The Florida Roundup - Florida lawmakers on security and civility post-assassination attempt, homeless encampment ban and weekly briefing

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we spoke with U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Miami) about Congressional investigations into the attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump (00:46) and then spoke with U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Pinellas) about her call for civility amid political violence (14:00). We hear from two community leaders working on homeless prevention about Dignity Village, a former tent community in Gainesville (19:57), and a new state law that will soon ban homeless people from camping or sleeping on public property (25:56). Plus, a new state law restricting local heat ordinances comes as the Biden administration considers federal restrictions (37:20), a new study on urban heat islands (41:42), the city of Orlando's efforts to help citizens stay cool (43:17) and an update on the financial impact analysis for amendment 4 (44:04). And finally, how Florida became a part of the United States 203 years ago this week (47:10).

This is the Florida Roundup here on Florida Public Radio. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week. Security and civility. Better security and more civility. Those are the twin appeals that we've all heard after the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump Saturday night in Pennsylvania. The former president accepted the GOP presidential nomination this week, Thursday night in Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention. His vice presidential pick was not fellow Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Instead, it was Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Vance will be on the Republican ticket with Trump this fall. Let's start by talking about security here with Republican Representative Carlos Jimenez,

Republican representing Florida's 28th congressional district. Congressman, welcome back to Florida Public Radio. Nice to hear from you. It's my pleasure. How are you guys doing? Doing okay. You are the member of the Homeland Security Committee overseeing the Secret Service. The FBI briefed House members on Wednesday on its investigation. Did you participate in that briefing?

Yes, yes I did. And what did you learn? What I learned is that there were more questions to be asked, but just on the surface, it appears that there are some major security breaches here, and that there is some stuff, it's security 101, that wasn't even followed. And so there are really some serious concerns here about the president's security detail, although he praised them for their actions. And I do, I praise him for their actions in trying to protect him.

But it should have never gotten to that. And so you have a situation where you have a building about 130 yards away with a clear line of sight to the podium to your principal, in this case being the former president. And it's not accounted for. It's not accounted for in the way it should be accounted for. And so that in itself is a serious breach right there.

And now there are questions of they had a suspicious individual, this same individual that ended up taking a shot at the president and then killing somebody else, a firefighter in the crowd. He was under suspicion. They had photographs of him. They were trying to track him down. And you have a suspicious individual in the area that you haven't accounted for, and then you allow the president to come out and begin the rally. That is also a serious breach.

How confident? We have issues here and we're going to get to the bottom of it. My committee, the committee that I sit on, will be investigating this and we're going to get answers. I want to ask you about that investigation in a moment, Congressman. How confident are you today in the Secret Service's ability to protect the former president? I'm more confident today, obviously, because of the incident that happened. But like I said, there's some real serious deficiency here in trying to protect the president. And so, you know, what's happened to the Secret Service?

Is this something which is just an isolated incident, or is this something which is more endemic? Again, those are things that we're going to have to get to the bottom of. You know, the president praised his security detail for, you know, what they did, the actions they did, and they're heroic, and I agree with him. But that's not the issue here. It's not the action taken after there's actually a confrontation, an incident. It's the preparation and avoiding that incident to begin with. That's what you want to do. The House Speaker.

Avoiding that incident to begin with. That's what you want to do. Avoiding that incident. And that, it was really a pretty big failure. The House Speaker, Mike Johnson, is among those who have called for the Secret Service Director to resign. What's your position regarding her tenure today as we speak on this Friday? I think her tenure is tenuous. I'm not one of those guys that does knee-jerk stuff. I look at it, and we'll take a look at it. And if, you know, obviously he's a speaker, he can ask her to resign.

But, you know, it appears that, you know, there certainly could be reason for us to ask her to resign, but I want to have that hearing first until I make up my mind on that. It certainly appears that there are some serious breaches. There's also some reports that said that the security detail itself had asked for additional personnel and it was denied. We know that Robert Kennedy Jr it was denied um we know that robert kennedy jr had uh had was denied secret service protection and my and my and my position

on this is is is that look if you're if you're willing to put your name out there uh to be a presidential candidate and yeah you may you know you may not have a chance etc etc but once you put your name out there to be a presidential candidate, you become a target. And so we as a nation need to make sure that we protect those individuals that do that, all right? Do you think anybody who's qualified for the ballot for the President of the United States deserves Secret Service protection? Actually, I'm starting to believe yes, that they do, okay?

