News outlets in Central Florida will collaborate to examine impacts of homeless camping ban
The Voice joins 10 outlets in providing reporting on an important topic for local residents, taxpayers and the homeless
Dec. 8, 2025
Staff Report
The Winter Park Voice is joining 10 local news outlets in a regional collaboration to report on the local impact of Florida’s new Unauthorized Public
Camping and Public Sleeping bill (House Bill 1365), set to be enforced Jan. 1. For six months these news outlets will share and cross-publish their reporting to work toward creating a more informed and engaged Central Florida community. This collaboration is an ongoing effort, which additional news organizations may join over time.
The Voice is contributing reporting to examine how the law will impact residents and taxpayers in Winter Park and beyond. Through its coverage, the Voice aims to provide readers with timely and trustworthy reporting on this critical issue.
“This project will, in part, help examine how laws passed in Tallahassee ripple out to city halls and local taxpayers where the true impacts, costs and consequences are often most acutely felt,” said Voice Editor Beth Kassab. “We are excited to be a part of this first-of-its-kind local collaboration and provide information that we hope will help engage our community on the important issue of homelessness and the steps needed for real solutions.”
This collaboration was formed at the Central Florida Journalism Ecosystem Summit, created last summer by Central Florida Public Media, Central Florida Foundation and Oviedo Community News. The Summit served as the first strategic alliance of local news organizations looking to change the course of civic engagement in Central Florida.
Following the Summit, a nine-member task force facilitated by Mark Brewer, president and CEO of Central Florida Foundation, met to fine-tune the collaborative’s goals and select a pilot project – choosing House Bill 1365 as the first major issue to address together.
This collaboration highlights the power of regional news outlets unifying under the same goal.
“As the only local nonprofit news organization serving all of Central Florida, we believe we have a responsibility to unite the community’s news outlets and prioritize public service over competition,” said Judith Smelser, president and general manager of Central Florida Public Media. “Gone are the days when one single media outlet could meet the region’s needs alone. By working together, we can strengthen and preserve local journalism.”
“One of the Central Florida Foundation’s core values is fostering a well-informed and civically engaged community,” said Mark Brewer, president and CEO of the Central Florida Foundation, which is providing operational but not editorial guidance to the budding collaborative. “The Journalism Ecosystem Summit and, subsequently, this first collaboration among local news organizations are excellent examples of Central Florida as a leader in community innovation,
with organizations across sectors that want to work together to achieve shared goals.”
“Looking to best practices around the nation, this group of committed news organizations has been working hard to create a local model that will reach more Central Floridians and dive deeper into issues that matter to our audiences,” Oviedo Community News Editor-in-chief Megan Stokes said. “Accessibility and creating news that responds to local needs have been pillars of Oviedo Community News from the start. We are excited to work with this collaborative to help spread that public service throughout the region.”
You can find more information on all participating organizations below:
- To learn more about Central Florida Public Media, visit https://www.cfpublic.org/about
- To learn more about LkldNow, visit https://www.lkldnow.com/about/
- To learn more about Orlando Sentinel, visit https://www.orlandosentinel.com/about/
- To learn more about Osceola News-Gazette, visit https://www.aroundosceola.com/advertise
- To learn more about Oviedo Community News, visit https://oviedocommunitynews.org/our-story/#
- To learn more about The Community Paper, visit https://www.yourcommunitypaper.com/contact-us/
- To learn more about VoxPopuli, https://www.wintergardenvox.com/about
- To learn more about Winter Park Voice, visit https://winterparkvoice.com/
- To learn more about WKMG-TV/ClickOrlando.com, visit https://www.clickorlando.com/station/
- To learn more about WUCF, visit https://www.wucf.org/about/
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
You have 2 choices. Either allow Central Florida to become invaded by homeless camping out in public parks like another San Francisco, or 2) this law.
Enforce the law.
This preemption hinders local governments from providing shelter for the homeless. The new state law would make sense if it were supplemented with providing shelter. When will Floridians rise up against Tallahassee’s local government preemptions?
It’s instructive to look at what other states have done. California has spent ever increasing amounts of money on the “homeless” problem but the problem gets worse every year. So what ever Florida tries, first try to learn why California has failed.
It is about time that our locale authorities start addressing the will of its citizens rather than imposing their political agenda which the national media has done during the entire Biden Administration!!!
After all you are running a for profit organization and advertisers are not just judging you by rating points!!