“The Ocoee Police Department responds to calls for service based on complaints from the public and officer observations. Officers are trained to use discretion and prioritize outreach where possible. Arrests are generally a last resort and typically occur after attempts to offer services, issue warnings, or when there are repeated violations or accompanying criminal behavior.”

Ocoee has had its own no-camping ordinance since 2001, prohibiting camping on “all public property in the City (sic)” except as designated. That includes “otherwise being in a temporary shelter out-of-doors” and “just sleeping outside.”

Ocoee Police told VoxPopuli in an earlier email that “In each recent case, the individuals were previously warned multiple times and informed of available shelter options and support services, including resources from our Victim Advocate.”

In reviewing the arrest affidavits, VoxPopuli found that while four of the men arrested told officers they were aware of the ban, only two people had been specifically warned that if they were “caught camping within the City of Ocoee again, [they] would be subject to arrest.”

But Rafael Gomez, 42, didn’t appear to know about the ban. When officers approached him at 1:08 a.m. on Sept. 2, while he was sleeping on a bench outside of City Hall, his affidavit states that he told the officers that he had been “staying at that location for a couple of days without issue.” The officers “educated” him about the city’s camping ban.

The affidavit also indicates that Gomez, who is Black, alerted officers that he had a loaded Smith & Wesson firearm in his duffle bag when they approached him. Ocoee Dispatch informed the officers the gun was clean and Gomez had no felonies on his record. Police handcuffed him and took him to the county jail. He spent one day in jail and was assessed a $223 fine, which he has a year to pay.

Asked why Gomez didn’t get a warning about not camping on public property before he was arrested and taken to the county jail, Ocoee Police emailed VoxPopuli to reiterate, “In each recent case, the individuals were previously warned multiple times and informed of available shelter options and support services, including resources from our Victim Advocate.”

Housing advocates expressed concern about the uptick in arrests.  

“Not here is not an answer, and it damn sure isn’t a plan. You cannot arrest homelessness away,” said Scott Billue, founder and CEO of Matthew’s Hope, the homeless outreach ministry serving Orange and Brevard counties, by text on Monday.

 “We certainly knew that the state legislation was going to be encouraging jurisdictions to be more aggressive in arresting people who don't have a place to sleep. Unfortunately, we don't have enough shelter beds for everyone who needs them,” Martha Are, CEO of Homeless Services Network, told VoxPopuli in a Monday phone interview.

“There are a lot of people who would go into shelter if there was a bed that would accommodate them and that could meet their special needs and circumstances,” she continued. “We're concerned that this is going to continue to be a challenge for our region until we can identify enough sleeping accommodations for people.  I think some jurisdictions believe that people either have to leave the jurisdiction or they have to be arrested.”

The anti-camping law was intended to motivate municipalities to construct additional shelters and transitional housing or create specific camping areas within city limits with security, restrooms, sanitation and mental health and substance abuse services and safety and supervision standards that comply with the Department of Children and Family.

“Those opportunities take time,” Are noted, adding that the funding — $30 million for organizations across the state that provide services to people who are homeless — was not renewed for the current fiscal year.

Opportunities also take political will and community buy-in — neither of which is in large supply. Earlier this year when the City of Orlando attempted to convert a vacant building into a 300-bed shelter, the SoDo community backlash was fierce enough to shut the project down.

Meanwhile, homeless advocate Eric Gray told VoxPopuli that he was “glad to see that Ocoee is paying attention to homelessness.”

“I hate that this is how they’re having to pay attention to it because we don’t see really any activity from the city of Ocoee on the issue of homelessness at all,” said the executive director of the Christian Service Center, which runs the Daily Bread soup kitchen and food pantry in Ocoee and a 42-bed shelter in Orlando. “But I think they're going to learn pretty fast that they can't arrest their way out of this problem. They're gonna have to develop resources for people in their community. They're gonna have to come to grips with the size and scope of the problem that is not just a handful of individuals."

“Arresting people, does not do anything to decrease homelessness in our community, and it does not speed up anyone's transition back into permanent housing,” Are said. “Even though at times jurisdictions feel like they have no other options, that does not mean that that's a good option or an effective option.”

She said that although it’s costly and time consuming, the solution is building shelters and housing.

“That’s what has to happen for us to effectively address the entire community's concern and desire that we not have people sleeping outside,” Are said.

SIDEBAR: 4 things a city can do instead of arresting people who are homeless

“There are so many better options than arresting someone and putting them in the 33rd Street jail,” said Eric Gray, executive director of the Christian Service Center, which runs the Daily Bread soup kitchen and food pantry in Ocoee. He provided four:

• Create a small five- to 10-bed shelter. “There’s no rule on how big or small a shelter needs to be,” Gray said. A few beds, he pointed out, could have eliminated the arrests in Ocoee.  
• Establish a fund for people about to be evicted with strict qualification criteria and guidelines for funds to be disbursed directly to landlords.
• Help to identify extended family an unhoused person might live with and underwrite the travel to get there. “That way you’re not sending them somewhere else to be homeless,” Gray said.
• Establish a fund or no-interest or low-interest loan program to help pay apartment security and application fees. “Most people can afford to pay rent every month. They just can’t afford to pay double the rent the first month,” said Gray.
  

SIDEBAR: The graying homeless population

Four of the five men Ocoee Police arrested for sleeping outside were in their early to mid-50s. That doesn’t surprise homeless advocates who see older people, especially seniors, as the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. Seniors currently make up 24 percent of the homeless population across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, according to the Homeless Services Network.

Loss of a spouse, medical debt, the high cost of insurance are some of the factors driving this trend.

Eric Gray of the Christian Service Center said it’s not unique to Florida; it’s happening in developing countries across the globe.  “It's really just a sort of confluence of events where you have massive price increases for things all over the planet, with housing being the most expensive thing that's increasing and not keeping up with wages and and then you couple that with not having access to healthcare.”

“The number of seniors who are experiencing homelessness, many for the first time, has been rising across the country, but certainly escalating very rapidly in communities like ours that are growing quickly and haven't been able to develop enough housing infrastructure to support that growth,” said Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network. “And many of those seniors have not been able to get into shelter, and they are sleeping outside.”