It’s now illegal to camp out or sleep at Volusia County’s public buildings and grounds.
Following the lead of several cities, the County Council has adopted an ordinance forbidding anyone from camping or sleeping on public property owned by the county, such as the Thomas C. Kelly County Administration Center, 123 W. Indiana Ave, or the Courthouse at 101 N. Alabama in DeLand.
Asked if public camping is a problem on county property, County Manager George Recktenwals replied, “Right now we don’t have that problem.”
“We’re trying to keep up with state law,” he added. “It gives us an arrow in the quiver if we need to make somebody move along.”
The county’s ordinance is consistent with state law and DeLand’s ordinance passed in January 2024.
“I think this is necessary to protect people and downtown business,” County Chair Jeff Brower said.
That’s fine. They don’t want them to do it camping on public property supposedly to protect the public and businesses. But what about the people that have theirwhere to sleep. There’s several options. One is the old golf course. They could turn into a camping area for people, the other is the old jail. Pull out all the bars. You can put two or three people in each cell or they already have bathrooms, cafeterias, showers but nobody wants to give them a place to sleep. They only want to stop them from sleeping in some places so the way they’re going to end up is in people’s backyards. If you have that where to go to sleep you have to find somewhere. If the county wants to make it illegal they got to give them somewhere.