Photo: CBS 12
Palm Beach County's mayor says there won't be a bunch of homeless people living in a tent after a new state law takes effect in October.
The legislation allows local governments to create encampments for up to one year to avoid breaking the law by having the homeless sleeping in public spaces like parks.
"Putting people in a camp with tents and surrounded with law enforcement...that's not what we do in Palm Beach County."
Mayor Maria Sachs says the solution is not to pick people up in buses and bring them out to a big area and put them in a "tent city." She said she's not going to "put kids in tents."
Instead, the mayor says they will "build and we will shelter those folks who are homeless because they can't afford housing."
She wants more money spent on affordable housing.
The homeless issue is prominent in West Palm Beach, where Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Raphael Clemente says the new mandates carry a burden for local leaders.
"It's good that the state's paying attention to the issue. I hope that there are significant resources that come to support the requirements that that law places on local governments."
He says there is already "a lot being done to address the issue" in West Palm Beach, including about $600,000 spent on additional policing on and near Clematis Street. That's where surveillance video shows some homeless men fighting each other and where customers of downtown businesses claim they feel unsafe.