FORT LAUDERDALE — In just weeks, a new law will begin impacting people struggling with homelessness in South Florida.
Though the goal of the new legislation is to keep people off the street, it’s easier said than done, with cities like Fort Lauderdale trying to help those living in one of its tent cities.
A compound for homeless residents, complete with a generator, tarps and discarded furniture is located in a wooded area off Blount Road north of Copans Road.
Rebecca, 43, said she’s lived there for 12 years and that a combination of her mother’s death, leaving an abusive relationship and ill health brought her to the woods. She said at least 20 unhoused residents live in the tent city at any one time.
” We used to have a dumpster but they took it away,” she said, surrounded by mountains of trash, old blankets, and filthy clothes.
Rebecca said she bought a lot of the tents that the tenants call home.