Advocates for homeless people are updating Palm Beach County’s plan to support and protect many of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
More than 100 social service providers, residents, activists and local leaders gathered Friday in Boynton Beach to push priorities, trade ideas and be inspired at a community forum to kick off work on the county’s next homelessness plan.
They heard Friday that the county has made progress since the first plan was created in 2006. And now the challenge has become more urgent because state laws and federal rules that affect homeless people are quickly changing.
The federal government has shifted its national model from Housing First, without preconditions, to one that requires clients to participate in substance abuse treatment or mental health programs.
READ MORE: Homelessness in Palm Beach County has plunged, but experts warn there’s more to it
The county anticipates up to a 70% cut to federal money for permanent, supportive housing, Wendy Tippett, the county’s director of Human Services and Community Action, said at the forum.
Tippett added that, one year into Florida’s new anti-camping law, violators are being ticketed and arrested in Palm Beach County.
On Tuesday, county commissioners will consider spending up to $500,000 in opioid settlement money on tiny homes to be owned and operated by a nonprofit as transitional housing for people affected by the opioid epidemic.
A call to the business community
“I do want to say, first off, that government can’t do this alone,” County Commissioner Maria Marino, the incoming chair of the Homeless Advisory Board, said Friday. The county is bracing for the revenue impact of whatever property tax bill emerges from the state Legislature and goes before the voters.
“We, this group, this family right here. We’re always at the table. But who’s missing from this room right now? Those are the folks that we need to make sure are here. And most of those folks are the business community.”
Ezra Krieg, chairman of the county’s Affordable Housing Commission, agreed. “We’ve let the business and funding community off the hook. Now, the government support is going away,” he told Stet News.
Krieg added that Palm Beach County has done a pretty good job supporting homeless people. “We could have easily become San Francisco or Los Angeles,” he said.
The county’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count recorded 1,520 people experiencing homelessness — a 28% drop from 2024.
And yet, it’s possible that some unsheltered people were in hiding because of the new anti-camping law, Cristina Lucier of the Lord’s Place told The Palm Beach Post last year.
Lucier is also president of the county’s Homeless and Housing Alliance, which coordinates services for homeless people and families.
What’s going well
James Green, director of the county’s Community Services Department, and Tippett highlighted three promising initiatives:
- The inaugural Housing Leadership Academy, a county program with the Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County and Florida Atlantic University, to train and develop housing leaders.
- Yes, in God’s Backyard, a new state law that allows local governments to streamline approval of affordable housing on certain land owned by religious organizations.
- Health workers have begun joining outreach teams to provide medication and care.
Solutions and suggestions
The forum heard success stories from Broward and Indian River counties.
Community courts in three Broward County cities are connecting hundreds of people with services, Jacob Torner, vice president of the Task Force for Ending Homelessness in Broward County, told the forum.
“It’s a problem-solving court,” he said, similar to Palm Beach County’s Adult Drug Court. “Not only are we addressing the misdemeanor citation, we also address their needs. It could be mental health, substance use, treatment, case management.”
The Source, a faith-based organization in Vero Beach, takes no government money. “We consider ourselves to be disruptive innovators of how we approach homelessness,” Jade Alexander, The Source’s neighborhood development director, said.
For example, the ministry cut through the red tape of zoning rules about six years ago by creating what they say is the country’s first mobile shelter, in a modified bus. It’s one of the tools The Source uses to get people housed as fast as possible.
In Vero Beach, three buses provide 55 beds that are safe overnight accommodations.
The Source has sold buses customized by people coming out of homelessness to agencies in Orlando, Chicago, Rhode Island and more.
This year, the organization started limiting its service to residents of Indian River County.
“We decided to just focus on the people in our county to get to functional zero (homelessness),” Development Director Jonathan Orozco said. “Once we are able to accomplish that, you know, things may change where we may open it back up, but what we really hope is that we inspire other communities to create organizations. You don’t have to be exactly like us, but you can pick one thing that you think you can do.”
Members of the Homeless and Housing Alliance will use insights from Friday’s forum to help shape the county’s third 10-year plan. They plan to complete the report this year.
The goal is to become more agile as a system of care, Green said. ”To be more strategic and to meet the moment that’s before us today, because there are a lot of changes ahead.”
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
