PALM BAY, Fla. — Palm Bay leaders discussed the homeless situation in the city on Tuesday for the first time since House Bill 1365 went into effect on Oct. 1.

The law prevents people from sleeping or camping on public property.

The Brevard Homeless Coalition said the number of unhoused people in the county is 1,116 — the highest since 2016. 

The coalition’s executive director, Amber Carroll, is calling on the city to identify more immediate solutions to address homelessness, ranging from affordable housing to emergency shelters.

“One thing we do also want to remind is when people end up homeless, it is oftentimes because the other systems have failed. They haven’t been successful in the education system or the judicial system or the child welfare system,” Carroll said.

During Tuesday’s workshop meeting, city council members also discussed working with homeless advocacy groups to incorporate emergency shelter transportation services.

“What if we could get a fleet? If we could get an organization that could manage a fleet of emergency shelter buses, they could locate strategically throughout our community, throughout our county,” Carroll expressed.

Palm Bay Mayor Rob Medina is on board with those ideas.

“They need an opportunity for us to help them with some type of wrap around services through whatever drastic issue happened in their lives. You can go on a downward spiral and it can happen to anyone of us,” Medina said.

However, some city leaders are hesitant to add an emergency shelter in the City of Palm Bay. Council member Chandler Langevin said he would support the idea of emergency shelter buses as long as they brought the homeless to a more central location in the county.

“For the latter half that are out breaking the law, we do act aggressively on that. We do go on the offense, and we remove them from the equation so that we can focus these resources on people that do want help, so we can keep our community safe because Palm Bay is a bedroom community,” Langevin expressed.

He worries that putting a shelter in the city will only be a “stone throw” away from family-friendly neighborhoods with children, schools or playgrounds in the proximity, which he says doesn’t make him comfortable.

City council members plan to continue discussing ideas and solutions to the city’s homelessness crisis. However, they supported the idea of an event providing services and resources to homeless veterans sometime soon.