Camping Ban

Tim McKinney has been working with the “forgotten community” of Bithlo, asking for homeless shelters, especially now with Florida’s camping ban.

Several 2025 Point-In-Time Counts hinted to legal and social pressures, making it harder to track the unhoused.

A regional reporting collaborative aims to track the impact of Florida’s tough homelessness law.

The project will repurpose two Greyhound-style buses as shelters, providing nearly 40 overnight beds for the unhoused in the Downtown Orlando area.

Area residents who stood against the shelter said they were relieved by the news but want to see the city work on “actual solutions” to homelessness.

The Downtown Orlando Community Redevelopment Agency board approved the bus shelters on Wednesday, in need of immediate shelters.

Activists said incidents will continue until unhoused people in east Orlando get shelter or other alternatives. The county said deputies have yet to arrest anyone for public camping.

After adopting a camping ban in January, Brevard County's most developed city announced its shift away from homeless services and toward housing.

Officials said the ordinance serves health, safety, and welfare, and services to unhoused people. The ordinance doesn’t reflect that.

Experts say the fear of arrest may cause unhoused people to refrain from giving out the information necessary to collect an accurate count.