NOTE: This story was originally published on the Oviedo Community News website.
How will a new law banning those experiencing homelessness from camping or sleeping outside impact Greater Oviedo and Winter Springs?
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Florida’s House Bill 1365 bans people experiencing homelessness from public camping and sleeping. And starting this year, it allows citizens, businesses and the state’s attorney general to sue cities and counties if they don’t attempt to “cure” alleged violations of the camping and sleeping ban.
In December, the Seminole County Commission passed an ordinance that allows the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office to issue trespass warnings to people camping or sleeping on county property. People who have been trespassed from an area and continue to sleep could be arrested.
As of Jan. 6, the sheriff’s office had not issued any warnings or citations for public camping or sleeping.
“By partnering with local shelters, faith-based partners, mental health professionals, and social service agencies, we aim to tackle the root causes of homelessness and provide comprehensive support, while upholding the county ordinance at the same time,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The ban does not apply to sleeping in a legally parked car. And commissioners pointed out that the ban on public camping and sleeping does not apply to state parks.
Commissioner Bob Dallari, who represents Oviedo, asked staff to find a way to let people know where county property ends and state property begins.
“If they’re not allowed to be on county property, they need to know where the line or boundary is,” Dallari said at the meeting, which you can watch here. “That’s my only issue.”
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County geography leaves few options
HB 1365 does allow counties or cities to designate an area for public camping, but so far, no Central Florida government has designated an area for camping.
So if people experiencing homelessness can’t sleep or camp outside, where should they go? In Seminole County, there’s only one homeless shelter: The Rescue Outreach Mission.
“Those people, the homeless people, aren’t supposed to sleep on city sidewalks and streets,” said Winter Springs Commissioner Cade Resnick, who serves on Rescue Outreach Mission’s board. “If they are sleeping there, we take them to Rescue Outreach Mission.”
Rescue Outreach Mission is Seminole County’s only homeless shelter, with 110 beds. But it’s located in Sanford – 10 miles from the Winter Springs Town Center and 13 miles from Oviedo on the Park.
Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek called the situation a “hot mess.” She worries that geographic distance will perpetuate the cycle of homelessness.
“If they have a job, and they sleep where they sleep and go to work in the day, and we ship them 17 miles away and they don’t have a vehicle,” Sladek said. “How the heck? You’re homeless and you lose your job and we moved you away?”
Sladek said she would want to see Oviedo loosen restrictions on letting unrelated people live together, and make it easier to build more multifamily homes to address the root cause: High housing costs.
“I just hope nobody tries to sue the government for trying to keep unhoused people out of sight,” Sladek said.
Seminole County growing homeless population
The 2024 point-in-time count found 420 people experiencing homelessness in 2024 in Seminole County. That’s a 53% increase from the year before.
But that figure includes people in shelters and in transitional housing. The number of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness more than doubled, from 74 in 2023 to 163 people in 2024.
Part of that increase could be explained by an increase in volunteers doing the surveys in 2024. Check here for a detailed breakdown of Seminole County’s figures.
There aren’t good statistics on the number of people experiencing homelessness by city, though. The 2024 point-in-time count does not break down the statistics by city.
Rescue Outreach Mission said it has had people use its services from Oviedo, but only began tracking the city where they came from last year. The nonprofit also said when it helps people get into permanent housing, it’s “rare” for it to be in Oviedo or Winter Springs because there isn’t much affordable housing in those areas.
Chris Ham, the executive director of Rescue Outreach Mission, told County Commissioners at a meeting in October that the increase is directly related to a lack of affordable housing.
“That’s due significantly to the fact that the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment from 2019 to 2024 climbed $700 a month,” Ham said. “The increase in those experiencing homelessness is directly attributed to the lack of affordable or attainable housing.”
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Rescue Outreach Mission facing budget shortfall
Rescue Outreach Mission is starting the year with a $500,000 budget shortfall – and could come back to Oviedo and Winter Springs looking for additional funding.
Rescue Outreach Mission was on the verge of financial collapse a few years ago, until an influx of federal funding sustained it. But now that the federal dollars are running out, Rescue Outreach Mission is looking for more local government support to close that gap.
“We’re looking for assistance and help from all the municipalities,” Chris Ham, the executive director of Rescue Outreach Mission. He said there’s a place for funding from the government, the private sector, individuals and the faith-based community.
Seminole County Commissioners also balked at the idea of fully funding Rescue Outreach Mission at that October meeting, but asked county staff to continue working with the nonprofit.
“When [Rescue Outreach Mission] ran into some financial issues, we were told at the 12th hour that they were out of money and that they weren’t able to exist,” Dallari said. “I want to make sure that doesn’t happen again. I want [staff] to keep us informed so that we’re not being told the day of a meeting that we have to make a decision.”
Rescue Outreach Mission’s Ham said he plans to come back to Oviedo and Winter Springs to see if the local governments would consider funding. So far, neither Winter Springs nor Oviedo city governments have offered financial support to Rescue Outreach Mission.
“We’re gonna make it happen,” Ham, the executive director of Rescue Outreach Mission, about closing the budget gap. “We’ve been pretty aggressive in doing some savings, but we don’t want to go too far.”
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