For years, homeless people have been spending their nights — days too — sleeping on the sand at Fort Lauderdale beach.
That longtime practice could end when a new state law takes effect Oct. 1 banning overnight sleeping in public places. Under the new law, cities failing to enforce the ban can be sued come Jan. 1.
The clock is ticking. City officials are well aware of that. And in some cases, so are the homeless.
Eviwari Ayabowei, a Miami native who’s been in the same spot across from Hugh Taylor Birch State Park for nearly a year, says he’s not sure where he’ll go if he gets kicked off the stretch of sand he calls home.
“I’ve got nobody to fall back on,” he said. “I don’t know how to get out of this situation. If they get rid of us, where are we supposed to go?”
That’s a question Fort Lauderdale and cities around the state are still struggling to answer.
Under the new state law, homeless people caught sleeping overnight in public spaces might very well wind up in jail — unless the cities can find a place to set up homeless encampments by the time the law kicks in on Oct. 1.