An Orlando advocacy group has raised concerns over the increase in arrests related to homelessness.
At a press conference Monday, REAL Orlando, an organization dedicated to community education and action, said their data collection team has been tracking public records that show a rise in arrests of unhoused people over the last year, especially since a spike that started in October of 2023.
They called their findings “a deeply concerning” issue.
“This trend affects not just those directly impacted, but all of us as a community that values compassion, fairness and effective use of public resources,” said Camila Sánchez, with the group’s data collection team.
Over the last year, the group has been collecting public information from the City of Orlando, as well as the Orange County inmate database and Clerk of Courts websites.
What they found on the arrests
Sánchez said they found at least 1,600 county arrests targeting transient people from January to August.
On Jan. 8, the city adopted Ordinance No. 2023-55, amending Section 43.06 of the city’s Code of Ordinances and expanding the definition of “disorderly conduct,” by banning blocking public sidewalks downtown by sleeping, sitting, or standing on them. After concerns were raised by members of the public, the Orlando City Council said the law would not be used to criminalize the homeless. Sánchez said that, according to the group’s data, of all the arrests done under that ordinance, more than half have targeted transient people.
Sánchez said she was particularly concerned with at least 156 arrests by the Orlando Police Department under Section 43.06 K of the city ordinance code, which makes it illegal for people to accept or exchange any items with someone in a vehicle stopped on the road. For example, if someone is at a red light and gives money to a person standing outside of the car.
“Disturbingly, enforcement of this ordinance has gone far beyond routine policing. In 58 documented cases that we found, OPD reviewed surveillance footage to identify and track these unhoused individuals who accepted money, even water and food from generous passers by,” she said.
Sánchez said this practice raises significant concerns about the use of police resources and underscores how the city’s most vulnerable residents are being targeted for “merely trying to survive,” including unhoused parents with children, older adults, and pregnant people.
OPD said the ordinance is in place for safety. In the past, Orlando has been called one of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians in the nation.
“Prior to this ordinance, at least two individuals had been killed in Central Florida after being struck by vehicles after entering the roadway,” OPD said in an email.
OPD also said they work closely with community organizations to address homelessness while ensuring public safety.
“The Homeless Intervention Unit has assisted with more than 18,400 contacts with people experiencing homelessness, in the past seven months by connecting them with resources such as shelter, medical care, and food. Some of those contacts may involve the same individual more than once. Of these encounters, 1.9% have resulted in arrests, primarily for outstanding warrants, or offenses involving violent crime, or public intoxication,” OPD said.
The department also said that less than 1% of the arrests made by OPD between January and August 2024 were related to homelessness. They said the county asks arrestees if they identify as homeless to connect them to services but that their identity as “transient” is not why they’re arrested.
The group also condemned OPD for engaging in lawful property seizures, which displace and destroy essential belongings that people need to work and live.
“Things like IDs, people's driver's licenses, financial records, birth certificates are frequently destroyed. These are items which are necessities for people to be able to work, including uniforms, bicycles, and tools are often destroyed by police officers,” said Itza Peña, one of the group’s leaders. “Irreplaceable keepsakes such as letters, yearbooks, family photographs, and sometimes we have read in the reports, relatives' ashes are being thrown away.”
The city’s response and actions
REAL Orlando spokesperson Georgina Blau said the group sent emails of their findings to the city.
She said the group has also shown up to city meetings to speak in public comments, sent letters and emails to each councilperson on staff and the mayor, but have never received a response to discuss their data or to their calls for transparency.
“I don't want the city to assume that we're approaching them in bad faith. We are concerned community members that have spent almost a year of our time collecting this data, and that is not out of spite, it is not out of hatred. It is out of a very sincere desire to see the conditions improve for not just the unhoused members of our community, but for every member of our community, even including the officials, even though sometimes they have been very dismissive towards us,” Blau said.
Shan Rose, interim commissioner for Orlando’s District 5, said she has not seen any communications from the group. And, as far as the group’s claims, she said they “couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“We have committed to affordable housing units in this community. We have millions of dollars that we've committed to units and placing people we're committed to. We just signed an agreement last week to convert the work release center for a homeless shelter,” Rose said.
Rose also said her district has been serving the unhoused community for a long time and that not all issues are local — some issues come from statewide mandates.
“What I would say is folks need to start getting involved in their state legislature, making sure that you're talking to state legislators about the issues with the policies that the state creates. Because what we have to do, as a city, when the state creates something, we have to respond,” the commissioner said.
Rose also said the city and county are in conversations to create a new diversion program called “Homeless Court,” which would help the recidivism of unhoused people and to alleviate fines that people experiencing homelessness often cannot pay. One of the main causes for the arrest of transient people is public urination/defecation, so one of the committee’s goals is to install public restrooms.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
