CAPE CORAL, Fla. — When Cape Coral banned outside camping to comply with the new state law, it made many people experiencing homelessness have to look for other options.
"I would normally stay near 24-hour locations like gyms or gas stations. Eventually, certain gas stations became a problem,” said Jessica Hamilton.
Hamilton used to live out of her car with her daughter, and now she can no longer stay in those places overnight. Going to a shelter isn't an option either, because there are no shelters in Cape Coral. People have to cross the Caloosahatchee River to find a place to sleep.
See Cape Coral Community Correspondent Bella Line explain the impacts of the camping ban:
"If the Cape Coral Police are enforcing and asking people to move along, I suspect that people are finding their way over the bridges, which is always tough to traverse bridges when you're homeless,” said Steve Brooder, CEO of St Matthew’s House.
Brooder says right now it's up to private organizations to fill that gap and provide a place for these people to go.
Hamilton says, thankfully, she was able to get her and her daughter into St. Matthew’s House when a room opened up.
"I work, but there's not much resources for housing right now,” said Hamilton. "There was a lot of, like, transitional housing, but I would not be able to bring my daughter and also, I don't struggle with, like, substance abuse, or any other drugs so, but I do believe that they should, or if they should, provide housing.”
Hamilton says she would prefer to stay in Cape Coral because she works there and now she has to commute.
Cape Coral is the seventh largest city in Florida, and Brooder says it could be a spot private organizations, like St. Matthew's House, would look into building a shelter, but that comes with a lot of obstacles.
"We want to gather all the agencies together to talk about that, talk about the need, talk about some solutions, see what we can do,” said Brooder. "It's a huge expense to open a shelter like this one in Fort Myers, so funding, zoning, and the community will are important issues to grapple with."