Because they have put their name out there. They put out, you know, it now is a risk to them. And don't we owe them as a nation, you know, some kind of protection that in fact there's credible threats against them. And most of these are going to have critical, credible threats, you know. So, Congressman, let me ask you about your committee, the Homeland Security Committee, which has invited the Homeland Security Secretary, the director of the FBI, and the director of the Secret Service to testify on Tuesday. To your knowledge, have you gotten a response at all from any of those individuals about the invitation? The only one that I got back was our chair said the FBI had declined. Again,

this is what we're getting from this administration. And this is not the first time we see this. The House Oversight Committee, meantime, has subpoenaed the Secret Service director, compelling her to appear on Monday. Would you support taking subpoena action? If they don't come voluntarily, absolutely. Yeah. We need to get to the bottom of this. Look, this is a former president.

This is the leading candidate for the Republican Party. Well, he's our nominee, for God's sakes, now, running for president of the United States. And somebody just got within 120 yards of him, 130 yards of him, and missed killing him by millimeters. Millimeters. And where there's obvious security breaches, and you don't want to testify, and you don't, you know, it's our responsibility as Congress to oversee what you're doing. Now, there may have been failure on your part, doesn't mean you can hide. You are a public servant. You serve the people of the United States just like we do. What kind of deadline would you anticipate for these three individuals that have been

invited to speak to your committee? We need to get them in ASAP. What they're going to do to them, I'm sure they're going to say, oh, I can't say this because of active investigation. I can't say this because of active investigation. I can't say this because of active investigation. And then have an active investigation for five years. That's not good enough either. That's not good enough. Your chair has also requested a number of documents, including the planning for the rally in terms of the security plan, as well as any documents that may have been shared with the

Biden administration and the president himself, Joe Biden, when he was briefed on the assassination attempt on Saturday night. Have any of those documents turned up in your inbox or mailbox? No, they haven't. And also, you know, I've asked our chair to make sure that we get audio tapes of all radio communications, you know, with all the all the agencies. Right, right. The Secret Service as well. Yeah, because that's going to be to me, that's going to be the key. Who knew what when? Yeah. And how was it communicated?

We're speaking with Carlos Jimenez, congressman, Republican, representing the southernmost district in the United States, the 28th district here in Florida. Congressman, I'd like to shift a little bit to politics here because you did attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. You had called Senator Marco Rubio the best choice for vice president on the ticket with the former president. You told Fox News prior to the convention that selecting Senator Rubio would be a great way to reach out to the Hispanic community and grow our tent. How does tapping J.D. Vance for vice president impact the outreach to Hispanic voters, do you think? Well, look, I mean, obviously Marco Rubio would have been a better choice for that, but the president thought that J.D. Vance was better suited to be his vice president,

so I completely support what the president is doing. So now it's up to Marco Rubio, myself, and other Hispanic members of the Republican caucus conference to continue our outreach and show the Hispanics, the Hispanic community, that the Republican Party is all-inclusive and that we're seeing growing numbers of Hispanic Latinos moving over, shifting over to the GOP. So we're going to continue our efforts. Would Marco Rubio's pick as VP help us in that way? over shifting over to to the GOP so we're going to continue our efforts would Marco Rubio's pick as VP help us in that way yeah yeah they would have but you know the president thought that JD Vance was was a better fit for him at this

time in terms of election math do you think it affects the president's voting here in the state of Florida no I don't don't think so. I don't think that that really is going to alter the outcome in Florida, whether it would have been Rubio or J.D. Vance. Could we have picked up a point or so? Maybe. But no, it's not going to affect the ultimate outcome. I think the present President Trump's going to win Florida. I don't want to look too far... And win Florida with a comfortable margin. I don't want to look too far out over our skis here, but you have said that if President Trump wins the presidency, his vice president will be the presumptive candidate in four years. Do you still believe that?

Yes, I do. I absolutely believe it. Does it mean it will be? No, but certainly has the inside track to be the nominee in four years. I mean, that would be something that would be normal, I guess. And then if you look back with Ronald Reagan, If you look back with Ronald Reagan, it was George Bush, H.W. Bush. Sure, yeah. Historically, it's been the case. Let me ask you one foreign policy question, if I may, Congressman. Senator Vance has been lukewarm of his U.S. support of Ukraine and its war against Russia. You voted for more aid to Ukraine in the spring. Senator Vance voted against it.

