Gov. DeSantis takes shots at San Francisco while discussing Florida homelessness

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — Gov. Ron DeSantis stood behind a podium Monday that read “Don’t allow Florida to become San Francisco.”

DeSantis, who was speaking to the media at a private event space on Washinton Avenue in Miami Beach on Monday, took shots at the California city, using it to boost claims about the state of Florida and how his administration has handled crime.

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Among those claims, DeSantis said the homeless population of California cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles made it impossible to have a “vibrant society.”

DeSantis’ claims regarding homelessness in California are backed up by the numbers. The 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report shows California has the highest homeless population in the nation with 181,399.

Despite this, some of the claims made regarding Florida homelessness on Monday did not quite hit the mark.

Speaking at the same news conference, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said, “Florida has experienced one of the largest decreases in homelessness” across the nation, but the same Annual Homelessness Assessment Report also showed that not only does Florida have the third highest homeless population in the nation, its homeless population has gone up since 2022.

In 2022, Florida had a reported 25,959 homeless people in the state. In 2023, the number jumped to 30,756. Florida was also second in the nation for most unsheltered people, behind only California.

The good news for Florida and Gov. DeSantis? Despite being third in the nation, the state sees only 5% of its 21.78 million people represented in those figures. California, with a population of around 39.24 million, is seeing 28% facing homelessness.

DeSantis is promising his administration will work to lower those numbers even further, saying he is open to state funding for communities to build shelters and help treat mental health issues in their homeless populations.

Part of that fight comes in the form of House Bill 1365, which is currently going through the Florida Senate. The bill would make camping or sleeping on public property illegal without a permit and would give counties and municipalities the ability to designate certain public properties for such use.

“We need to prohibit camping on all city streets, sidewalks, and parks,” DeSantis said regarding policy to fight homelessness in the state. “We just can’t live like that in Florida.”

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