this program,” she mentioned.
She mentioned some areas she toured there have been “filled with mold and mildew. This is not where we are putting the people. And they know in Fort Lauderdale, because we have met with them, and explained to them that this is not how we are going to solve this problem, we are not going to put people in the stockade.”
In the meantime, in Fort Lauderdale, commissioners are set to vote on their associated anti-camping ordinance throughout Tuesday night time’s metropolis fee assembly.
A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police Department launched a brand new assertion Tuesday outlining how it plans to implement the legislation:
“Our priority is protecting public safety, and the Miami-Dade Police Department will continue to address these sensitive issues as we have in the past. We will continue to partner with the Homeless Trust to provide homeless people with resources and available services and will undertake enforcement efforts focused on specific crimes committed. We are also coordinating with municipal law enforcement to share resources to assist individuals experiencing homelessness.
House Bill (HB 1365) does not create a criminal or civil offense for any law enforcement agency to enforce. However, Miami-Dade County Ordinance Section 21-286, Prohibition on overnight camping, authorizes a trespass after warning arrest when an individual fails to leave after being warned by a county official or a law enforcement officer.”
MDPD assertion
Miami-Dade County despatched Local 10 News the newest assertion made by the mayor on the subject.
“We are proud that in Miami-Dade we have successfully reduced unsheltered homelessness by nearly 90% over the past three decades, even while many communities across Florida and the nation have seen increases. The new state law is bringing a renewed sense of urgency to assist those on our streets, and through the Homeless Trust we are developing a plan to be in compliance. Through a mix of short- and long-term strategies, we aim to reduce public camping without criminalizing homelessness and overwhelming our jails. Especially when we know this issue impacts our most vulnerable – many of those who are unsheltered are seniors 55 and over and families with young children. We will work with our law enforcement departments and partnering municipalities to make sure that unsheltered individual in the streets can receive the care they need, while investing in innovative short-term crisis housing and long-term permanent housing solutions.”
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava
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