Last month, this was in the hemisphere with the Russian Navy warships in the port of Havana. And you've condemned the presence of that you were the only member of Congress born in Cuba. Are you concerned that Vance's views on Ukraine aid to fight Russia maybe signal something that could be a tepid response toward Russia's relationship with Cuba? No, I mean, today, I mean, yesterday, actually, President Trump himself brought that out in his speech. Actually, when he referred to a right congressman, he was looking at me. So, no. I believe that President Trump understands the threat that Russia is. People say, well, because he gets along with it. I guess he says he gets along

with it. But what about the vice president, Cam? You're not a friendly, you're not friendly. Excuse me, I'm sorry. But what about the vice president's position, though, on Russia and Ukraine? That's what I'm asking about. Pardon me, the vice president nominee. The nominee. Okay. The vice president nominee's position on Ukraine is not what my position on Ukraine is. And so we have differences within the GOP. And so I believe because of my experiences as a Cuban-American born in Cuba and know what the Russian government has done to oppress the Cuban people and what they're capable of doing, I have a much more hawkish opinion against Russia,

and I also believe that Ukraine, you know, in a sense, what the vice president said about defending America, that he will do everything to defend America. Well, the Ukrainians are doing everything to defend Ukraine, and all they're simply asking for is our help militarily. They're not asking us to shed blood for them. And so that's why I'm willing to help the Ukrainians. And the other argument is somehow because we can't control our southern border that somehow we can't give aid to Ukraine.

That's just, to me, doesn't make—it's not a compelling argument to me. We can do both. The issue of us failing to control our southern border is an issue of policy. Not so much money. I appreciate your time. I'm going to say goodbye to you, but I thank you for your time and spending your comments with us here. Carlos Jimenez, Congressman, Republican from the 28th District here in Florida. We're going to go up the Gulf Coast where Ana Paulina Luna is the Republican representative of the 13th Congressional District.

Congresswoman, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time today. Hey, guys. How you doing? We're doing terrific. You sent a letter this week, along with the Florida Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz from Broward County, calling for, quote, peace and civility in our nation's politics. What do you expect to be different? Look, I have firsthand experienced what it's like to have, you know, crazy people basically attacking you because of our positions. And what I'm hoping to

do is look in Congress when we have debate and discussion, we do it on the ideas. And, you know, you're supposed to maintain a certain level of demeanor. And I think that needs to carry over onto social media. So what I will say is, you know, I had some guy because of people labeling me as an extremist on certain positions who was caught on recording, threatening to shoot me at close range proximity. And it's that type of rhetoric and behavior that can become very dangerous in politics. And I'm hoping that people realize that regardless of party affiliation, that at the end of the day, we're humans. You know, I'm a mom. I'm the first minority Mexican-American woman elected to the House of Representatives from the state of Florida.

I flipped a district. So, you know, there's a whole lot more to us than just a label of Democrat or Republican. And so we hope to bring that to the table. You write in the letter, there's a system of hatred and grifting that has infused itself into our politics. Grifting, do you mean being scammed? Grifting is more or less of a, it's like a Gen Z millennial term for people that are trying to get clickbaity titles. And so unfortunately, sometimes on both sides, the rhetoric will become inflamed because of it. And then people then in turn make money off of that. So that's what I mean by the grift operation. Could that also be

extended to simply misleading, if not just outright falsehoods yeah i think that there's an a certain level of people that will sometimes put out disinfo but i want to be clear about something you know a lot of times what we're finding is it's not our people doing it but foreign adversaries and so it's been known and a known a known fact not just here in the states but also to in other parts of the world where they have and share values that places like China and Russia do thrive in dissent. And so they will use our own First Amendment against us. So sometimes you might be arguing with someone on the Internet, but you're probably likely arguing with a plot farm. Right. Not even a real human being, for that matter.

Another line in the letter struck me. You say it's time for our nation to come together, show courtesy to one another, and usher newfound respect into our politics. Congresswoman, how will you work toward this newfound respect that you're calling for? Well, look, I happen to have one of the biggest platforms on the Republican side, and so I think it starts with engaging in conversation. Just because someone upsets you or they hold a different opinion doesn't necessarily mean you have to go and say something immature on social media. And so I know sometimes it's hard. Everyone wants to kind of put it right out back at them, but you don't have to do that. So I'm hoping to carry a little bit of our own house rules into the public discussion and

atmosphere and basically, you know, do unto others as you want unto yourself. I'd like to ask you about that. You skipped President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, I believe. You called it a puppet show and a text message to the Washington Examiner. Is that anything that you regret in hindsight? Look, actually, no. What I will say is that I felt like that entire thing instead of focusing on issues

was very, very politically charged and divided on both sides. And what I will also say is that instead of focusing on issues at hand in our own country, I would rather focus or it seemed as though that the Biden administration wanted to just attack Republicans. And frankly, you know, if you compare that speech or Biden's State of the Union to what you saw last night at the convention, I think it's two very different messages. And so what I will say is that I am going to also work on what I put out there. But I mean, I can definitely make comparisons when I think that, you know, people are intentionally misleading.

But I suppose that's not a justification, though, is a congresswoman for one's own behavior to compare it against others? If you can clarify, are you saying. So in other words, if there's bad behavior that someone else is committing, is that a justification for one's own disrespect? No, no, no. I think that, you know, we're all in charge of our own actions. But what I will say is that, you know, in politics, especially, I felt like the State of the Union, it wasn't necessarily focused at the State of the Union or addressed. It was more or less of an election year pitch. And I don't like that. And I don't think that that should be the focus of that. If President Biden is reelected and you're reelected, would you commit to attending the State of the Union?

I mean, I will attend if it's going to be focused on issues at hand. But I will tell you, based on the polling, Biden's not going to be reelected. Congresswoman, we appreciate your time. Thanks for being on the program. Hope to have you back. Cool, thanks. Yeah. Appreciate your time. Thanks for being on the program. Hope to have you back.

Cool. Thanks. Yeah. Republican Representative Ana Polina Luna, Republican representing Florida's 13th congressional district in Pinellas County in the Gulf Coast here in the Sunshine State of Florida. Coming up on our program, taking a look at homelessness in Florida, a Supreme Court ruling and a new state law changing how local governments and cities can address homelessness and people sleeping in public spaces. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us. We're going to be on the road in Key West in just a couple of weeks on August 9th. You're invited. Yeah, this program is going to be live August 9th from the Tropic Cinema in Key West. Now, among the guests will be the leading Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Debbie Mercosel-Powell. We'll also be talking about the threat of hot ocean water all around Florida and the challenge of getting health care in small

towns. Maybe we'll have some music from the Keys too. We'd love to see you there in person. It's August 9th in Key West. You can register at wlrn.org. Beginning in October, it will be against the law for homeless people in Florida to sleep or camp on public property. That includes streets, sidewalks, and parks. No more tents under highway overpasses or tucked behind some bushes on a roadway. Instead, the new law requires homeless people to stay in temporary shelters. Once those reach capacity, the law allows local governments to create temporary campsites. Those encampments must have access to clean water and restrooms.

The local governments also have to provide access to mental health services and ensure those temporary sites are drug-free. So what are the signs of homelessness in your community? How is your community addressing it? 305-995-1800 is our phone number. Our phone lines are open live on this Friday. 305-995-1800 is our phone number. Our phone lines are open live on this Friday. 305-995-1800. Let's talk about homelessness here in Florida. You can send us an email.

The inbox is radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Now, this strategy is not a new one. It's similar to what the city of Gainesville tried and failed to do with a camp named Dignity Village. It turned into a seven-year-long experiment to end homelessness, and the results were mixed. Anya Piniello from our partner station WUFT has more. Across the street from the Gainesville airport is a busy intersection with a long, quiet stretch of road. airport just off a busy intersection with a long, quiet stretch of road.

There's a series of low, single-story buildings on the left and an empty field on the right. This used to be a prison. Now it's a homeless shelter called Grace Marketplace. And just outside the shelter, hundreds of homeless people once lived here on a campground called Dignity Village. It's where I met Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward earlier this week. We're on the site of what used to be Dignity Village. It's really, I mean, it's just a grassy piece of land with a road in between, some trees. There's some people over here by a little bit of a campsite or a tent. What did this place used to look like?

So it used to be one series of tents after another. I mean, it was probably 100, 120, depending on the season, depending on the weather. It was a tent city. Some tents had household furniture like headboards and gas grills. Most just had sleeping bags. It really, you know, again, was organized kind of into neighborhoods, and there was some structure there, and it was kind of like having a group of half a dozen or more homeowners associations centered around tents. The tents were numbered. They grew to be home to about 350 people. They formed their own self-regulated community. was very calm, very pleasant, and some of it was not. But it's all the things you would experience in a normal series of neighborhoods just without homes, without walls. The camp started in 2013. The idea was that people who didn't want to live inside the city's homeless shelter

or weren't allowed to could still benefit from the shelter's services and live right next to it in an outdoor space set aside for them. I thought it was going to work. I thought it would be a really great opportunity for folks who were not housed to at least organize and be in a place that was adjacent to services. But it didn't work. The main problem? Crime. By some accounts, police were called out to the encampment three to four times a day. There were drug deals, stabbings, and prostitution. It became a situation

where the Gainesville Police Department, Gainesville Fire Rescue, ended up spending an inordinate amount of time serving Dignity Village and handling crises there that probably would not have existed had we not had a campsite. It was bad and it just wasn't solving the homeless problem. Some people ended up staying at the encampment for years and word says there is a division between those who wanted to use mental health and addiction services to get better and those who didn't. And so, in 2020, the city decided to close the encampment. The experiment had lasted for seven years. The easiest way to close something like this down is to send in police and remove all the tents, cars, and other structures people were using as homes. But that isn't what the city wanted. Instead, it gradually closed the campground over a series of months. Case managers were assigned to residents to find them long-term housing.

There were 222 people living at Dignity Village at the time. More than 80% of them were able to get housing. And no one who lived at the encampment was arrested. Despite all that, Ward cautions other local governments from creating campgrounds, as the new state law recommends. A well-managed campground is going to include a lot more professional services than I think the bill contemplates. Although the law calls for mental health and addiction services, Ward says it's also important to get people into long-term housing. You will have to have people on site who are professionals at helping people find housing

and helping people just get through the day. There's also the issue of building infrastructure and then moving it. The law does not allow an encampment to be in the same place for more than one year. Clearing out an encampment can be a messy process. When Dignity Village closed, the city had to send in people with hazmat suits to clean it up. The idea that we're going to set up infrastructure for campsites that will be required to move every few months isn't logical. And there's the issue of law enforcement. Dignity Village had two police officers stationed there full time, but it wasn't enough. Ward recommends counties and cities first focus on opening more shelters and increasing their number of shelter beds before taking an outdoor

approach. He says while encampments might work out for some areas, they're not the solution. He calls them a stop along the way toward a home. In Gainesville, I'm Anya Pinillo. Martha R. is the CEO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida. It works in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties. She says as the October 1st deadline approaches for cities and counties to no longer allow people to sleep in public spaces, some parts of the law, she says, remain ambiguous, such as how local governments can respond if there's a complaint about someone sleeping on the street. Is that moving one person along? Is that making sure that person never comes back? Is it making sure that no one else ever comes to that location? Or is it just moving people kind of regularly, regularly? There are other terms she says are not defined, like overnight. What time

does that begin? What time does it end? The overnight, though, does certainly suggest that people who are sleeping during the day are not violating the legislation. She says there are more than 2,000 people living without shelter in her region each day. And while she acknowledges mental health and drug addiction both play a role, she points to a supply and demand challenge for today's homeless challenge. It is not that communities have suddenly seen a rapid increase in the number of people who have mental health issues or even substance use issues, but instead the numbers are completely driven by the housing market. It's not the disabling condition that is the cause of homelessness. It's the fact that we don't have enough housing. So does your community have encampments where people who are homeless gather? Have you or someone you know lost their home? What help have they received? What help do they need?

305-995-1800, live on this Friday, 305-995-1800. Gail Gies, the board president of the Florida Mental Health Advocacy Coalition, sent us this email writing that, I'm very concerned about the impact of the law, "'which will lead to more arrests and jailing of individuals "'living with mental health conditions who are homeless. "'It's important to realize that people are homeless "'for many reasons.'" Gail continues,

"'Our Continuums of Care have been doing a very good job "'over the last decade to move homeless people "'into temporary and then permanent housing "'and to connect them to behavioral health treatment when needed. We have more homeless people now than we did five years ago simply because we have an affordable housing crisis. Gail concludes the solution is to provide both temporary and permanent supportive housing. Ellie's been listening to the conversation from Tampa.

Go ahead, Ellie. You're on the radio. Yeah, hi. I feel that the people who are homeless would have more help if the politicians that were around us were less self-serving and really helping them more. I think that there's not enough compassion towards people who have just found themselves in hard times because they have no money because they got let go from the job or maybe, you know, having to feed their family.

And they have nowhere to go. They don't have, and the housing situation is so bad that they have, you know, just get basically put out of their homes and don't know where to turn. And they've just, people have turned their backs on them because they're more concerned about playing tag with either party. And it's just, people are getting lost in the shuffle, really. I'm just so disgusted by everything that I'm seeing right now. But the poor homeless people aren't all drug addicts and have mental health issues.

