Camping Ban

People at Lake Dot Park in downtown Orlando, on Friday, April 4, 2025. The Homeless Services Network of Central Florida held a press conference to release their 2025 numbers from the Point-in-Time Count – the nationwide census of people who were homeless on a given night in late January.

New Survey: Central Florida lagging in solutions for its homeless

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

The Dignity Bus in Vero, outside and inside shots, showing the bed pods with privacy curtains and individual lights and charge ports.

Orlando approves homeless bus shelters despite public opposition

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

The building off Kaley Street in the south side of Downtown Orlando is vacant but used to be the Orange County Work Release Center, where around 300 inmates would participate in a work-release program that transitioned them back into society.

Housing & Homelessness

City of Orlando nixes plan for homeless shelter on Kaley Street, South Downtown

Lillian Hernández Caraballo

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.

Other Dignity Bus projects are currently operational in the state.

Housing & Homelessness

Mobile homeless shelters might be coming to Orlando

Lillian Hernández Caraballo

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

A homeless encampment resident in east Orlando sits to rest by the fire with her kitten, after spending the day gathering her belongings to relocate. On her right arm, she was still wearing her patient identification wristband from an emergency room visit the night before for a leg infection.

Housing & Homelessness

Orange County disbands homeless camps amid new public camping ban

Lillian Hernández Caraballo

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.

Kelly Cobb, a housed resident in Melbourne, cries while speaking at the City Council meeting. “They get an army of people to take care of them. (...) What about us?" She asked.

Housing & Homelessness

City of Melbourne considers plans to address growing 'homelessness crisis'

Lillian Hernández Caraballo

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

Volusia County Chair Jeff Brower asks how law enforcement is to proceed when approaching people in violation of the new ordinance. The measure was voted in unanimously on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.

Housing & Homelessness

Volusia becomes latest county to ban public camping, per Florida law

Lillian Hernández Caraballo

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

Volunteers wait for their turn to canvass the Orlando Metro area at this year's PIT Count.

Housing & Homelessness

Florida’s camping ban may affect HUD’s homeless Point-In-Time count for 2025

Lillian Hernández Caraballo

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

Ricky Guerrero, front, Jeff Castner, middle, and Mark Jarrett, back, prepare to sleep in their nightly spot on the streets of downtown Orlando on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. A new law could make homeless people sleeping in public places subject to arrest on January 1.

Will new year, new law bring new trouble for Orlando’s homeless?

Florida’s new homeless law gets added teeth on Jan. 1, with residents and businesses allowed to sue cities to enforce camping bans

The Salvation Army's ability to provide services in Osceola County was severely hampered by a November 23 arson fire at its service center near downtown Kissimmee.

Local government in line with state law against sleeping in public—reluctantly

Osceola County governments pass ordinances allowing local enforcement of HB 1365, prohibiting public sleeping.