Florida’s homeless camping ban doesn’t change Tallahassee’s strategy

It’s been almost a month since the new state law banning sleeping in public places went into effect, but capital and county leaders say it hasn’t changed their approach to homelessness.

All community partners will continue to operate according to their current game plans, including busing people from Tallahassee looking for a fresh start.

Under the new Florida law, local municipalities are prohibited from allowing people to camp or sleep on public property and are required to designate a specific public space for camping and sleeping. These areas must be approved by the Florida Department of Children and Families and include security, behavioral health services and bathrooms with running water.

From January 1, residents and businesses can sue local authorities if they don’t comply. Both the city of Tallahassee and Leon County say their ordinances already align with state law.

But Ron Burnett, the homeless outreach coordinator who works with the city and county, said those local ordinances have been in place for years and haven’t affected the actions of homeless people.

The new law won’t affect them either, he said. He can only help people who want to be helped.

“They have no reason to change,” Burnett said. “Unless they get sick and tired of being sick and tired, they won’t change.”

Background: Supreme Court ruling on homelessness paves the way for Florida’s public camping ban

Background: Florida cities and counties brace for new homeless encampment law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis

A bus ticket to a new beginning

Since 2011, Burnett has been helping people on the streets. But two years ago, he began incorporating a different approach to bringing people back into society.

Burnett works with the city of Tallahassee to buy people bus tickets to places that give them a better opportunity to start over.

“We help people change their environment, change their situation, start over,” he said.

Often people have family in another city who are willing to help; they just don’t have the money to get there, Burnett said.

In those two years, just under 700 people were resettled for one reason or another – 76% were reunited with their families. Others have been moved to jobs, rehab, hospitals, mental health, domestic violence, human trafficking or other shelters, according to an Oct. 23 update on the state of the city’s homeless provided to the Tallahassee Democrat.

How it works: Burnett gets referrals from people who request an out-of-town ticket or personally visits the camps and shelters where people ask him for help. The next step is to contact a family member, employer, or any legitimate contact to verify that the person actually has a family member, a job, or someone waiting for them if they leave.

“I’m not a tourism agency, which means I want to check because I’m spending city funds,” Burnett said.

City Manager Reese Goad said the funds come from the housing and human services department, not the same pool of money that funds the Kearney Center and other homeless outreach efforts.

“Anyone who needs help, the funds have been there,” Burnett added.

The rehoming program helped address overcrowding in local shelters, he said. Free bus passes typically go to out-of-towners, which helps resources like the Kearney Center better accommodate the people in the area they are meant to serve. Officials said they are dealing with a surge of homeless out-of-towners seeking shelter.

Not every case ends successfully, and it takes a lot of patience and compassion, Burnett said, but the efforts are working — slowly but surely — to reduce homelessness in the community.

“But for us it’s not enough because people are constantly coming from other places,” Burnett said. “It’s almost like playing Whack-a-Mole. You can defuse a situation, but you won’t be able to eradicate homelessness.”

Residents of Kearney Center asked to leave; the manager says it’s routine policy

The Kearney Center, Big Bend’s emergency center for those struggling with homelessness, has operated near capacity for most of the year.

Since April, the shelter has charged homeless people coming from outside Big Bend $10 a night in efforts to balance the influx of residents it receives.

But Rick Kearney, the center’s namesake and former president who recently handed over the reins to the shelter, previously told Democrats in Tallahassee that if residents can’t pay the fee, “I’m not exactly putting them on board.”

The center allows them to stay for a few days before helping them find other arrangements, Kearney said.

Russell Rainey, the Kearney Center’s newest president and chairman of the boardsaid occupancy rates fell in October, but not because of the nightly charge.

On Oct. 1, numerous residents were asked to leave under the shelter’s “routine length of stay policy,” Rainey said. Residents are allowed to stay in the shelter for three months, but during that time they must make an effort “to transform themselves out of the shelter,” he said.

“The shelter is not just there to house people indefinitely,” Rainey said. “They have to work on their own to avoid homelessness.”

The Kearney Center assigns case managers to each resident and must meet regularly with that case manager. If people miss several appointments in a row, they are asked to leave, he said.

“When they first sign up, they are given very clear expectations,” he added.

But residents said they were blindsided by the policy and were never told it was in place. A resident who contacted the Tallahassee Democrat said dozens of residents received notices on Sept. 20 that they had to move out of the Kearney Center within 10 days unless they could provide proof of pending housing.

“It was a sad sight at the shelter last night,” said the resident, who requested anonymity because he feared being kicked out of the shelter for speaking out.

Rainey said they are being given a four-week grace period to reapply, appealing to end their stay.

The resident said staff conducted an appeals process four days after the notices were issued and some were given a 30-day extension, but the rest had to leave. About 75 people were forced out of the shelter on the first day of the month, he said.

Now, those people, he said, are back on the streets and will be a presence for law enforcement, businesses and residents to deal with.

“People who don’t have any belongings have had to give a lot of them away or try to sell them for a few dollars because the only things they can actually carry are the clothes on their backs,” the resident said. “And it goes without saying that fall is here and the temperatures are dropping.”

The Kearney Center is also not changing its operation under the new law

When the public sleeping law was passed, Kearney shelter board members were very concerned about how it would impact the local homeless population and if it would cause even more overcrowding in the shelter.

But after three months of discussions among themselves, the city and county, including the Tallahassee Police Department and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, all decided to stick to their regular operations.

Rainey said they asked law enforcement agencies directly if they would arrest homeless people. TPD and LCSO told them no, so Rainey said the board decided to stay the course because without additional funding, the center can’t expand.

“If something changes with them and they start arresting people, then we’ll see how we do,” he said. “It’s not a great solution, but it’s the reality of how many beds you have for how many people need them.”

LCSO spokeswoman Shonda Knight said “nothing has changed on our end.”

Goad said the city’s approach to the new law will be the same, and “TPD is part of that effort,” he said. “The effort is certainly not about arresting individuals.”

Both county and city governments plan to continue investing in local partnerships, such as the Kearney Center and the LCSO Homeless Assistance Team, and also plan to continue supporting relocation assistance.

Even though the flow of people seeking help in Tallahassee remains steady, the success stories make the work worthwhile, Burnett said.

One morning at the bus stop, Burnett said he was approached by a man he barely recognized, who had been homeless for nearly a decade before Burnett helped him.

“He said, ‘Mr. Ron, I came all the way from South Florida to see you,'” Burnett said. “He said, ‘Because of you, I’m no longer homeless.’ Mr. Ron, because of you, I have a job that pays me $35 an hour. I have a fiance and I have a house. I want to thank you. you for giving me words of encouragement and not giving up on me and helping me move. “

Reporter of breaking news and trends Elena Barrera can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.