A key homelessness report issued every year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) could be muddied by city ordinances and state law in Florida banning public sleeping and camping, according to a local official with a federally funded homelessness agency.
“The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January,” HUD says on its website detailing the program. It requires that Continuum of Care (CoC) programs conduct “an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and safe havens on a single night.”
The 2024 report for data from last January showed a sharp 18.1% increase in the total number of people experiencing homelessness that month, rising to more than 770,000.
The PIT report is used in part to determine assistance and funding levels for federal homelessness programs. Without an accurate count, the ability of local organizations charged with implementing some federal programs could be negatively impacted. And the new Florida law could make people more cautious about participating in the count.
HB 1365, which outlaws unauthorized public camping and public sleeping, was signed into law last month by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
“It could make people less willing to speak with us,” Brian Postlewait, COO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, told Central Florida Public Media. “This new law, we believe, is eroding trust between law enforcement and people experiencing homelessness; it is eroding trust between service providers and people experiencing homelessness. And this is the consequence of the draconian law that was enacted this year.
“The enactment of HB 1365 really has given us pause as we come into this count, and we’re not certain what we’re going to expect,” he told the outlet. “We have a hunch that people feel the anxiety about being arrested for being on public property sleeping or camping. So, we’re interested to find out if that really makes a difference in our point time count.”
“This annual, three-day task requires hundreds of volunteers to fan across Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties to count people they find either in the streets, in public property, or in shelters,” the report said. “The count does not include people sleeping in cars or hotels, or staying with friends and family or in transitional housing.”
According to reporting at the Miami Herald, the new law “holds municipalities responsible for ensuring that people don’t sleep overnight on their streets, in their parks or in any other public place,” it said, describing a provision which went into effect in the fall of 2024. However, starting this month, “failure to do so can result in costly lawsuits for local governments, which could lead to jail time for those experiencing homelessness.”
The Florida Coalition to End Homelessness currently estimates the total of unhoused individuals in the state at more than 31,000. Florida also has some of the highest property values in the nation, and its popularity — particularly as a retirement destination — could see its economy strained by the so-called “silver tsunami” of older residents seeking to call its warmer climate home.
