Pinellas’ smart approach to Florida’s homeless camping ban

A new state law going into effect in October could make life even harder for homeless people in Florida, and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is working quickly to figure out how to best respond.

The new law prohibits cities and counties from allowing anyone to “regularly camp or sleep overnight in public places” on public lands, including parks, rights-of-way, and other public buildings and grounds. Local governments can designate portions of public lands as campgrounds under certain conditions, but they must provide basic amenities such as security and sanitation at the sites. The law also empowers local residents, businesses, and the state attorney general to file civil lawsuits against cities and counties that fail to enforce the law.

The bill, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March, could exacerbate Florida’s worsening homelessness problem by encouraging communities to remove homeless people from public view while providing few meaningful resources to help homeless people get back on their feet.

In response, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office led a multi-agency pursuit effort. According to a department document obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, the list includes locations where people are sleeping rough and how many people are in each location. The list includes some locations where people may be sleeping rough, including parks and bus stops. Department of Homelessness and Homelessness agencies across the county said they want to ensure they are prepared, but some homeless advocates in Pinellas are concerned the list could lead to a crackdown.

In reality, police already know where homeless people are sleeping — it’s not a secret, and it’s easy to round them up. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s approach aims to do the opposite: reach out to homeless people where they are and let them know about safer, better housing options.

The outreach program is smart, proactive and humane. The sheriff’s office is using community policing deputies and social workers to reach homeless people on the streets and inform them of the law and housing options. The new law, for example, does not prohibit sleeping in public during the day. And the sheriff’s office is not coming in empty-handed. Gualtieri has a long history of tackling homelessness. Pinellas Safe Harbor, an emergency shelter and jail diversion program run by his agency, has the capacity to take in at least 125 additional homeless people each day, he told The Times editorial board.

“Homelessness should never be criminalized,” Gualtieri told The Times. “Our goal is to start early so we don’t have to enforce it.” Reaching these individuals, especially those who are chronically homeless, could help more people secure housing and stay out of the criminal justice system, he said. The effort could also allow the county to avoid civil lawsuits under the new law. “I don’t want to have a lawsuit here. I don’t want the attorney general here,” he said.

We’ll soon see what the results of this effort are, but Gualtieri is a trusted voice on the issue, and it’s an opportunity to get law enforcement agencies across Pinellas on the same page. And if this legislation reignites discussion about homelessness and Florida’s strategy for addressing it, all the better.

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Editorials are the organizational voice of the Tampa Bay Times. Members of the editorial board are editorial editors Graham Brink, Shelley Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill and Jim Verhulst, and chairman and CEO Conan Galati. Follow translation: For more opinion news, follow us on Twitter: