Are there more homeless on Semoran Boulevard?
State Road 436 has a lot of traffic, at least three McDonald’s restaurants and according to one curious resident, a lot of homeless people.
“Why are there homeless on every intersection of Semoran (a.k.a. State Road 436) begging? The amount of desperate homeless appears to have increased,” asked one reader on our feature Ask Orlando.
Semoran stretches from Apopka, south and east into Seminole County and down to Orlando International Airport. For anyone that’s had a beloved aunt or friend fly into the city has had to use Semoran at one point or another.
It’s one of the arteries that keeps the City Beautiful looking so good, but that being said, I have seen the ugly side of life on Semoran, which is why the reader’s question stuck out to me.
I’ve definitely seen folks that appear to be homeless (can’t say for sure, I’ve never asked them) and I’ve seen some people beg for money. But has it really been increasing?
That’s a hard question to answer as there’s no database for transient folk along Semoran or any state highway. We can’t answer the question definitively, but we can narrow down an answer by looking at other indicators.
First, the overall homeless population in Central Florida in 2014 was 2,254, according to the Council of Homelessness annual report.
In 2018 that dropped to 2,053.
A similar declining trend can be seen in the Sunshine State’s overall homelessness which was at 41,000 in 2014 and fell to 29,717 in 2018.
State figures also tell us that Orange County has the highest count of homelessness in Central Florida — keep in mind Semoran Boulevard is a major road through some of the most heavily populated parts of Orange County.
The Council of Homelessness lists a lack of affordable housing as one of the major factors contributing to homelessness.
As it happens, a recent analysis found 13 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 households who need them in Orlando — making the Orlando metro area the worst in the nation for finding affordable housing, Orlando Sentinel reporter Kate Santich wrote.
A total count for homeless numbers in 2019 won’t be released until May, but with 2018 numbers it’s safe to say homeless population totals have not increased.
Still that isn’t enough for an answer.
Trying to find a homeless population in a given area is difficult without spending a lot of time in one area talking to people.
But since we’re only looking to see if more people are on Semoran, a look at Orange County Sheriff ’s Office arrest and citation records for panhandling could shed some light, as the reader did say the homeless people they saw were “begging.”
Admittedly this is not a perfect indicator, and again that’s because OCSO records don’t show if a person is homeless and instead lists them as “transient,” which could mean a number of things.
Albeit, I think it’s safe to say that a decent number of homeless people do solicit on streets without a permit.
I looked at OCSO’s arrests records and notices to appear in court made on Semoran between Lake Underhill Road and Lee Vista Boulevard which showed 15 people listed for soliciting without a permit in 2015. That number jumped to 57 in 2017.
While these numbers increased in three years, they took a nosedive to just 21 arrests or notices given in 2018.
At the end of my rope, I decided maybe a drive down Semoran would yield some kind of answer.
I jumped in my car and drove the 23 mile stretch from Apopka to Orlando International between 2:30-4:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. And you know what? In 23 long miles of stopand-go traffic — I didn’t see a single person that even looked remotely homeless.
Not even an unkempt bearded man.
Which admittedly is kind of weird considering I know I’ve seen them out there before.
I can’t definitely point to an answer, but based on two different metrics I can say that it doesn’t look like more homeless people are arriving on Semoran — at least based on 2018 figures.
What’s evident is that homelessness is decreasing in Orange County, but it is still a big problem. How big exactly?
As I mentioned before, the 2019 Council of Homelessness annual report comes out in May — hopefully it has even lower numbers than we’ve seen so far. Editor’s note: This story is part of Ask Orlando, a new feature in which we ask readers to ask questions, we hunt down the answers and report back. If you have a question you’d like us to report on, you can fill out the form below, or head to OrlandoSentinel.com/ AskOrlando.