LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Off a gravel road, through the brush, Debra Martini and her family of 15 call the spot home, for now.
The family includes several adults and children as young as two and as old as 17.
With a law that now bans public sleeping and camping, Martini said they constantly have to find a new place to sleep.
"It's made everyday life very difficult," Martini explained.
They keep several tents, a grill for cooking and a few broken down cars to sleep in, so she said it takes days for them to move all their belongings. They've done this for nearly three years.
They also go to local parks to use the restroom and shower.
Watch Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades' report below:
Martini said when she calls shelters in the area, they're always full.
She has a job, but said it's not enough to support the area's cost of living.
The resources Lee County provides aren't close to Lehigh and the money needed to get there is money they depend on for food.
Find more on the resources Lee County provides to people experiencing homelessness here.
The recent law doesn't require counties to create designated camps, but it allows them to.
At the moment, Lee County hasn't mentioned any plans to do something like it, but it's something Martini would like to see.
"They don't have safe camps for the homeless. They should you know because where is all the homeless supposed to go? They can't just lock everybody up," Martini said.
Mike Nojunas with St. Matthew's House said the number of families on the shelter's waitlist is growing.
In regards to the law on public camping and sleeping, he said a designated public camping space could be a short term fix, but there's still hoops to jump through.
"Layers of red tape restrictions come with making that space as well as limited to no funding," Nojunas explained.
Where does Martini and her family go next?
She doesn't know, but believes resources closer to where her family is could help.
"If the county and the community will give a little help to places that don't have nothing, like Lehigh Acres, we'd probably be in a better place," she said.
Martini added some people may have a strong opinion about the homeless community, but she wants everyone to know this:
"We're not all the same. Some of us want our lives and want to be able to call a place home," she said.