Some of them are hardworking people that just by bad luck have now found themselves wondering how they're even going to survive. Ellie, I appreciate you lending your voice to the conversation here uh ellie from tampa calling in don gilman is with us now the ceo of changing homelessness in jacksonville uh don you heard ellie there in tampa uh talk about the broad spectrum of people in florida who could find themselves homeless in jacksonville who are those people who don't have a shelter well it's it's a lot of different people. As one of the previous guests said, you know, there's a story behind every person who becomes homeless. In Northeast Florida, our fastest growing population of folks who are becoming homeless

are actually 55 and up with a disability. We are also seeing an increase in young single parents with young kids. So those are two groups that we saw when we do our annual point in time count. We are also, for the first time here, we are seeing a shift. Normally you see about 75% male and 25% female who are unsheltered or on the streets. For the first time ever in January, we actually had more women than men who were unsheltered in our community. And how many women and how many total were found to be without shelter in the Jacksonville area? Let me, I do not have my point in time count, oh, but I will uh pull that report up for you and I'm happy to give um those numbers and also for anyone who's

curious um you can go to our website at changinghomelessness.org and find the 2024 point in time count report. It gives the total numbers and then it breaks down the three counties that we serve. Let me ask you another data point that maybe you do have right on your fingertips, the number of beds available, the shelter space that you have available to house that population. We currently have less than 600 shelter beds in Duval County. In Clay and Nassau counties, there are no general shelter beds. Each of those counties has a domestic violence shelter, though.

And so how is your organization preparing for this October 1st deadline when this new state law here in Florida goes into effect that puts state and local governments kind of on guard of the potential of civil action if people are sleeping unauthorized outdoors in public spaces overnight? There's a couple different things that we're doing. As an agency, we are doing a summer surge in August where we will be going out and trying to move as many people off the streets and into housing as possible. We are just wrapping up a 90-day project where we went back for all those people that we identified during the point-in-time count but were not immediately able to help and try to get them,

if not into housing, at least in a more stable place for them to live off the streets. least in a more stable place for them to live off the streets. At the end of October, we're going to focus on our veterans and do a focus on the unsheltered veterans within our community across the three counties. Again, one of the challenges that the VA has put out across the country with the six different communities that are doing this is same-day move-ins, either same-day move-ins to temporary housing or ideally into permanent housing. And where's that supply of housing coming from then if you're looking to sweep up and try to move folks who are currently without a home into some kind of shelter space if you have 600 beds at your disposal? a home into some kind of shelter space if you have 600 beds at your disposal?

So we work with landlords across our three-county area. We have various grants that allow us to assist folks with move-in expenses, such as deposits, and we're able to offer temporary financial assistance for people to get into housing. The intervention that we have, it's very focused on getting people into housing and then getting them to the point where they can maintain that housing. So everything starts out with a housing stabilization plan. Often that is how will the household increase or maintain their income so when the financial supports end, they are able to continue living in their home. Don Gelman is the CEO of Changing Homelessness in Jacksonville. Don, stick with us. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station.

Let's hear from Richard, who's been listening in in Miami. Go ahead, Richard. You're on the radio. Yes, hi. I see a lot of the problem coming from our elected officials and the bonuses that they give developers for what's called affordable housing that really often doesn't help those people in need. Whether you're looking at opportunity zones where you had neighborhoods like Edgewater,

where you had neighborhoods like Edgewater, which had already significantly gentrified, giving developers property tax breaks for building there, and no real requirements that they build affordable housing in exchange for those tax breaks. Or you're looking at Live Local, the state plan, where to qualify, it's of your of the median income for the area something like making 75 000 for a single person and being able to charge 2300 a month for an apartment in miami that really doesn't even help a public school teacher that's starting out richard thanks for that perspective don how about policy prescriptions when it comes to home supply, housing supply? There's different ways that different nonprofit developers work

on developing what we call deeply affordable housing. So Richard is right. There's this range of affordability. One way to think about it is all housing is affordable to say Bill Gates and Elon Musk. Housing is affordable to you personally if you're spending 30% or less of your income on housing. So when we are moving people off of the streets, out of homelessness into a home, we're looking for deeply affordable housing. Most of that housing that is built new needs supports or very often

things like tax credits or grants or fundraising to be able to build it so that the charge to the tenant is small enough that people can afford it. Commercial developers do not make money on deeply affordable housing. There has to be other incentives for them to build that kind of housing in our different communities. Don Gilman, the CEO of Changing Homelessness in Jacksonville.

