{"id":108573,"date":"2026-01-07T03:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T03:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/108573\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T03:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T03:35:08","slug":"florida-attorney-general-sends-violation-notice-to-winter-haven-over-homeless-public-sleeping-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/108573\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Attorney General sends violation notice to Winter Haven over homeless public sleeping complaints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Florida Attorney General\u2019s Office sent a notice of violation to the City of Winter Haven<\/a> accusing the city of violating Florida\u2019s law that bans public camping and public sleeping in certain public spaces.<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

The city told FOX 13 it received the letter about an hour before Attorney General James Uthmeier posted publicly about the issue.<\/p>\n

READ: How is Polk County preparing for Florida’s new homeless camping and sleeping law?<\/a><\/p>\n

In the letter, the Attorney General\u2019s Office says it received one complaint from a resident alleging repeated violations of the state law banning people from sleeping or camping in public spaces.<\/p>\n

The letter references two locations: Kiwanis Park and the sidewalks along Central Avenue.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

The letter says the resident claimed those public spaces were “unusable” and included four photos showing single individuals, according to the city.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Courtesy: Attorney General James Uthmeier <\/p>\n

FOX 13 went to both locations on Tuesday evening and did not see signs of camps at the times visited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Kiwanis Park, FOX 13 saw children playing on the playground. Along Central Avenue, FOX 13 observed a quiet night with no visible signs of camps or public sleeping. People were attending the theater, eating at restaurants and walking on the streets.<\/p>\n

What does the law say?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s “public camping and public sleeping” law (passed in 2024) restricts cities and counties from allowing people to regularly sleep or camp on public property, with a framework for designated areas under certain requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Starting in 2025, the law also expanded enforcement by allowing legal action in certain circumstances if a local government is alleged to be out of compliance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other side:<\/p>\n

The city says its police department works with the Homeless Coalition of Polk<\/a> County to help connect people with services, including shelter options and, at times, transportation.<\/p>\n

Winter Haven does not have a general homeless shelter in the city; the closest is in Lakeland, the city said.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The letter asks the city to respond within five days. Winter Haven officials told FOX 13 they are working on a response to the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Winter Haven told FOX 13 it expects to have a response ready for the Attorney General Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Source: FOX 13’s Genevieve Curtis gathered information for this story from a tweet from the Attorney General and statements from the City of Winter Haven.<\/p>\n

Winter Haven<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Politics<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Florida Attorney General\u2019s Office sent a notice of violation to the City of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,115,99,7153,628,21956],"class_list":{"0":"post-108573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-polk","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-winter-haven"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}