DeSantis wants to have a law making it illegal to camp in public parks. To some this is just another attack on the homeless. I have mixed emotions on that. I don’t like the fact that we have people sleeping in our parks because it makes me feel unsafe while in the park. The reason that I have a problem with a law like what DeSantis is suggesting - it doesn’t solve the problem of homelessness. What is being proposed is that counties would be required to ban homeless from sleeping in public places, and instead have all of them to stay in designated camps with security, sanitation and access to behavioral health services. To some this may sound great but to some this may sound scary. Putting people into camps should always sound scary to all of us. We have had camps in the past and they were disastrous.

In a statement that was released by DeSantis he said “We cannot allow any city in Florida to become like San Francisco, where homeless, drugs, and crime have disseminated the quality of life, hurt the economy, and eroded freedom. In Florida, we will continue to enact policies that promote accountability and community safety, unlike in California where they are promoting dangerous policies that harm their communities and economy”. Does this really address the Homeless Crisis? This looks more like the beginning of punishment for just being homeless? Did he actually compare the crime statistics between San Francisco and Miami? If he did he would notice that the two are very similar and both are way above the National Average. What DeSantis knows is that most of you will not even look up and compare the two cities to find out if he is stating facts or just making it up. I do look things up and yes. California has the highest homeless problem in the United States with Florida coming in third with New York being second. When there are 50 States, coming in third is not exactly winning the contest. New York, number 2 on the list has a much lower crime rate than Florida. Could that be why he is not comparing Florida to New York? I have never seen homeless people rummaging through our neighborhood looking for stuff to steal.

What the proposal does not deal with enough is the reasons people are homeless. The average monthly rent in Florida is $2300 a month. I was reading a article in the Palm Beach Post that said to be rent secure in Palm Beach you needed a salary of $112,000. That is way above the minimum wage. How many service industry jobs pay a six figure salary? In Lee County Florida the average apartment rents for just over $1,200 a mouth with the average price of a home at $400,000 dollars. The minimum wage is Florida is $12 dollars an hour that is approximately (40 hours)  $1920.00 mo., roughly $23,100 a year before taxes. Rent takes a big chunk out of their earnings and the idea of buying a house is out of the question. Florida is in need for affordable housing for those workers the tourist industry needs so desperately.

 The proposal doesn’t address the people that lost everything because of a natural disaster like what Hurricane Ian was. I saw people who lost everything because of that storm. There was a group of them living in an encampment under the bridge leading out to Ft. Myers Beach. These were people that lost everything but still wanted to be independent from the government. I never felt unsafe when I went down there. To many of these individuals their independence is their freedom and that is something that they didn’t want to lose. You actually have to admire them for their sense of independence. At one time that may have been considered part of the American spirit. To force some of them into camps will be taking away their freedom. How do we make these people whole again? Will Government sponsored homeless camps accomplish that or will they just help hide the real problems that are Florida? If we are going to continue to build and live in areas that are prone to disasters we need systems that will help not only the wealthy but also the workers that the wealthy are so dependent on.

We have had camps in the past in this country with the most famous were the Internment Camps of Americans of Japanese decent after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Axis Powers that we fought against during World War II were Japan, Italy and Germany. Of those three countries only Japanese Americans were interned, not German Americans or Italian Americans. When people begin to say that they are going to be forcing people into camps I get a little nervous. What have camps been used in the past? Some of the reasons are actually racism, bigotry and suppression. When we start setting up camps we have to be very careful those camps don’t turn into prisons. Making it illegal for people to camp on public property to me may just be turning the homeless into criminals and the camps that we say are there to help them are then prisons.

It is being said that there would also be added services for the homeless but I question, why are these services not already available?  You build a camp and then offer services? Are these camps a precursor to things more sinister like what the camps of the SS were? Who funds and mans these camps? I would think is something that should be a concern. We have to make sure that these camps are there to offer help and services and not punishment. We have to work to solve the homeless crisis and I just don’t see us doing enough in Florida to create affordable housing and crisis centers when there is a disaster. I always have to remember that our economic system creates poverty when people are not paid a livable wage and do not have affordable housing.