Don, thanks for sharing your perspective from Northeast Florida with us. Appreciate it. Thank you. Charlotte sent us this email from South Florida. We need permanent and safe housing for those in need. Maybe converting abandoned motels into single room occupancy would be an idea or repurposing shipping containers into many homes with air conditioning and plumbing for low income individuals, including the mentally ill or addicted homeless and veterans. Local governments

should get subsidies from the state and federal governments' Charlotte rights to implement new housing solutions. Greater access to mental health and addiction services is welcome. Our inbox is always open for your thoughts. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. We'd love to hear from you any time of day. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. You're listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week.

You know those weather maps, how forecasters use different colors to display a range of temperatures? Well, Florida has been awash in orange and red. Temps in the 90s had the heat index, and those temperature maps become deep, deep scarlet. 104 in Pensacola, 105 in Orlando, 107 in Tampa. The opposite corners of the state, the western panhandle and the south end of the peninsula, have had heat advisories this week. This month, a new law went into effect banning local governments from passing any heat ordinances requiring businesses to provide protections for workers from extreme hot weather. Now, at the same time, as Margie Menzel reports from our partner

station WFSU in Tallahassee, the Biden administration is moving forward with a proposal that would require those protections for workers across the country. The federal government's proposed rule requires employers to provide water and rest breaks when temperatures pass certain thresholds. The rule had already been in the works, but it comes as a new Florida law began preventing local governments from requiring heat protections for workers. Supporters of the state law say it would prevent a patchwork of regulations and that employers already face requirements to protect workers from heat-related injuries. But Karen Woodall, executive director of the Florida People's Advocacy Center, says those weren't actually requirements that could be enforced. Well, the business community said OSHA already does it. OSHA doesn't already do it. OSHA, which is why they're

working on a rule, they don't already do it. They make recommendations, they have posters, they have what you should do, but a rule had never been issued, so it wasn't a requirement. OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is proposing the federal rule. Advocates for workers say they need more protection as they earn their livings in the Florida heat. Jeanne Economos is with the Farmworker Association of Florida. She says the workers often go without water or breaks because they're usually paid by the piece, not the hour. A lot of times workers actually wear diapers to work because they don't get to stop and drink water or go to the bathroom

until their 15-minute break or their lunch break. And so they don't drink water because they don't want to have to go to the bathroom because they'd have to stop work and they might get harassed or called out or even possibly fired for stopping to go to the bathroom or drink water. The proposed federal rule also would require employers to develop plans to prevent heat-related illnesses or injuries and monitor heat conditions. The advocacy center's Woodall is urging that it get passed quickly, but anticipates that the same groups that pushed for the new Florida law will fight the proposed OSHA rule. She's part of a coalition that's been working for seven years on a state measure that would provide education and training for workers and employers on preventing heat-related illnesses. Many Florida businesses already have heat protections in place for their workers.

Gloria Pugh is the CEO of MWAP Moving, based in Tallahassee. She says her company provides coolers of ice water and Gatorade for workers all day long, as well as free snacks and fruit. She says she believes in the free market, but also that employers have responsibilities to their employees. And that's in regards to safety and health and making sure that, you know, that they're safe and that they're thriving in their jobs. And that's what sets apart good employers from bad employers. Pew says consumers also have responsibilities toward workers. Consumers need to ask themselves, what can they do? Because oftentimes when you have businesses that have extremely low pricing for services,

you need to ask yourself, well, how is that possible? And a lot of times it's because they're not treating their employees well. If the proposed OSHA rule is ultimately approved, it would apply to about 36 million workers. I'm Margie Menzel. If you think your neighborhood is hotter than across town, you might be right if you live in a big city. The nonprofit Climate Central looked at how heat in urban areas fluctuates from block to block. It used census data to divide areas into groups of around 3,000 people. What it found, for instance, was that parts of Tampa are nine degrees hotter than the city's overall forecast on any given day.

