Local business owners are begging Fort Lauderdale officials to combat homelessness in the city, claiming tent camps and public indecency are driving customers away.
Roughly 2,847 people were living on the streets of Broward County last year, according to the Florida Department of Health, and the problem is only becoming more obvious in the county’s largest city.
Bernie Bedor has been sending photographs of homeless people defecating on sidewalks and sleeping on the beach to City Hall, beseeching officials to take action.
‘We take investors down to the beach and they see homeless people in tents,’ Bedor told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
‘There’s a tent city next to the new police station they’re building. You have people going to the bathroom on the sidewalk. It’s like a free for all. And it’s very bad for business.’
Fort Lauderdale residents are begging city officials to take action to combat the city’s homelessness crisis
Business owners claim the presence of tent cities and ‘people going to the bathroom on the sidewalk’ are making their ventures unprofitable
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed a bill into law banning homeless people from camping on public land
Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1365 into law, preventing homeless people from camping on city streets, sidewalks and parks.
Under the new law, which takes effect in October, they will be placed in ‘temporary shelters monitored by law enforcement agencies’ that provide ‘substance abuse and mental health treatments’.
Supporters of the bill insist it is a step in the right direction. In a press release, Representative Sam Garrison said HB 1365 would not eliminate homeless, but was ‘a start’.
‘With a challenge as complex as chronic homelessness, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of comfortable inaction,’ Garrison said.
‘In Florida, we will learn from the mistakes of cities like San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, and more which are paying the price for their unwillingness to act. This bill will not eliminate homelessness. But it is a start. And it states clearly that in Florida, our public spaces are worth fighting for.’
Senator Jonathan Martin, who represents Fort Meyer and Cape Coral, said the bill would provide organizations a framework under which they could better serve their communities.
It also paves the way for dissatisfied Floridians to sue local government if they fail to enforce the ban.
But there are six months left before the bill goes into effect, and until then, residents are continuing to beg their elected leaders to take action.
Under the new law, the state’s homeless will be placed in ‘temporary shelters monitored by law enforcement agencies’ that provide ‘substance abuse and mental health treatments’ (pictured: homeless people camp on the street during the coronavirus pandemic)
But there are six months until the bill goes into effect, and until then, locals are finding plenty to complain about – including homeless people sleeping in the airport. One woman claimed to have seen ‘at least 15 homeless people sleeping on the floor in baggage claim’
Around 2,847 people were living on the streets of Broward County last year, according to data from the Florida Department of Health (pictured: a group of homeless people sit on the sidewalk in April 2020)
Photos posted to social media depict a common grievance: homeless people sleeping on the carpeted floor of the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
‘Clean up the homeless issue in Fort Lauderdale. Taking them off the streets, throwing them in airports is not a solution,’ wrote an infuriated local, tagging Governor Ron DeSantis.
‘There’s piss on the floors and people laying everywhere. It looks like the refugee camp in Scarface. Build more shelters.’
One woman claimed to have encountered ‘at least 15 homeless people sleeping on the floor in baggage claim’.
Charlie King, a local real estate agent, is another local who has been taking photos and sending them to city officials.
‘It’s embarrassing to have this going on in the city,’ King said. ‘It hurts business. It makes people not want to live in Fort Lauderdale.’
In one instance, the realtor encountered a naked man creeping around a property that he was trying to sell – and that wasn’t even the most offensive sighting.
‘I saw a homeless couple having sex at the bus stop at Federal Highway and Commercial Boulevard,’ King said. ‘No one wants to see this in the middle of our town.’
A local realtor claims the crisis is affecting business and ‘makes people not want to live in Fort Lauderdale’
A proposal to house people at the county stockade east of Chase Stadium was shot down when it was raised nearly a decade ago
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis has urged local officials to revisit the plan as they wait for DeSantis’ bill to go into effect in October
Some locals have likened the city to San Francisco (pictured), which is buckling under the weight of its homeless population
Among the possible solutions is a proposal to house people at the county stockade at 5400 Powerline Road, just east of Chase Stadium.
This plan has the backing of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, but it was turned down by the county nearly a decade ago.
Now, Trantalis is urging officials to revisit it as they scramble to work something out before HB 1365 goes into effect.
Fort Lauderdale and other cities across Florida are also awaiting decisions at the federal level.
A case making its way through the Supreme Court could have broad implications for the nation’s homeless population. It centers around a law in a small Oregon town that bans sleeping on public land with a blanket or bedding.
Lower courts have ruled that local governments cannot fine or jail a person for sleeping on public land if shelter beds are unavailable.
But Fort Lauderdale is among the cities waiting with bated breath to hear the Supreme Court’s ruling, anticipating that things will change.
Still, critics urge the city to act before conditions decay any further.
‘It’s getting worse and worse and worse here in Fort Lauderdale,’ Bedor said, noting that the cost of doing business has increased.
‘It’s not that we’re not empathetic. But it’s to the point now where we’re having to pay $30,000 a year for private security to patrol our buildings at night. That cost is being passed on to the business owners.’
Some locals have likened the city to San Francisco, which has made headlines for its own homelessness crisis that is forcing businesses to shutter.
‘No one wants to invest in a mini-California,’ Bedor professed. ‘You have people going to the bathroom on the sidewalk. It’s like a free for all. And it’s very bad for business.’