These urban heat islands, these are areas that are hotter due to population density and development. Other cities in Florida with hot spots include Miami, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville. Jen Brady was the lead on this analysis. Some of the other cities in Florida, you see more distributed heats. Around Orlando, there's more distributed pockets of extreme heat because of just how the city is laid out. But really the coastal cities, you see more dense heat. This July heat follows near record-breaking heat just last month. Daytona Beach had its second warmest June. Tallahassee, its third warmest. The fourth warmest June in Tampa. This all according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Now last year, Tampa offered cooling centers in parks and community centers to help people beat the heat. This summer, there are none. The city's sustainability and resilience officer, Whit Raymer, says last year's cooling centers had mixed results, partly because people didn't know about them. What we really found is folks that are trying to beat the heat that don't have other options, they end up in big box stores like Walmart or CVS. Now, in Orlando, the city has partnered there with a local church providing a place to help folks cool off. Central Florida Public Media's Lillian Hernandez-Carabajo has the details. In partnership with the city, First United Methodist Church of Orlando will offer a safe place to cool off and hydrate. Some of the services include free public air-conditioned spaces, restrooms, disability access, seating areas, and drinking water. The center opened

this week with the potential of remaining open through September if high temperatures persist. The city is looking for more community organizations to partner with and offer more cooling centers. In Orlando, I'm Lilian Hernandez Caravaggio. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. A follow-up now on a story that we talked about last week at this time, the effort to come up with a financial impact statement for the proposed constitutional amendment on abortion. Now, this analysis will appear on your fall ballot right along with the text of Amendment 4, which asks Florida voters whether or not abortion rights should be enshrined into the state constitution.

Now, these financial impact statements usually draw very little attention, but an initial statement approved last year for the abortion amendment led to a court fight. Governor Ron DeSantis' representative on this financial impact panel, Chris Spencer, has pushed to consider issues such as costs of lawsuits that could result if voters pass the amendment in November. Here's Spencer on Monday. It is truly inevitable. The Supreme Court is going to have to address these issues. And that in and of itself is protracted litigation. But panel member Amy Baker, who is the state's chief economist, says it's just tough to speculate about lawsuit costs.

I have no idea if it's going to be protracted litigation. I have no idea what someone opposing these things are going to assert when they bring the case. Panel members agreed costs from expanding abortion access in Florida would likely come from lawsuits over whether state Medicaid dollars would need to cover the procedure and that a smaller population leads to a decline in tax revenues over time. I'm Veronica Saragovia in Miami. Chris Spencer heads the State Board of Administration and sits on the panel. There are impacts to revenues.

We can't estimate what those are with precision, factoring all the variables that may impact it, given the long durational nature of those, and therefore the effect on state and local revenues is indeterminate. The panel says Florida will likely save on the cost of health care and public education efforts if abortion access is made more widely available beyond the state's current six-week ban. If passed, Amendment 4 would restore statewide abortion rights through what's called viability. The amendment requires 60% of the vote to pass. I'm Regan McCarthy. The statement raises questions about how current rules on parental consent for abortions and on who can provide abortion care could be impacted. The statement also says litigation on those issues could be costly to the state.

Dr. Mona Mongit chairs the Committee to Protect Health Care. She says the language feels like it was taken from anti-abortion talking points. It's not a helpful piece of information. It's unfortunate it's going to probably be added to the amendment on the ballot because I just think it serves to really not provide much of a you know service to those of us that are reading this ballot initiative and trying to make you know informed decisions. The state's financial estimators drafted the language released Monday after a judge ruled a previous statement was misleading. It was written before a state Supreme Court ruling in April triggered Florida's current law banning most abortions after six weeks. And finally on the

roundup, it happened this week in Florida, 203 years ago. It was July 17, 1821, when Florida officially became part of the United States. Spain had controlled the land after winning it back from Great Britain. A treaty made it all official, with Spain handing over the land during two ceremonies, one in St. Augustine, the other in Pensacola a week later. By the way, this explains why our capital city is Tallahassee. It's about halfway between what were the two main cities at the time, St. Augustine and Pensacola. Well, back to 1821. John Quincy Adams was the U.S. Secretary of State at the time

who negotiated the treaty with Spain to get Florida. Adams wrote that Florida served, quote, no earthly purpose than as an outpost of annoyance to the Spaniards. An outpost of annoyance. This was way before today's traffic jams. That'll do it for the Florida Roundup this week. It's produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Doct produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and our Technical Director is Peter Meritz. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels,

and Jackson Hart. Richard Ives answers our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz Guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. If you missed any of today's program, you can download it, share it, listen to past programs, do it all at wlrn.org slash podcasts. And you're invited to a live in-person Florida Roundup. We'll be in Key West on August 9th. We'll talk with the leading Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, Debbie Mercosul-Powell. If you're around near the southernmost point, we'd love to see you in Key West on August 9th. You can register at WLRN.org. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening,

and above all, supporting public radio in your community. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.